LETTERS

Bar Ban Hurts

THE smoking ban is already one year old and counting. Bars in upstate New York are receiving economic hardship waivers because of severe drops in business as a result of the smoking ban, yet New York City refuses to acknowledge or remedy any such hardship among bars suffering similar drops in the five boroughs.

New York City agencies have consistently misled New Yorkers with their rosy smoking-ban statistics. Headlines like “Bar Business up 8.7% Since the Ban” have been debunked as totally inaccurate. The city deliberately dumped statistical data from hundreds of chain establishments such as Starbucks and McDonald’s in with bars and taverns. 

Spending on Big Macs and skim lattes tells us nothing about the effects of the smoking ban. To understand the ban’s effect on bar and tavern business, we must look specifically at post-ban revenue totals for bars and taverns. Business is down in bars in New York City.

A recent independent survey by International Communications Research found 76% of New York City bars and nightclubs have had a 30% decrease in customers, and 34% have cut staff. Not exactly encouraging statistics. 

We’re against the ban for one reason – it is undermining businesses and jobs. Don’t be fooled again by politicians’ expediency. 

Contact you local city councilor, senator and assembly member and tell them you support S. 6372, the amendment to the Smoke Free Air Act, that would allow smoking in certain areas of bars, and only under controlled filtration and purification circumstances. 

Brian Nolan 
Executive Director 
United Restaurant & Tavern Owners of New York

A Hand for Hoosier

I HAVE read a number of letters to the editor from a Jerry Hoosier in the Irish Voice. He seems to be troubled about how the Irish and/or Irish Americans view world events. 

My question is, why he should care what “we” think? He seems to have little respect for anyone who doesn’t share his view of world events. Why does he even bother to read the Irish Voice? 

Ahhh . . . maybe he is trying to fire up the rebel spirit of the Voice readership? Aye, that is it! He is really helping the readership in gearing up their collective thinking caps and taking a long look at what our government policymakers are doing. 

Thank you Mr. Hoosier for reminding us that questioning what your government does is a long and deeply held tenant of being a patriotic American! As an American of Irish heritage (and a student of history), I know how important it is to dig deeply into the issues. History is indeed written by the winners, but it doesn’t always reflect what really happened. 

So Mr. Hoosier, thank you again for writing your letters and your effort to keep Irish Voice readers fired up and on guard against the un-American attitude of blindly following any leadership. 

Finally, Mr. Hoosier, there was an error in one letter I would like to draw your attention to. You stated that the Spanish, as well as the Irish, were “invertebrate.” Sir, I can assure you that they do have vertebrate, as well as intestinal fortitude and free will.

To my fellow Irish Voice readers – Mr. Hoosier may not be able to count on the Irish, but God love him, we can count on him! Slainte!

Rick McGibbon Jr.
Millinocket, Maine

A Tale of Two Islands

ONCE upon a time there were two islands. The people on the larger one decided they should own both islands, but no matter how hard they tried the people of the little island persisted in maintaining their independence. 

Eventually the people of the larger island became discouraged and turned their efforts to controlling only the northern end of the small island. Considering the inhabitants to be barbarians and not up to their standards, the new landlord seeded the area with distant cousins of the natives in the appropriated land. 

They felt this would serve two purposes. One, it would dilute the resistance of the indigent people, and two, would give them a loyal workforce for the ship building industry they planned to develop there. 

This was more difficult than originally conceived, as the people of the little island did not accept their servitude gracefully and dug in their heels at every opportunity. How to transform the indigent population to second class citizens while promoting and insuring the success of the imported gentry was a pressing question. 

On the surface this presented a real problem, as both the natives and the runners-in were distant cousins; both originating from the same tribe at one time in their history. However, there was one defining difference. The two cousins believed in traveling different paths to worship the same deity. 

It was from this premise that the solution evolved. It was just a matter of convincing the newcomers to the smaller island that the natives, who they considered heathen for worshiping idols, if given the chance would kill the men, convert their children and rape the women. 

Advancing this concept, hatred was fostered between the two which festered past the ability to reason. As times changed and the need for this animosity disappeared, so much damage had been inflicted by both sides that neither could find it in their hearts to let bygones be bygones. 

Hopefully my ditty has given you a better understanding of the troubles in Northern Ireland. Those of you who have expressed the opinion in the Irish Voice that the president of the United States can mediate this issue, I ask you to reread the foregoing. 

Personally, I think you would have better luck putting a mongoose in a cage with a cobra and seeing both walk out after a month. Unfortunately, I’ve been right to date.

Jerry Hoosier 
Cypress, California

Beastly Headline

I THINK your headline on last week’s front page, “Beauty and the Beast,” about the sick new “reality” show on Fox TV, was shameful. Did the Irish Voice mean to imply that people who don’t look like show host Amanda Byram are beastly?

Not everybody can be 5’10”, 110 pounds and gorgeous – or, rather, what some people perceive as gorgeous. It’s okay to have an extra tire around the middle, or to be a little short, or to have pimples here and there. It’s what’s on the inside that counts. And no, that is not a cliché.

Ellen Hanrahan
Boston, Massachusetts

Looking for Old Trad

THE seventh series of the popular Irish television program Come West Along the Road is currently in pre-production. The program is based on archival television and movie footage of significant performances of Irish traditional song, instrumental music and dance.

It draws chiefly on the first 25 years of national broadcaster RTE’s rich archive, up to the end of 1986, but also features material from early film newsreels and documentaries, feature films, television programs in other Irish and foreign archives and privately made home movies.

The program is interested in finding more examples of such privately made films. Many singers, musicians and dancers who never made it to a television studio, or who died before television came to Ireland, were filmed by enthusiasts who had home film cameras, especially in the 1940s and 1950s. Many of these were emigrants or missionaries on a visit home. A memorable example on a recent program was the legendary Kerry fiddle player Padraig O’Keeffe, whose moving image and playing style is preserved on a silent film made in Castleisland by a local man home on holiday from the U.S.

Anyone who possesses such footage, or knows of it, and who would be willing to share it with the Come West Along the Road audience please contact series producer Colm O’Callaghan at RTE Television, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Ireland; phone 011-353-1-2082332, or e-mail on ocallac@ rte.ie.

Colm O’Callaghan
Dublin, Ireland