Numbers Don’t Lie

John Spain’s column “Lack of Unity on Unity” in the October 5-11 issue was himself at his best. Some may like to run John up the wall, but John will do what John does best.

It was only logical that his allegiance to the Irish Independent would take him down the path to dispirit Sinn Fein and the IRA, or as he would put it Sinn Fein/IRA. Those hyphenated words, alongside Londonderry, lets the world know just whose flag you fly.

But, does one now see a clink in the Spain armor? In his column he used the words Sinn Fein 11 times and IRA three times, but never as a hyphenated unit. That in itself is a big revelation! It’s hard to remember when John didn’t use the hyphenated version.

Next we see John throwing the numbers at us. He does his magic when it comes to kind of staying within the facts.

Although some of his numbers do seem to stray a bit. I like to think of them as John’s TOOTS numbers, as in Taken Out of the Sky.

He said up to 30% of Catholics in the North don’t want to join with the Republic. Now that’s a number even Ian Paisley wouldn’t try to preach to his son, Mini-Me.

Sometimes you can stay within the facts, but be ridiculous in the statement. Example — one could say marriage is the leading cause of divorce. It would be a fact, but maybe a bit manipulative to say the least.

John has some numbers from a 2001 reading of the census, a bit old. Let’s look a the last election in May — the total number of votes for DUP and UUP was 369,170 and Sinn Feinand SDLP came in at 300,156.

That is a difference of only 69,014. So just how far away is the Nationalist majority? Not too far!

Now read these numbers — in the 1983 election the vote was a difference of 170,000 or so. That means in that 20 years the change in favor of Nationalists became 100,000.

John, I think we will be hearing “A Nation Once Again” a lot sooner than you would like. You ask us to be real. Well, there it is John — real numbers!

Bill Ashe, Corona, California

Boring Festival

I took my two children to an Irish festival in the summer — I won’t say which one — like the kinds described by Irish Voice columnist Mike Farragher in his recent columns on the subject.

The kids, almost teenagers, had a good time for about a half-hour, but then they were bored stiff. This is not to put down the people who organize these festivals, but just a reminder that it’s my kids, and many others like them, who represent the future of the festivals.

If they can’t enjoy them in young adulthood, why would they go back as adults? The people who go the festivals now definitely skew towards an older demographic. I don’t know what the remedy is, as I myself still enjoy going to the events and listening to the likes of “The Fields of Athenry.”

But I fear for the future existence of these events. Maybe it is time to bring in some new blood. We all have to change with the times, and it seems that Irish festivals are no exception.

Elaine Sheridan, Centerport, New York

Seeking Brother’s Killer

My name is Esther Rafferty Uzell and I am writing from Dublin to bring the story of the murder of my brother Joseph Rafferty to America.

I know you have all heard of Robert McCartney’s murder in the North. Joseph’s murder happened in the south of Ireland and it’s a carbon copy of Robert’s murder.

We have a campaign going at the moment which is getting stronger and stronger. All of the political parties are behind us and we have also meet with Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern who has promised to put pressure on Sinn Fein to uncover the murderer. We have had great media coverage north and south of Ireland.

We had a meeting recently with the Peace Process International Monitoring Committee and they included Joseph’s case in their report issued on Tuesday, October 18. Lord John Alderdice also stated that there is more exploration work to be done on Joseph’s case and it will be included in the next report also in January.

We have met the McCartney sisters in Belfast and we are hoping to meet them again soon, possibly in America.

People in America need to know what is happening over here in Ireland. My brother was a hard working father of a little 4-year-old girl who desperately misses him every day. He was an innocent man and, like Robert McCartney, a very fit man and well able to look after himself. But he was defenseless against a sawn off shotgun.

There are a lot of witnesses, but there is a wall of silence and none will come forward.

It’s a sad time, but what makes it harder is that we have to plead with a political party to uncover a murderer. How many more families have to go through this before something is done?

We are planning a trip over to America very soon and we look forward to speaking out about our brother over there.

Esther Uzell, Dublin, Ireland

Stop the Horror

President Bush’s war mongering in Iraq is growing more dangerous by the day, and no one in this country is inclined to do anything about it, it seems.

Every day there are reports of new American military casualties. There seems to be no end in sight to the pain and suffering inflicted on both sides.

What exactly are we doing in Iraq? There were no weapons of mass destruction, but we’re sure doing a good job of destruction over there, thanks to Bush and his cabal of evildoers.

We passed an unfortunate milestone recently with 2,000 U.S. deaths in Iraq. Now it looks like Bush is doing a good job working on getting to the 3,000 mark. When will it all end? At least our Irish cousins aren’t afraid to speak up about this growing atrocity. When are we going to get equally smart over here?

Michael Dempsey, Tallahassee, Florida

War Is Still On

In Brendan Anderson’s article last week “Shock as Adams Says War Is Over,” the impression is given that the war in the north of Ireland was initiated and sustained by the IRA.

The conflict began when unarmed Irish civilians were burned out of their homes in Belfast by mobs of British bigots backed up by her majesty’s police, and in Derry, where peaceful civil rights demonstrators were shot like dogs in the street by British soldiers.

The IRA fought to stop this genocide. As a result Gerry Adams has an opportunity to negotiate with the British.

The war will end when its perpetrators have been stopped. Until then, I believe, Mr. Adams expresses a sincere hope.

Liam O’Cainte, Bergenfield, New Jersey

Church Is Good

I would like to point out something about the coverage of the priest abuse scandals in Ireland, and indeed the U.S. and elsewhere. And I think I speak for many.

I grew up in Ireland in the 1940s, one of six children. Not once did I encounter a priest or elder church person who tried to take advantage of me in any way. The same can be said of my siblings. Our childhood was, thankfully, worry-free.

My point is that yes, there certainly are a few bad apples in the church — probably more than a few, if the new reports are to be believed. But I would implore people to not let these rotten apples destroy the name of the church as a whole.

There are many, many priests and nuns and lay people involved in the Catholic church who are good and kind-hearted, and do all the right things for all the right reasons. Let’s not forget that.

Maureen Crowley, Elizabeth, New Jersey