Letters to the editor

Justice for Bombings

As a relative of one of those killed in the Omagh bomb, I am encouraged by media reports that some progress is being made in the investigation. These reports indicate that charges may result from a detailed re-investigation by the FBI and forensic experts from Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

Thirty-one years later not one person has been arrested, let alone charged or convicted, for the deliberate massacre of the 33 people killed in the Dublin/Monaghan bombings. Given the unexplained brevity and lack of success of the original police investigation, surely the Irish government should employ the services of these same forensic experts to re-investigate the worst crime in the history of the state.

Dr. Sean Marlow. Dublin, Ireland

Remember the Alternative

The explosion outside the British Consulate in New York last week demonstrates the urgent need to implement the Good Friday Agreement in its entirety. The explosion may not have been the work of anyone or any group opposed to British rule in Northern Ireland.

However, the location of the blast and it occurring on Election Day in Northern Ireland raises concern that it was directed at the British Consulate. If that is not the case, it does remind us of the alternative when political dialogue is abandoned.

Michael Carroll. Brehon Law Society. New York, New York

Bigoted Unionists

The Northern Irish elections prove what most of us here have long believed —when it comes to unionism. the more bigoted the candidate the better.

While the Nationalist side in this election have voted in good numbers for the moderate SDLP, the Unionists, even those in middle class areas such as South Belfast, made it clear their preference is for Ian Paisley and his message of bigotry.

I find this sad, and wonder where it will all end. I do not envy the job Gerry Adams faces as he tries to cut a deal with Paisley.

Seamus O’Brien. Cincinnati, Ohio

Nothing Changes

The North’s election once more proves the point that nothing changes and that the Good Friday Agreement has really just solidified the divisions between Nationalist and Unionist.

What Northern Ireland needs is a party that unites Catholic Protestant and dissenter like the great Wolfe Tone did. Until then we are merely playing out a very tired and old game of follow our leaders — as long as they are of the same tribe we are.

Mary Ellen Smith. Dorchester, Massachusetts

Bush Democracy Scam

The Bush administration has been encouraging moves to democracy in Russia, Egypt and Lebanon and installing it from the ground up in Iraq. It is high time that the United States speak up and challenge what is passing for democracy in the North of Ireland.

The U.S. hypocrisy of urging democratic reforms in Russia, Burma, and Venezuela but failing to criticize Britain’s democratic failures in the North is almost as galling as the arrogance of Prime Minister Tony Blair promising before Congress to deliver democracy for Iraq while denying it to those in Northern Ireland.

No doubt the recent British elections will be viewed by many, especially by the Anglophiles at Foggy Bottom, as presumptive proof of Northern Ireland democracy. However, England has found a way to deny power and responsibility to those elected to office, thus making a joke of elective politics.

Blair, with dubious legal authority and under false pretenses, dissolved the elected Assembly in 2002 and imposed direct rule from London. Northern Ireland is, in effect, being run by Orders of the Privy Council whose only modern day equivalent is the Council of Guardians in the theocracy of Iran.

Historically, England has always had difficulty with concepts like democracy in Ireland. A steadily rising Sinn Fein vote after the 1981 Hunger Strike prompted the freedom-touting Margaret Thatcher to give the green light to British forces working with loyalist death squads to murder five elected Sinn Fein officials and eight campaign workers. Such is the British love of democracy!

The Clinton administration broke this vicious cycle by brokering the Belfast Agreement in 1998 which specifically provided for the restoration of democracy. While Blair whines about acts of completion by the IRA, now in its seventh year of a ceasefire, Britain ignores key Patten police recommendations, ignores the claims of their chosen arms observer General de Chastelain, delays restoration of devolved government and continues to cover-up British collusion with Loyalist death squads.

What has been the American response to this charade? What has the Bush administration done to promote democracy and the rule of law in the North of Ireland while demanding it elsewhere? Nothing would be an overstatement.

The U. S. government through special envoy Mitchell Reiss has insisted Sinn Fein support the most corrupt police force in Europe even after the Stevens Report cited in 2003 the continued corruption and cover-up of the police.

The U.S. was rightfully outraged at the assassination of Mexican civil rights attorney Digna Ochoa. But there was no voice of outrage or indignation from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when Parliament passed the Public Inquiry law guaranteeing the public will never know why it suited Her Majesty’s government to murder Irish lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson or kill 33 civilians in the Dublin/Monaghan bombings.

It gets worse. Knowing full well the history of lawlessness and murder by the British, Reiss had the gall to assert that “Sinn Fein can not sign up to the rule of law a la carte.” He then demands photos of IRA arms destruction. How many civil wars anywhere can you recall have ever ended with photos of arms destruction?

It is clear that as long as we ignore human rights abuses, lawlessness and the obstruction of democracy in Ireland, America’s call for justice and the rule of law in places like Burma, Mexico, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh will be laughed at and ignored.

As long as Britain can stonewall democracy and the Belfast Agreement without a whimper from the White House, what chance is there for real peace justice or freedom anywhere?

Michael J. Cummings. Member, National Board.
Irish American Unity Conference. Albany, New York

Pigs Will Fly

Tell me this. If Ian Paisley comes to power and becomes Prime Minister in Northern Ireland, will he then become a Shimon Peres and try to make peace with his enemy? Sure he will and pigs will fly.

The Northern Ireland elections were truly disappointing. As bad as David Trimble was, he was miles ahead of Paisley and the rest of the bigots in his party. I fear for the future of Northern Ireland now that he has such a huge mandate. I can’t see him wanting to do a deal with Nationalists — unless it’s on his terms. What a disaster.

Donal Carey. Chicago, Illinois