Martin accused of ‘brooding anti-semitism’

AS a 76-year-old Irish pensioner I am sickened but not surprised at the blatantly anti-semitic statements by the Minister for Foreign, Micheál Martin, concerning the tragic events surrounding the shipments heading for Gaza this week.

TV images of Israeli soldiers being bludgeoned with iron bars and knifed by would-be killers are proof – if proof was needed – that the so-called humanitarians on board the ships had anticipated the arrival of the Israeli soldiers and armed themselves to resist any legitimate inspection of the cargo.

Martin’s bellicose statement is simply the tip of the iceberg of brooding anti-semitism which has been simmering among Irish politicians since the foundation of the state.

In August 1946 the then Minister for Justice refused to admit 100 Jewish orphans found at the Bergen-Belsen death camp.

When in the Dáil in 1943 Oliver J Flanagan praised Hitler for ridding Germany of Jews claiming (“I doubt very much if they are human”), he was not challenged by any other member.

JJ Walsh TD, who had been a minister in the Cosgrave government, was another high-ranking anti-semite who described Irish Jews as a “gang of parasites”.

Need I say more?

Patrick Geaney

South Bank

Swords

Co Dublin