I write to take issue with Fergus Finlay’s recent column on Ivana Bacik’s success in the Dublin Bay South by-election — ‘Labour must give Bacik a platform to lead for real change to happen’ (Irish Examiner, July 13).
I was glad to see her rewarded for her hard work over the years, but her election only confirmed what has been happening to Labour’s vote for the past 30 years.
Her work on gender/human rights has little or no relevance to the vast majority of ordinary working people in this country, who are busy keeping a roof over their heads, putting food on the table, and providing a decent education for their children.
Her vote came from the middle 40% — the more affluent parts of the constituency, the same section of society that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Social Democrats, and the Green Party are all appealing to.
The less affluent areas of the country are supporting Sinn Féin and the left-wing parties.
I saw this more than 20 years ago in Clondalkin, west Dublin, when I was a Labour Party member seeing our vote haemorrhaging in the working-class areas.
What do you expect when the plans for a new town centre in Neilstown were sabotaged and developer Owen O’Callaghan — with the connivance of local councillors — developed the Liffey Valley shopping centre and local needs were totally ignored?
If the Labour Party is to succeed and thrive (as a continued voter and supporter) it needs to focus on the twin
issues of housing and health.
State- and local-authority-owned land must be utilised immediately, with the assistance of housing associations and finance from the credit union movement to build social and affordable housing.
With regard to health, the public system must have unimpeded access to the private hospitals, so eventually, the two systems coalesce.
Glenn Phillips
Creamery Rd
Brosna
Co Kerry
Brushed under a carpet of perfidy
The scurrilous announcement by Brandon Lewis flagging the British government’s intention to push all
pre-1998 Troubles prosecutions to oblivion is as unsurprising as it is galling. This has been coming for the past 50 years as successive
governments have adopted a head-in-the-sand avoidance of the blatant culpability of British security forces in several high-profile fatal travesties.
They have consistently kicked for touch, fudging and dodging the loaded issue of the grotesquely illegal behaviour of some of their own state military and intelligence forces.
The dogs in the street know the grim realities pertaining, with so much having being exposed, publicised, and parsed with only the apposite justice process lacking.
It is a disingenuous convenience of the highest insult quotient, to assign all pre-1998 prosecutions to the legal ‘sin-bin’, brushing the deathly illegalities under a crass carpet of perfidy and shame.
All terrorism, for any reason bar none, is reprehensible, but when the statutory security forces descend to the reckless brutality of misguided others, such action takes on a doubling of guilt and blame.
Arriving at a ‘statute of limitations’ scenario after so many years of obfuscation in this zone is a sad indictment of authentic transparency.
Obviously, this ‘very regrettable’ modus operandi is a contrived attempt to attenuate and consign the crimes to distant memory, so that the ‘job-lot’ of prosecutions is catapulted into the oblivion of an amnesty
scenario.
The litany of ‘sincere apologia’ and ‘deep regret’ from the British government over the past half-century regarding either malign exploits of its military during the Troubles in Ireland or manipulated miscarriages of justice related to terrorist events is becoming something of a regular parliamentary event. Sad to say, none of the apologias begin to cover the righteous requirement for even a modicum of respectful restitution. It all started with Widgery and it seems plus ça change.
John Stalker’s forlorn attempts to unmask the rotten sump of scandal are now a mere footnote to the iceberg of cover-ups and contorted shenanigans that will forever distort any notion of ethical, moral, or even basic legal rectitude, accountability or democratic decorum.
Jim Cosgrove
Lismore
Co Waterford
By-election loss a sign of future woes
With regards to Fianna Fáil’s latest poor showing in the political polls, there is little doubt but that things can only get better sooner or — in all probability — later.
Fear not Fianna Fáil, with political heavyweights such as Marc MacSharry poised to ride to the rescue, redemption is surely at hand and the party will turn the corner in no time (soon).
The irony of the present state of play in the party’s woes is that the said deputy is apparently convinced that the leadership of the party are the ones who are losing support — and that is probably true to some extent.
However, when the electorate looks at what might replace that leadership in the future, it dawns on them that the Fianna Fáil party has long passed its former glory on the national political stage. Therefore, the recent Dublin by-election result is but an indication of future election woes coming down the tracks for the party.
Kevin McCarthy
High Meadows
Gouldavoher
Limerick
Cosmetic exercise in consultation
Sadly, I have had time on my hands to read the voluminous document ‘Cork Bus Connects’, issued by the Dublin-based National Transport Authority (NTA) and Cork City Council.
The purpose of the document is to invite submissions from the public on the development of bus services in the city and county before July 21.
The online document is somewhat technical and regrettably contains many maps and diagrams which are fuzzy and impossible to decipher, making any reasonable conclusion difficult.
Similar to the CMATS (Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy) proposal, there is no detail for readers as to what is being proposed in terms of road widening, confiscation of gardens, compulsory purchase orders, loss of parking spaces, inconvenience, possible subsidence and damage to homes, and serious implications for property values.
In other words, people are expected to make important, life-changing decisions in an information vacuum.
Submissions are confined to an online multiple-choice format, based on a limited number of options from the proposers, with no facility for a broader rational discussion on the widespread implications for residents and businesses throughout the city and beyond.
Those responding should realise that the submissions will be decided on, not by an independent body or by mediation, but by the proposers, the NTA, which of course is completely undemocratic and unfair to residents and makes a nonsense of the whole cosmetic procedure.
The NTA and their allies should be under no illusion that there will be concerted widespread opposition across the city to any incoherent, half-baked proposals similar to those attempted at Dennehy’s Cross in 2019, which were rejected outright by the city councillors and most TDs.
John Leahy
Wilton Rd
Cork
Nationalising the insurance industry
I am writing in response to the article — ‘Claim nation: Awards have been cut, now insurers must slash premiums’ (Irish Examiner, online, July 17).
The Government should give the insurance industry a final warning and if they don’t comply, nationalise the whole motor and household insurance market.
All of these foreign-owned companies are here for one reason, and one reason only, and that is the profits they can gouge at will from obliging consumers.
Ben O’Sullivan
Macroom
Co Cork
Inspiring the return of public litter bins
I would like to congratulate the management of Herlihy Centra, Patrick St, Fermoy, for their initiative in the restoration of a public litter bin outside the shop in question.
I believe such a community-spirited exercise may inspire other businesses in the town to do likewise.
Unfortunately, when it comes to inspiration, I would not have the same confidence that the local authority would restore the public litter bins it removed from the streets of our town, as it continues to justify such behaviour on the grounds of social distancing.
Tadhg O’Donovan
Fermoy
Co Cork
Throwing shade at weather humour
The sizzling sunshine reminds me of a story of two men discussing the forecast. One said “they say it will be 25 degrees in the shade”, to which the other replied “we’d better stay out of the shade then”.
John Williams
Clonmel
Co Tipperary
