I would like to thank Seán O’Brien for his reply, and it’s true that history is more nuanced than we can fit in one letter (‘A History of Peace’ Irish Examiner letters, December 5).
The Tudor regime was supposed to usher in peace, after 50 years of dynastic warfare known as the Wars of the Roses. Henry VII’s (Henry Tudor) 1486 marriage to rival Elizabeth of York was supposed to symbolically unite the two royal houses and end political strife.
It is deeply ironic that Henry’s younger son, Henry VIII, tore the country apart once again by splitting with the Catholic Church in order to remarry: Six wedded, one died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded.
In a sense, Mr O’Brien is right, the one thing uniting England until then was a shared faith and culture.
But had Henry merely split with Rome and allowed everyone the right to their own conscience, things might have gone differently.
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Instead, by making himself head of the Protestant Church of England and reigning monarch, he united church and state into a single entity in a way even Catholicism had not.
Anyone who held to their former Catholic faith was now seen as suspect and disloyal to Henry personally and to his regime.
They were a voice of niggling conscience too that Henry might be doing wrong, as Thomas More soon found out to his cost. He was not even permitted his silence because people might interpret it as criticism of the king’s policies.
Henry closed monasteries and religious orders and seized their wealth for his own personal use and to dispense as favours: many people sided with him out of fear for their lives or seeing the chance for personal gain.
A desire to have his own way and enrich himself, rather than mere ‘religion’, were at the core of Henry VIII’s policies.
Under his daughter Elizabeth I, England became a virtual police state as Catholics and priests were outed, hunted down, tortured, and executed. Some old manors in England still have ‘priest holes’, where priests were hidden during these troubled times.
Whether the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 proved her ultimately justified, or was a self-fulfilling prophecy, is hard to say.
However the problem here is not that there were two different faiths in England, but the power and politics that underlay them.
While focusing on Scotland, Mr O’Brien ignores the inconvenient history of Wales — which had been subdued militarily when both England and Wales were staunchly Catholic. Religion then, cannot have been the dividing factor.
Peace was achieved in Wales when independent Wales was a spent force, militarily.
Nick Folley
Carrigaline, Co Cork
Defending ‘Western values’ in Israel
Although none of us can easily escape the daily news from Gaza and the West Bank, sometimes in the middle of a disaster we need to take a step back and look at longer-term implications.
In the first half of last century, the Western powers invested boundless political capital in Israel and the US bankrolled that to the tune of trillions of dollars.
“Western values”, although always a severely compromised concept, were similarly invested.
Now contemporary Israeli spokespersons talk of their “moral war” which is essential to “protect Western values”.
Surely it is clear that the West’s investment is now bankrupt.
Even allowing for the disgusting events of October 7, the actions of too many Israeli politicians, Defence Force personnel, and settlers have not been called out for what they really are and what they have done.
Many will even think that their dystopian world has been defended by the West.
The US veto of a UN call for a humanitarian ceasefire has surely closed the account and the West has utterly lost.
Ireland, Spain, and Belgium have, thankfully, been outliers to various degrees.
Dr Billy Leonard
Kilkee, Co Clare
Turkeys’ fate at Christmas time
Almost 1m turkeys are killed in Ireland every year in the lead up to Christmas (4m are killed annually), to satisfy diners at Christmas work parties and the annual Christmas dinner on Christmas Day.
How is this industrial-scale slaughter in any way compatible with the season of peace and goodwill?
No turkey wants to die, in the same way that no animal wants to die.
Equally, they will all want to avoid pain, as we all do.
Yet we slaughter them in mind-boggling numbers simply to satisfy a tradition, and to satisfy our taste buds.
And let us not forget (which we do, and often), killing an animal who doesn’t want to die, who is terrified at the prospect, who can smell the death of the slaughterhouse, who can hear the sounds of slaughter all around them, is no gentle matter.
There are no glass walls or even windows in slaughterhouses, and for good reason: If people could see how their farm animals meet their end, many would turn away from eating them.
The industry has always known this, which is why there are no school tours to slaughterhouses, and no guided tours for the meat-eating public.
Having a vegan Christmas means you won’t be participating in any animal suffering or brutal slaughter, and surely that has to be a good thing.
Gerry Boland
Keadue, Co Roscommon
War Games
The decision by the International Olympics Committee to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics is a global disgrace in my opinion.
How will the citizens of these countries ever find out how the rest of the world views the slaughter of Ukrainian citizens by Russian troops aided by Belarus?
Then you have Israeli troops slaughtering defenceless Palestinian citizens.
Yes, the killing of so many Israeli citizens was horrific and the surviving hostages must be returned, but the response of the IDF is disproportionate.
They are trying to liquidate all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It is genocide on a grand scale and as such, a war crime.
Israeli athletes, even under a neutral flag, which would be a cop out by the IOC, should not be allowed to participate in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
I have genuine sympathy for the athletes who have spent four hard years preparing for these Olympics, but I have greater sympathy for the families of the tens of thousands of Ukrainian and Palestinian people being slaughtered daily.
The International Criminal Court has been grossly incompetent in not declaring Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal, the evidence is on our screens every day.
John Fair
Castlebar, Co Mayo
Book is an ideal gift
Still searching for the ideal Christmas present? What about gifting a book or a book token?
Book shops throughout the country have an eclectic supply of books.
Reading exposes one to adventure, excitement, and knowledge.
Young people should always be encouraged to read a good book and, in the words of author Tom McCaughren, “discover the magic between its covers”.
Groucho Marks famously said that: “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend, inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
While a dog is a faithful companion, with a book in your hand you’re also in good company.
Groucho was a keen reader when poverty forced him to quit school at 12. He overcame his lack of formal education by becoming well-read.
Last week’s 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results show Irish students performed best in reading literacy among the 37 OECD countries and the 26 EU countries. Young Irish people are keen readers.
Great credit for Ireland’s love affair with books must go to the Irish authors, who make a huge contribution to the “Writers in School” scheme and inspire young people to read for pleasure.
There is an excellent public library service nationwide. Although Groucho insisted he would “never join any organisation that was willing to accept him as a member”, he regularly borrowed books from his local library, albeit under his real name, Julius Henry Marx.
Billy Ryle
Tralee, Co Kerry
Arms raised for war
Taking into account that the US economy benefits from in excess of €280bn worth of munitions exports each year, it should come as no great surprise that the US vetoed the recent UN Security Council demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
Additional beneficiaries of course include numerous ballistic missile and munitions manufacturers, such as the Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Corporation, etc who require a ready market for their weapons of mass destruction and death in order to make profits and remunerate their workforce.
Interestingly, despite 13 out of the 15 members of the UN Security Council voting in favour of an immediate ceasefire the US used its veto and the UK abstained.
It should be noted the only members of the Council with the power to use veto are the original founder members namely the US, China, France, Russia, and the UK.
Strange bedfellows. Makes one wonder what’s the point of the UN if not the prevention of future wars?
Patrick Murray
Dundrum
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