Alarmed by Mary Lou’s cry of ‘up the rebels’
HAVING listened to clips of Mary Lou’s speech at the Sinn Féin ard fheis, I was alarmed.
I don’t understand Irish but I do English, so what’s with the ‘Up the rebels’? This comes across to me as fighting talk even though we’re at peace. Is she praising all past violence or giving encouragement to dissident republicans? Philip Mann, Athlone, Co. Westmeath. SINN Féin’s delightful new leader, Mary Lou McDonald, says with puzzling authority that ‘the war is long over’.
Her ‘let’s forgive and forget’ nod to the terrorist’s long war instigated by Sinn Féin/IRA, might be considered not over when great uncertainty remains as to the intentions of the real leaders of Sinn Féin in places like Belfast and Derry.
Her coronation cuts little ice with those who remember the horror of those ‘Tiocfaidh ár lá’ days when bawled out by the same gunmen she quotes with such love today.
Robert Sullivan, Bantry, Co. Cork. AFTER another mass shooting in a US school it is now obvious new legislation on gun control is needed immediately. If a place of education cannot be seen as a safe, risk-free environment for students of all ages to be edified, God help America.
Vincent O’Connell, New Ross, Co. Wexford. LIKE many other viewers, I was greatly moved by the RTÉ documentary Condemned To Remember, in which Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental recalled his experience.
What an essential testimony given current efforts by organisations, individuals, and some national governments to deny or ‘revise’ the Holocaust, motivated either by a desire to suppress the truth for political reasons or to facilitate a revival of the very ideologies or forces that paved the way for Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
I was impressed by Tomi’s refusal to give in to hatred, his wish being to remind us that this really happened and to help ensure that it won’t happen again. Unfortunately, as he pointed out, the lessons of the Holocaust still haven’t been learned by sizeable numbers of human beings.
We need to focus on our own lives and where we live. The event, or series of events known as the Holocaust, began with suspicion born of ignorance, petty hatreds, and racial intolerance.
We see these forces at work today all around us. While visiting Dublin a few months ago I saw and heard – across a wide street teeming with shoppers – a pair of youths shouting foul names at a woman of another ethnic culture.
The same could have happened in any town or village in Ireland. The seeds of racism and zenophobia are all around us. We’ve got to make sure they don’t take root because, as Reichental reminds us: ‘Anyone can be a victim and anyone can be a perpetrator.’ John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co. Kilkenny. THE Government’s €116bn National Development Plan programme includes an investment of €285m to protect Ireland’s heritage sites and National Monuments with the OPW ensuring that these sites are conserved.
The programme also states that where feasible, additional sites and monuments will be acquired.
If the Government is to be taken seriously in its stated intentions, it must address the saga of the Moore Street battlefield site. Despite being the site where the rebels retreated to from the GPO in 1916, there is still uncertainty as to its future. It is unthinkable that this last remnant of the 1916 battlefield could fall to commercial development. Tom Cooper, Templeogue, Dublin 6w. DURING an interview last year, Joanne Cantwell, who will be taking over from Michael Lyster as the Sunday Game presenter on RTÉ, said she considered herself to be a journalist, not a celebrity.
Well said, Joanne, for these days there is far too much use of the ‘c’ word, with nobodies being turned into somebodies. I have just read of some TV3 presenters being described as stars. There is certainly no shortage of ‘stars’ who do not always shine!
Noel Coogan, Navan, Co. Meath. OUR Government has paid good money for experts to tell us that Ireland will lose €18bn if Britain leaves the EU.
Balderdash! I can confidently let you know that Britain will have another referendum and vote to remain. The voters who voted leave did not know what they were voting for.
Tom Mason, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin.