Your letters, your views...

The history of the European Union since its initial seeds were planted with the Coal and Steel Committee in 1951 has been mainly positive and helped promote peace and reconciliation within Europe. 

The truism that all politics are local is being taken both too far and not far enough in the Irish election debates.

Over three years ago I submitted a petition to the The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions on behalf of civil society NGO Shannonwatch, on the issue of US military and CIA use of Shannon airport. The committee issued its final report on St Bridget’s day 2016.

Barry Walsh (Letters, January 27) is correct to point out that “Double speak around Putin shouldn’t surprise”.

On the face of it, prima facia, the anti-austerity alliance protesters charged with “false imprisonment” of An Tánaiste and her assistant should be found not guilty for several reasons.

So, refugees will not arrive in Ireland before 2016. That’s great, isn’t it?

I stand accused by Dr Frank Giles (Letters, Irish Examiner, July 2) of blaming the recent Tunisian mass murders on Western foreign policy and military interventions.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald was correct to act in the public interest by using Dáil privilege to name politicians who were alleged in a civil servant’s report to have been linked to off-shore Ansbacher accounts.

Christianity should be based on the teachings of Christ who opposed violence and abuses of power. 

With EU Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, calling for a “common European army” as a “deterrent against further Russian aggression on the continent”, the Lisbon Treaty hawks are coming home to roost. 

Since 1995, 20,000 refugees and asylum seekers have died in the Mediterranean Sea fleeing persecution and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. Some of this poverty and persecution is caused by European exploitation and inappropriate military interference.

In response to my letter on Gaza and the necessity to end Israel’s impunity for its crimes against the Palestinian people, Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh writes a confused reply seeming to ascribe responsibility for obstacles to the rebuilding to Hamas rather than to Israel’s siege.

The interconnectedness of conflicts in the Middle East seems beyond comprehension to those who ignore that the root causes are inappropriate Western political and military intervention.

John Leahy (Irish Examiner, October 18) blames warped planning and windmills for destroying the beauty of Crosshaven. But it is Irish Don Quixotes who are attacking windmills believing them to be ferocious giants.

The report “Decaying Guantánamo Defies Closing Plans” (New York Times, Sept 1) makes depressing reading. Not only is the prison camp decaying, so are its prisoners. 

Democracy still matters in Ireland, in spite of its imperfections and the damage done to people by recent Irish politicians.

A report in the Washington Post (April 4) reveals that in June 2009 “Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison” for defrauding investors of at least $18bn and “in the past five months, at least three Vietnamese bankers have been sentenced to death”.

The likely military bombardment of Syria will kill and injure many innocent people, and have disastrous long-term consequences.

The Irish Human Rights Commission and the Women’s Human Rights Alliance are fully justified in their requests to the UN Human Rights Council to call on the Irish Government to address the issue of reparation for survivors of the Magdalene laundries.

The Minister for the Environment is introducing regulations that may well recommend that all or most existing septic tanks should be desludged or emptied over the coming year.

THE RTÉ documentary, Crisis: Inside the Cowen Government, contained almost nothing new and appeared to be an attempt by the regurgitated “whiter than white” Fianna Fáil surviving clique, to find one suitable scapegoat for Fianna Fáil’s reckless destruction of the Irish economy, while exonerating most of the other FF ministers from collegial cabinet responsibility.

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan repeatedly accuses the Irish media and political opposition of negativity and talking up the Irish financial crisis. So should we muzzle the media, and create a one-party-state?

THE Green Party is making a major issue of hare coursing in their second negotiation for a programme for (mis)government.

A US White House press release on April 16 confirmed the publication of legal memos issued by senior US administration legal officers between 2002 and 2005, that effectively authorised the use of torture on prisoners in US custody.

THE rule of international law is rapidly giving way to a type of international lynch law.

THE call for a national day of mourning for John Paul II has huge support. However, should we not be celebrating his life on earth and transition to eternal life rather than mourning his passing?

IN commercial, criminal and civil liability law, damage done unlawfully, accidentally or recklessly falls liable on the doer.

IN his attempt to justify the decision to grant the use of Shannon airport to US troops for their illegal Iraq war, Justice Minister Michael McDowell suggested on RTE’s Questions & Answers (Oct 11) that this was not in breach of our neutrality.