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A COMPREHENSIVE SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THIS TOPIC

columnists

Shared painful experiences

Peter O’Dwyer’s article on Iceland and the reports of the current situation in Greece reminds us of what we in Ireland have been through in recent years.

Ordeal of explaining our history to foreigners

Media’s denial of seriousness of situation will only cause more pain

Hysteria is hyped when we need perspective

Blasphemy reform shows media’s eltism

Failures of British Empire can’t be whitewashed

Historical evidence on Home Rule ignored

Professor John A Murphy is ignoring a lot of historical evidence to the contrary when he says the prospects for the Home Rule Act of 1914 was just a world of ‘genteel order envisaged by well-off elite’ and a world away from ‘an independent Ireland’ (Irish Examiner, September 23).

Thu, 25 Sep, 2014

Home Rule was the law of a global empire

I am loath to get into historical disagreement with a learned professor like Ronan Fanning, but his description of the Home Rule Act, giving self-rule to the island of Ireland, as merely “a fudged compromise” and an illusion, has to be challenged [Opinion, August 16].

Wed, 20 Aug, 2014

Looking for heads to distract attention

The reference to the failure of John the Baptist to make any headway in the recent election and the fact that he ultimately lost his head has more relevance to the present situation than has being ascribed to it by media commentary.

Wed, 28 May, 2014

EU is a voluntary and democratic union

Cal Hyland favourably compares our pre-independence position with our membership of the EU (Letters, April 18).

Tue, 22 Apr, 2014

Seismic change

I agree with Leo Armstrong that what happened in relation to our debt situation at the recent summit of EU leaders was more due to Spain and Italy than it was to Ireland (Letters, Jul 4).

Mon, 09 Jul, 2012

Not much hope for gender equality

I AM afraid Joanna Tuffy TD and Amy Catherine Brennan (Letters, Nov 11) are both missing the point when they think that boycotting the “female-only” TD and senators’ meeting that took place on November 9 is an appropriate thing to do.

Mon, 14 Nov, 2011

Held in contempt

I COULD not agree more with PJ McElhone (Letters, July 17) when he says he is “tired of all the cant and hypocrisy about the murderous behaviour of boys and young men on our roads”.

Fri, 23 Jul, 2010

Why scapegoat the Merrion St mandarins?

I’M reading a book that details how the prime minister and the chancellor of the exchequer in London, whose policies were responsible for a million people dying during the Great Famine here, used the media of the time to scapegoat Charles Trevelyan, the assistant secretary to the treasury.

Thu, 08 Jul, 2010

Not forgiven

YOUR financial columnist Bill Hobbs (June 7) tells us the Government-appointed financial regulator Matthew Elderfield, NAMA chairman Frank Daly and Justice Minister Dermot Ahern have “ruled out debt forgiveness for ordinary people”.

Mon, 14 Jun, 2010

Tiny elite to blame for state of the nation

I COULD not agree more with Declan Doyle (Letters, October 26) when he accuses our political leaders of an absence of “leadership and accountability”.

Fri, 06 Nov, 2009

Lisbon II an exercise in democracy

IN his letter (January 1), Michael O’Driscoll, in common with nearly all anti-Lisbon people, wheels out the usual misinformation in his objection to allowing the Irish people to have a second chance to vote on the Lisbon Treaty.

Tue, 06 Jan, 2009

Reverse advert ban

I AGREE with your editorial (December 6) that the decision by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) to ban a Christmas radio advert by Catholic booksellers Veritas is “utterly, mind-numbingly stupid”.

Tue, 09 Dec, 2008

‘Unity’ government is not the answer

ACCORDING to your editorial (October 27), there is no solution to our present political and financial problems unless our politicians form a government of unity.

Fri, 07 Nov, 2008

Spindoctors spared the budget lash

WE should all be indebted to your columnist Terry Prone for the benefit of her insider definition of Government spin (October 20).

Tue, 04 Nov, 2008

Minister’s unacceptable comment on invasion

THE condemnation by Emmet Dunphy and Nick Folley (Letters, August 13) of the hypocrisy of our collective attitude to the Russian invasion of Georgia was well made.

Thu, 21 Aug, 2008

Above our weight

THE proposal by Dick Keane (Letters, August 14) to “let all the people of Europe decide by direct vote” on the Lisbon Treaty is not in Ireland’s interest.

Mon, 18 Aug, 2008

Lisbon Treaty was a democratic exercise

THE assertion by Michele Savage in relation to the Lisbon Treaty (Letters, July 2) that “the liberty, the equality and the fraternity to vote was denied to hundreds of millions of people throughout the EU” could not be further from the truth.

Mon, 14 Jul, 2008

Let’s be objective

ERIC CONWAY (Letters, April 17) is probably right when he says we should undertake a “critique of feminism”.

Tue, 29 Apr, 2008

Media afraid to criticise those in power

YOUR editorial on April 9 highlighted the fact that one party is in ‘permanent government’ and deduced that this gives rise to a ‘democratic deficit’. It is much more serious. It is the most serious problem confronting Irish people since independence 86 years ago.

Mon, 14 Apr, 2008

Rising was sparked by opponents of home rule

IT IS difficult to argue with Gerald Morgan’s conclusion (Letters, March 22) that the Easter Rising was provoked by “the failure of the British to respect the democratic mandate for Irish home rule”.

Thu, 27 Mar, 2008

Kenny was right to point out political corruption

FINE Gael leader Enda Kenny was described as “hapless” by Donnacha Maguire (Letters, January 3) because he had the temerity to point out that in a democracy when someone elected by the people to represent them in high public office takes money from private individuals, that is corruption.

Wed, 12 Mar, 2008

Hillary’s chance to strike a blow for all women

BRENDAN HOOD (Letters, January 14) would discourage US voters from supporting “the Clintons”.

Tue, 26 Feb, 2008

Punishing whistleblowers: where does it end?

NIALL GINTY (Letters, January 23) accuses me of “dressing up” the facts in relation to leaks of confidential information.

Tue, 05 Feb, 2008

Over the top

ERIC CONWAY, as he is entitled to do, makes good use of the media to air his views on various topics from time to time.

Mon, 04 Feb, 2008

O’Rourke’s ‘treason’ charge reveals FF’s one-party state mindset

THE fact that an influential and intelligent government politician like Mary O’Rourke (Letters, January 26) could describe opposition criticism of the Taoiseach as “treachery towards one’s country” epitomises the extent that the one-party state mentality has permeated the thought processes of the elite in this country.

Wed, 30 Jan, 2008

‘Rotten legacy’ is not confined to Haughey

JOHN O’DRISCOLL (Letters, January 3) is missing the point when he says that replacing the Taoiseach with the Tánaiste “would give us a clean break from Haughey’s rotten legacy”.

Fri, 25 Jan, 2008

Blaming ourselves for the famine is nonsense

I CANNOT let your columnist Ryle Dwyer away with the assertion (January 12) that the Irish were to blame for the Great Famine.

Sat, 19 Jan, 2008

First address defects in our own democracy

YOUR editorial (December 28) adopted an attitude of preening self-satisfaction in relation to Pakistan when referring to the terrible events there.

Wed, 02 Jan, 2008

Brave woman stood up to powers-that-be

JANETTE BYRNE’S letter (‘Why they feared me — an ordinary person with cancer’, November 17) should be compulsory reading for all of us ordinary yobs when we feel defeated in the struggle to reclaim our country from the brazen, the arrogant and the smug who monopolise our airwaves, our news pages and our screens.

Fri, 23 Nov, 2007