Letters to the Editor: Glorification of IRA campaign is a barrier to reconciliation

The bullet-riddled minibus at the scene where 10 Protestant workmen were shot dead in an IRA massacre at Kingsmill, Co Armagh, in 1976.

I am certain that the overwhelming majority of people on the island of Ireland are appalled at the statement made by Sinn Féin first minister-designate Michelle O’Neill in her recent BBC interview in which she stated there was no alternative to the IRA campaign of violence before the Good Friday Agreement.

The continued justification and glorification of the IRA campaign by leading Sinn Féin spokespersons makes it all the more difficult to achieve peace and reconciliation on this island.

Additionally, it inflicts further pain and suffering on the families of the victims who died as a result of their murderous campaign.

I would like to remind Ms O’Neill that a power-sharing executive was first established in 1974 under the Sunningdale Agreement. It was brought down by a combination of factors including the UWC strike led by Ian Paisley and loyalist paramilitaries and others and also the intensification of IRA violence following its establishment.

The essence of the Good Friday Agreement was as former deputy leader of the SDLP Seamus Mallon so aptly described it, “Sunningdale for slow learners”.

In the intervening 24 years between Sunningdale and the GFA, further thousands of people also died needlessly in the continuing violence.

During the Northern Ireland troubles, the IRA campaign was responsible for over half of all murders.

I challenge Ms O’Neill to justify what was achieved by the many sectarian atrocities carried out by the IRA, including the Kingsmill, La Mon, and Teebane massacres, the Enniskillen Cenotaph bombing, and many others.

Furthermore, bearing in mind that many of those who founded the IRA claimed that it was established to defend the Catholic community against attacks from loyalist paramilitaries and other organisations, how is that they killed more Catholics than any other protagonists in the conflict?

As first minister-designate, she assumes new responsibilities for all sides of the community in Northern Ireland. She should therefore apologise for her insensitive remarks and withdraw them.

John Cushnahan

Former leader, Alliance Party,
and former Fine Gael MEP

Lisnagry

Co Limerick

Martin must show leadership on North

There are increasing indicators that young, educated people in the North from a Unionist background who want to be part of the European Union are more open to the idea of a united Ireland.

However, they naturally want to know what unity would mean for daily life, public services, and the economy in the North.

 Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

They are getting no answers or encouragement from Taoiseach Micheál Martin or the current Irish Government. In fact, Mr Martin appears to be doing everything to discourage such people from seeking a shared future with the rest of us. His repeated attacks on those who seek to plan responsibly for unity merely bolsters the unreconstructed ‘No’ men of Unionism. It is incumbent on the Irish Government to offer a constructive pathway, not just for those from the Unionist community, but for all of us, North and South, into the new Ireland that is clearly emerging.

Partition has failed, continues to fail, and offers no long-term stability or economic progression for any part of this island.

It’s time for Micheál Martin to show some real political leadership and rise to the challenge of planning the future of this island.

An all-island citizens’ assembly would be a good start.

Oonagh Prendergast

Dundalk

Co Louth

Time to talk about TikTok data centre

It is time to have a serious conversation regarding TikTok’s new €600m data centre, due to open in Ireland early next year.

While the data centre will certainly generate jobs and likely a positive economic impact, questions over TikTok’s use of data are a cause for serious concern.

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is headquartered in Beijing and therefore subject to Chinese law, allowing the Chinese government to demand access to data, including that held abroad. In June, US news outlets reported that some American users’ data had been accessed directly from China. Furthermore, last month, Italian data regulators sounded the alarm over new privacy-policy changes proposed by the company without users’ consent.

Our own Data Protection Commission already has two open investigations into TikTok regarding processing of children’s personal data and transfers of personal data to China.

It is clear there is a trend emerging, one that should receive as much attention as those found on the app.

Data has often been referred to as the “currency of the digital age”. Should that be true, why are we so flippantly selling our currency to an authoritarian regime that only recently arrested, imprisoned, and “re-educated” more than 1m Uighur people in Xinjiang because of their faith and ethnic origin?

China is not alone in its mistreatment of people’s data, yet in this instance we have a rare opportunity to prevent further transgressions.

John Loftus

Clontarf

Dublin

Healy-Rae incorrect in coursing assertion

I see that Michael Healy-Rae TD has stoutly defended hare coursing in a radio debate, saying it is a cherished part of Irish rural life, and that hares captured for coursing are well treated.

The fact that something has come down to us from our ancestors is hardly a convincing enough reason to preserve it.

Michael Healy-Rae TD.

I can think of many traditions and practices that we’ve ditched, including industrial schools and Magdalene laundries, that might have seemed acceptable in a murky past.

Though it was a radio debate, I imagine the Kerry politician had a wistful faraway look in his eye when he spoke of the wonderful tender love and care lavished on hares by coursing clubs.

Unfortunately, hares do not fare well in coursing. Some are mauled; others have their bones crushed by the larger and faster animals chasing them.

Others get tossed up into the air like broken toys. If coursing clubs love hares, as the deputy claimed, they have a strange way of showing it. It is a stain on the landscape and a disgrace to humanity.

John Fitzgerald

Callan

Co Kilkenny

Can governments act on conglomerates?

Is the UN so completely irrelevant and powerless that its current secretary general António Guterres is reduced to parroting apocalyptic warnings about “nuclear annihilation” and exhorting governments to do something about the immoral profits of huge corporations?

If that is the case, how much more irrelevant is it asking governments like our own, with even less powers over such conglomerations, to do something about it?

It reminds one of a letter an American buddy of mine, living in the wilds of Mayo, had published over 10 years ago in the Los Angeles Times, saying in effect that all governments are just the PR extensions of big business.

Turns out the late Dabney Venable was absolutely correct.

Liam Power

Blackrock

Dundalk

President’s wife should apologise

Calling for peace should not be controversial, but like a lot of things it’s how you do it that matters.

Sabina Higgins could have used a pseudonym and got her letter and her point of view published so as to not associate it with the presidency.

However, she deliberately used her own name because of her position as the President’s wife. That’s the issue.

After the Wallace/Daly debacle when Putin/Russia used their misguided actions for its war propaganda, Ms Higgins must have known Russia would do the same with her letter because of who she is.

Ms Higgins is either politically naive — which she isn’t — or intentionally risked giving support to Russia. She needs to wise up big time, realise she made a mistake, and admit and apologise for it.

Kevin T Finn

Mitchelstown

Cork