THE proposed visit by Tony Blair to Ireland on September 3/4 to publicise his autobiography should be used by the Irish people to express their opposition to the wars and military occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq that were carried out in contravention of the UN charter and that have cost the lives of an estimated 1.5 million people so far.

IN the Dáil on Thursday, former ceann comhairle John (‘The Bull’) O’Donohue described Labour party leader Eamon Gilmore as a “gadfly flying around the smelly tail of an old cow” (Irish Examiner, July 8).

ON January 30, 1972, 14 civilians were shot dead in Derry by soldiers from the First Parachute Battalion, under the command of Lt Col Derek Wilford. He was exonerated by the now discredited Widgery tribunal and six months later he was awarded the OBE Queen Elizabeth, probably on the advice of British prime minister Edward Heath.

WE have all become passive victims of crimes committed by politicians, bankers, developers and so-called regulators with cuts and levies in services, salaries, pensions and insurance.

MINISTER for Defence Willie O’Dea has stated he has received assurances concerning the safety of seven members of the Irish Defence Forces serving with the NATO force in Afghanistan.

THE crimes committed against children by priests, brothers, nuns and others who abused their duty of care brings to mind the words attributed to Jesus Christ in St Luke’s Gospel:

FINE Gael leader Enda Kenny was questioned on RTÉ Radio This Week programme on Sunday, April 5, by Gerard Barry on the statement by (Captain) Billy Timmins TD, that Ireland should abandon neutrality and join EU common defence arrangements.

The Irish taxpayers, especially compliant and hard-pressed PAYE taxpayers, are being asked, ostensibly at least, to bail out the banks, but we are not being given the background information behind these bailout decisions, or who it is that is really being bailed out.

THE Millward Brown IMS poll on the Lisbon Treaty is being misconstrued by some commentators.

I WAS dismayed to hear that a group of Fianna Fáil TDs and senators is seeking to reverse a Government decision to allow gay and lesbian couples register their relationships with the State.

THE British Foreign Secretary has admitted that two rendition flights carrying prisoners were refuelled on Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean.

EU commissioner Charlie McCreevey has said the Irish public will be “defying their commonsense” if they vote against the EU treaty, which is a constitution in all but name.

BRENDAN HAYES (Letters, August 13) asks “will the anti-war movement which has been protesting about US troop stopovers lend its support to the Shannon workers whose livelihoods are currently under serious threat?”

AT the Green Party conference on June 13, I argued against the party joining the Fianna Fáil Government because it risked being complicit in future human rights abuses and corruption.

KNOCK airport board has not ruled out allowing US troops to fly in there. Ulick McEvaddy has said he saw no reason why Knock should not benefit from the revenue of US military flights.

ACCORDING to a recent EU committee report, Ireland is the third worst offender in all of Europe, after Germany and the UK, in allowing torture flights to land and refuel, with 147 CIA flights identified at Shannon airport.

THE Taoiseach and the Fine Gael leader have condemned the alleged use of violence by demonstrators at the Shell to Sea campaign and insist the rule of law must be enforced to protect Irish resources given away to foreign multinationals.

SADDAM Hussein deserves to be punished for his heinous crimes, but that punishment should only be in accordance with the rule of law, including the rule of international law.

BILL HURLEY, Lt Col, US Marine Corps (retd) describes the CIA rendition through Shannon as just a bit of ‘arm-twisting’ and suggests this type of torture is OK (Irish Examiner letters, June 13). He is much too selective with his facts.

IN an increasingly interdependent world, political ripples anywhere can build into global tidal waves.

MOST Irish clergy have been ignoring one of the most important social, political and moral issues facing the Irish people in recent years.

JAMES McGRATH (Letters, December 1) accuses me of misquoting the Lancet report on deaths in Iraq, and says that the medical journal’s figure of 100,000 was a “projection” of what the figures might be if the war were to continue indefinitely.

THREATS have been made by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, and the gardaí, that Anjem Choudary, who happens to be Muslim, should be prosecuted or investigated for ‘incitement to hatred’.