We’re right to side with EU instead of Britain
I SPOKE to a lady who was home on holidays from her place of work in London and I asked her what she made of the Brexit shenanigans.
Oh, isn’t it terrible what Brussels is doing to Mrs May and she’s only trying to do her best, she replies with the utmost concern spread over her fine features.
Without meaning to, I found myself explaining to this lady that Theresa May is far from being an innocent participant in the Brexit debacle, and being sympathetic to her plight only demeans our righteous political position.
She is the leader of the Conservatives & Unionist (which she clearly spelt out with Arlene Foster by her side sporting a smug grin) party, and it was those within her own political grouping who used devious anti-immigration analogies akin to what is contained in the BNP’s and National Front’s electioneering manifestos, using fancy words to camouflage the bile and hatred within.
The whole EU project is not a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but it has way more pluses than negatives for our island as a whole, which is why we hooked onto 27 other fully supportive economies rather than cuddle up to a colonising entity that continually harks back to when the empire laid down the rules.
This time little old Ireland’s ‘backstop position’ has delivered a sucker punch to the empire’s solar plexus. No, nay, never no more will they tell us what to do.
JAMES WOODS, Gort an Choirce, Dun na nGall.
Reject this deal
BRITAIN today has, to me, become stranger than fiction.
A democratic referendum was held for the people to decide whether Britain should remain in the EU, or leave. The British people voted to leave the EU.
When one leaves any organisation, or employer, there are no deals, restrictions or penalties imposed for leaving, it is as simple at that. It was therefore the duty, and responsibility, I may add, of the British prime minister to take Britain out of the EU.
Theresa May has, from the very beginning, conducted a course of deception on the British people, e.g. Brexit means Brexit – yes, her idea of Brexit, not the Brexit 17million-plus people voted for. Today, with the compliments of Theresa May, Britain is in abject turmoil, and chaos abounds in every facet of UK society.
The prime minister has deliberately created a political impasse, where she does not appear to understand the significance of the perilous situation Britain is now in. This bill Theresa May is offering to parliament must never be given authorisation.
HARRY STEPHENSON, Kircubbin, Co. Down.
Ireland’s opportunity
THERE is an aspect of Brexit that has been overlooked until it came to my mind with the change of manager and failure of an Irish national soccer team to score in the past number of matches, or indeed to make a success of any of the recent competitions in which Ireland had been involved.
One might hope (for the sake of international soccer in the Republic of Ireland) that numbers of foreign players (from the EU) in the Premier League in England will become less and less, with the departure of the UK from the EU.
Such a possibility would open the door for more Irish-born players to command places in Premier League teams in the years to come. For instance, if the ‘Bosman Rule’ had been enacted before 1995, the likes of Roy Keane (who had joined Manchester United in 1993), or indeed Johnny Giles (who joined Leeds United in 1963) and Liam Brady (first major game for Arsenal in 1973), or Niall Quinn (who signed for Manchester City in 1990) might never have been playing for those top English teams, as they would have had to compete with other quality players from France, Spain, Italy, etc.
In early 1990, when Roy Keane, then a player with Cobh Ramblers, was being considered as a possible signing by Brian Clough of Nottingham Forest, I went to watch the young Roy play in a game against Waterford at St Colman’s Park in Cobh.
The away team won 3-1, and I was not very impressed with the ‘world-class Cobh player’. And yet Roy was to shoot up in the soccer world when he moved to England.
How many more potential Premier League players from League of Ireland teams are being overlooked by the top English team scouts, who consider that paying astronomical sums for ‘proven’ European soccer players (like Paul Pogba of Manchester United, who was bought for a record £90million from Juventus) are a better bet than many unknown young players still plying their trade in lowly Irish teams?
TOM BALDWIN, Midleton, Co. Cork.
SF’s big dilemma
IT would be great fun if Mary Lou McDonald dragged her fellow conflicted folk over there to London for a sharing of allegiance.
Her entourage could be introduced to the House of Commons as ‘the honourable representatives from places in Ireland anxious to come back to us’.
The flip-flopping of Sinn Féin means anything could happen, and sure wouldn’t it be lovely?
Michelle O’Neill eventual Speaker of the House? I can’t wait.
ROBERT SULLIVAN, Bantry, Co. Cork.