Will Leo now expel an Israeli diplomat?
I WAS taken aback by Leo Varadkar dancing to Theresa May’s tune by announcing that Ireland intended expelling a Russian diplomat. According to his security advisers (primarily Boris Johnson and MI5?) Russia was involved in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
The fact this act took place outside Ireland, with no Irish involvement whatsoever, means the Taoiseach has completely overstepped his remit as leader of this State.
It is always an admirable trait to stand up for your neighbours, but this is a completely different scenario to that of your neighbour over the fence or across the field.
We’re talking about taking sides in a spat between a former colonial power (England) which abused this country for centuries, and a superpower (Russia) which never – to my knowledge – carried out any illegal actions on this island. (Although that doesn’t make them saints either.)
I would like Leo to be more patriotic towards his fellow citizens, and educate himself to the fact that this furore over the use of a nerve agent to eliminate someone who defected to the other side, is just another flip-side to an ongoing espionage battle between powers that treat fellow humans as surplus to requirements when the need arises.
It is also about treating our neutrality with respect rather than contemptuously eroding it, as Leo has done, so as to be seen hobnobbing with the ruling classes.
Just remember, as a fact, that on Winston Churchill’s orders, thousands of Syrian/Iraq/Gaza civilians died in their villages in 1917, when General Edmund Allenby fired 10,000 cans of asphyxiating gas at the purported enemy.
The British also used a mixture of unidentified gases against nationalists during the Troubles in the North, which resulted in vomiting, coughing up blood and respiratory problems.
Would Leo like to comment on this crime against humanity?
Britain continually refuses to forward documents that would implicate British security personnel’s involvement in the DublinMonaghan bombings. Would Leo like to comment on that?
In the past week, Israel’s armed forces have killed 18 Palestinians who were protesting about the illegal confiscation of their lands. Will Leo now expel an Israeli diplomat, seeing that he is so concerned about what takes place on foreign soil?
JAMES WOODS, Co. Donegal.
No always means No!
ONCE again, the forthcoming referendum concerning an emotive issue has sparked debate as to whether we, the electorate, can trust politicians. I’m afraid that history is screaming a resounding, ‘NO’, back at us.
Take the referendum on abolishing the Seanad, for example. I, like many others, was convinced by those opposed to abolition to vote for retention on the understanding that significant reform was in the pipeline.
We were given to believe that in future WE were going to decide the composition of the upper house. No longer would the Seanad be a generously remunerated soapbox/rest home for would-be TDs rejected in general elections.
Not only has the status quo been maintained, it appears to be a case of ‘as you were’ with a flavouring of nepotism and a sprinkling of party in-fighting added.
Do our politicians take us for complete idiots? They appear to have great difficulty understanding that when we reject them at the polling booths we mean that we don’t want them, full stop. In short, that ‘NO!’ means ‘NO!’ EUGENE CASSIDY,
Co. Cavan.
Let’s join Commonwealth
TOMORROW sees the start of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia. It runs until April 15 and 6,600 athletes and officials will take part.
Among these athletes will be representatives from Northern Ireland, but none from the Irish Republic, and that is a great shame. Our diaspora of 80,000,000 makes up a sizable portion of the populations of countries like Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, etc, and these people are entitled to see athletes from their motherland.
The population of the Commonwealth is 2.3billion, compared to the EU’s 500million. Failing to capitalise on our diaspora shows the incompetence of this, and previous, Irish governments.
The Irish, through their blood, sweat and tears, have played a major part in the evolution of these countries, and are highly respected around the globe.
It is time we brought our country into the 21st century and joined the Commonwealth, even if it is only as guest participants.
I am sure we would get a ‘céad míle fáilte’ from its members.
JOHN FAIR, Co. Mayo.
Truth about Facebook
AFTER all the revelations about Facebook’s harvesting of personal information, I decided to download all the data it has on me (go to Settings and click ‘Download a copy of your Facebook data’).
I was astonished to discover it has all the personal contacts from my mobile phone, which I wrongly thought were private.
I never knowingly agreed to give Facebook access to my phone, but there is a record of every call I made, with the date, time and duration. Printed out, it came to more than 150 pages.
DAVID WEST, Birmingham.