Irish Voice Letters to the Editor

IT was 40 years ago this summer when Limerick hurling finally showed signs of recovery, and hopes sprung aloud throughout the county that perhaps finally we might have a team that would see our proud hurling tradition hoist the Liam McCarthy Cup anew, a feat we hadn't completed since the great "Mick Mackey" and gang did it for us back in 1940.
IT was 40 years ago this summer when Limerick hurling finally showed signs of recovery, and hopes sprung aloud throughout the county that perhaps finally we might have a team that would see our proud hurling tradition hoist the Liam McCarthy Cup anew, a feat we hadn't completed since the great "Mick Mackey" and gang did it for us back in 1940.

While they were impressive en route to that year's Munster final, they were matched against a Tipperary team that had powered through the 1960s being regarded by many a hurling enthusiast as being the greatest hurling team of all time.

Needless to state, of course, that Tipperary were huge favorites on the day.

THE only reason Cormac MacConnell's column about Sarah Palin in last week’s issue would "get him into hot water" becomes obvious in his third paragraph wherein he utilizes The Almighty in a way that is sinful before all practicing Christians.
THE only reason Cormac MacConnell's column about Sarah Palin in last week’s issue would "get him into hot water" becomes obvious in his third paragraph wherein he utilizes The Almighty in a way that is sinful before all practicing Christians.

Indeed, I'm not surprised after returning from Ireland and hearing the name of God bandied about without hesitation or guilt.  Having said that, I'm also amazed at how poorly informed he and many Irish people are when it comes to the American election process now going on. 
Here in America, the economy and unemployment are at the top of the list. We Americans (both Democrat and Republican) are looking for a viable candidate with good administrative experience.

Palin, while a nice person, doesn't meet the criteria to save a nation brought down to its knees by the current administration (whether you like it or not). The press has been so mesmerized with Palin that it can't see the forest through the trees.

THE use of Shannon Airport by U.S. troops on their way to and from the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan has gained a good deal of coverage recently primarily thanks to the WikiLeaks stories in the Irish Independent.
THE use of Shannon Airport by U.S. troops on their way to and from the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan has gained a good deal of coverage recently primarily thanks to the WikiLeaks stories in the Irish Independent.

The new program for the Irish government says Shannon Airport should only be used in accordance with international law, and since the Hague Convention of 1907 which has been a cornerstone of law says neutral states cannot allow their territory to be used in a war (no U.S. Army planes land in Zurich Airport), the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) expects the Fine Gael/Labor government to live up to its promises.

Please visit www.globalintelligenceforum.com which promotes a conference on global intelligence (???) from July 11-13 in Dungarvan. The speakers include a former director of the CIA and many others.

HE’S at it again.  Cormac MacConnell, writing from 3,000 miles away, never a resident of the U.S. (as far as I know) yet still pontificating on Sarah Palin.
HE’S at it again.  Cormac MacConnell, writing from 3,000 miles away, never a resident of the U.S. (as far as I know) yet still pontificating on Sarah Palin.

Guess what, Cormac? You think you’ve got a right to weigh in because the U.S. president is the leader of the free world, as you say, but if I were you I’d worry about what’s going on in your bankrupt country first and foremost.

The leader of the free world didn’t cause the greed that resulted in your banks going bust and the value of your real estate falling through the floor.

MR. James V. Burke, in his letter "Real GOP Agenda" in last week's issue, gave us the absolute and final truth about the originators of evil and injustice in America, if not the whole world.  They are none other than Republican politicians and free enterprisers.
MR. James V. Burke, in his letter "Real GOP Agenda" in last week's issue, gave us the absolute and final truth about the originators of evil and injustice in America, if not the whole world.  They are none other than Republican politicians and free enterprisers.

On the other hand, he implies that there is no way you can be a good Christian unless you support public sector unions or any union backed by the Democratic Party.

The good Christian aspect of Mr. Burke's position is intriguing because I believe that the seventh commandment is very much at play here.  Buying Democratic politicians with union dues in return for gold plated contracts on pension rights, exorbitant health care benefits, work rules where workers can't get fired and having the entire unsustainable cost passed on to the taxpayers is nothing more than legalized stealing.

THE recent appointment of Ms. McArdle as a Sinn Fein adviser in the Stormont Assembly has caused a great deal of controversy and debate within the media and amongst politicians at home and abroad.
THE recent appointment of Ms. McArdle as a Sinn Fein adviser in the Stormont Assembly has caused a great deal of controversy and debate within the media and amongst politicians at home and abroad.

It has divided opinion as to whether it is morally right to appoint ex-prisoners to profile positions.  It has re-ignited the debate around how we deal with the past and reinforces the need to find a mechanism to start dealing with our past.

More importantly, it has shown that if you scratch the surface of victims and victims’ survivors, their wounds are still extremely raw.

JOHN Brennan’s letter to the editor entitled "Monumental Leap" (May 18-24) about the British and Irish burying the hatchet hit the nail on the head.
JOHN Brennan’s letter to the editor entitled "Monumental Leap" (May 18-24) about the British and Irish burying the hatchet hit the nail on the head.

You may want to hire him to write for your editorial page.  He may be America's answer to John Spain and Cormac MacConnell.

Nancy Murphy
Florence, Kentucky

THE Irish corporate media's coverage of the Windsor visit could not be described, no matter how broad a definition used, as “journalism.”
THE Irish corporate media's coverage of the Windsor visit could not be described, no matter how broad a definition used, as “journalism.”

Those that produced such one sided, sycophantic reports should hang their heads in shame. It exposed once again a complete lack of any credible mainstream media outlet willing to critically examine or question the political establishment line.

Their “journalism” consisted of article after article parroting the “consensus” of how great the English monarch is, how great this visit would be for us all and how anyone who questioned this consensus was a political dinosaur filled with hate and bitterness.

I AM writing in reference to the letter “Burn Donkey Abusers” by Eileen McNamara in the April 20-26 issue, about the donkey abuse in Limerick.
I AM writing in reference to the letter “Burn Donkey Abusers” by Eileen McNamara in the April 20-26 issue, about the donkey abuse in Limerick.

Mrs. McNamara thinks most COUNTRY people are ignorant and cold. Well, I was raised on a farm in Kerry and taught to respect all life, be it human or animal.

The people who abuse animals have a choice between good and evil. They choose evil.  They should be punished to the full extent of the law.

IT’S taken almost 10 years, but peace loving people around the globe can finally exhale and say that Osama's “bin laden” to rest, thanks in no small measure to President Obama.
IT’S taken almost 10 years, but peace loving people around the globe can finally exhale and say that Osama's “bin laden” to rest, thanks in no small measure to President Obama.

Sean McPhillips
College Point, New York

"ASSURANCES on export of greyhounds to China" will be given, according to the Irish Greyhound Board.
"ASSURANCES on export of greyhounds to China" will be given, according to the Irish Greyhound Board.

This spells out the controversy surrounding the board’s proposal to export Irish greyhounds to China for racing, regardless of China's wretched record of animal welfare.

I can't think of much that would cast a bigger, darker shadow on Ireland than the photos and video that are bound to come back to haunt the Irish if this trade goes forward.  As Mark Beazley of the Dogs' Trust said, "These aren't bags of potatoes.”

MANY thanks to Tom Deignan for his generous mention of my part in the Great Irish Famine curriculum in his column “Beware Hunger for Government Reform” (April 27-May 4).
MANY thanks to Tom Deignan for his generous mention of my part in the Great Irish Famine curriculum in his column “Beware Hunger for Government Reform” (April 27-May 4).

Credit really must go to Ann Garvey who, as president of the American Irish Teachers Association (AITA), had the idea to mark the 150th anniversary of the Great Irish Famine by teaching children about its importance. She contacted Congressman Joe Crowley about introducing legislation to make the Great Irish Famine a strand in the New York State Human Rights curriculum.

AITA advocated, Crowley took up the project, and the curriculum was on its way.  The curriculum itself is 150 lessons that run to more than 1,000 pages of interactive and interdisciplinary lessons that provide instruction framed by the New York State learning standards.

I WATCHED President Obama's arrival in Ireland aboard Air Force One from CNN – who else? What would we do for true worldwide news without them and the BBC this side of the Atlantic?
I WATCHED President Obama's arrival in Ireland aboard Air Force One from CNN – who else? What would we do for true worldwide news without them and the BBC this side of the Atlantic?

If we were depending on Fox News, which really stands for "For Only Xenophobes" we wouldn't have a foggiest notion what occurs outside the GOP or along the Mexican border.

With all the financial pain Ireland has endured the past couple of years, it really did the heart good to see the throngs of parents and kids with smiling faces who lined the streets tenfold of Obama’s ancestral home of Moneygall in Offaly, and boy did the president lap it up.  You could clearly see he was he was in love with the audience as indeed, they were with him and his beautiful wife.

WE can be thankful for union-busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for making explicit the Republican agenda.  Phase one, already largely accomplished, involves steadily de-funding government through big tax cuts for the rich.
WE can be thankful for union-busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for making explicit the Republican agenda.  Phase one, already largely accomplished, involves steadily de-funding government through big tax cuts for the rich.

In phase two, Republicans use balanced-budget rhetoric as a political weapon to attack "entitlements," defined as every positive thing government does to benefit society.

And when our public sector has been cut to the bone, with working Americans effectively stripped of affordable health care, schools and retirement security, and the middle class lifestyle is a distant 20th century memory, the Republicans can move ahead with phase three -- more tax cuts for the rich.

LIKE many, I was quite impressed by President Obama’s cúpla focal included in his College Green oration.  However, I hope that the primary beneficiaries of the event were listening closely.

Obama’s appearance in Dublin was, after all, an advertisement for Failte Ireland.  The president, also, is likely to benefit from some footage as well.  This is perfectly legitimate, as increased tourism in Ireland and barring the GOP from the White House are worthy objectives.

While Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny also indulged in a bit of Gaeilge, I was somewhat repulsed his playing the “Irish” American card, patronizing “40-million” Americans.

ON July 8, 1981 my wife Norah McCabe was shot and fatally wounded by a plastic bullet.  The RUC denied any knowledge or any involvement in her killing, and were subsequently found to be lying when evidence in the form of a video recording was shown at the inquest into her death. 

It was also stated that the person who fired the fatal shot could not be identified.  A fact later found to be untrue.

In other words members of the RUC, including a chief inspector, James Crutchley, colluded in an attempt to hide the truth.

THE great waves of immigration from Ireland to America were just beginning when in May of 1836 a group of Irish Catholic men in New York and Pennsylvania formed a benevolent society called the Hibernians to help newly arrived immigrants.  

The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), as they became known, were linked to a group called the Defenders in Ireland, which fought oppressive British landlords and provided protection to priests.  A Mass at the Basilica of Old St. Patrick’s in New York last weekend marked the 175th anniversary of the AOH, the longest tenure of any such ethnic or fraternal organization in the U. S.

New Yorkers know well the Hibernians for their proud, full presence and long association with the St. Patrick’s Day parade.  Each St. Patrick’s Day New York’s archbishops remind Mass-goers of the Hibernians’ response in 1854 to the pleas of then Archbishop John Hughes to defend the original St. Patrick’s Church at Prince and Mulberry Streets against threats by Nativist bigots to burn it.  The Hibernian headquarters was nearby.   

MY dear father, an exiled Corkonian, was an activist in the IRA during the Troubles, and unlike Presidents Clinton, Bush, Jr. and Obama was no sofa samurai, having been awarded several medals for valor.

He was also a close personal friend of the martyred Lord Mayor of Cork Terrence McSweeney, his brother and their mother.  In fact, my first cousin is married to the first cousin of McSweeney.

In 1957 my father returned to Ireland and visited an embittered and tear-filled Mrs. McSweeney, who said that her son’s sacrifice was wasted and scantly appreciated, especially by Corkonians. How truly prophetic!

DURING the recent visit to Ireland by the Queen of England, President Mary McAleese in her wisdom extended invitations to five Ulster Defense Association (UDA) and Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) brigadiers to attend a wreath laying ceremony by the Queen at Islandbridge.

Jackie McDonald, one of the UDA/UFF brigadiers invited to the ceremony stated, "This represents progress and is a reward for work being done.  Others could learn from this."

In recently seen court transcripts, one of the UDA/UFF brigadiers invited to this ceremony was named as having been involved in the planning of the Greysteel massacre in Derry in 1993.

WHOEVER would have thought it possible?  At a time when it seems as if the rest of the world is hell bent on slaughtering each other, the Irish and the British have taken a monumental leap toward burying the hatchet.

I use the word monumental because the astonishing thing is that they are not trying to bury it in each other’s heads on this occasion! If ever there was a case of reverse psychology, then surely this is it.  Big time!

Everywhere else on the planet the cave men are out in force, hell-bent on proving that Allah or Jesus or Abraham or Christ or the Dali Lama or Jehovah or Billy Graham or the guy from Waco, or the apostle from Prosperous, Co. Kildare (Christy Moore) is the true God, and have the weaponry to prove it, enforce it, ram it down your throat and generally just wipe out all the heathens who don’t agree, won’t agree, can’t agree, refuse to see.

I WAS glad to see Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip enjoy their time in Ireland so much, and gladder still that violence didn’t destroy their historic trip.

The Irish people have come such a long way. They should be proud of the welcome they extended to the Queen, and she represented her country so well too.

It’s crazy for Britain and Ireland to be at odds with each other, given how close they are to each other geographically and so many other ways as well.  The Queen’s trip will undoubtedly bring the two sides even closer, and the people who continue to advocate on behalf of violence will have their toxic voices further silenced.

IN my youth growing up in Limerick I was led to believe, as were most of the young men and women of Ireland at that time, that most Americans were lazy, and because they were so lazy they had to wear Hawaiian shirts to cover their bulging waistlines.

When I finished school, I became a bartender at the Anner Hotel in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. From time to time a tourist bus filled with Americans would pull into the hotel parking lot, and out of these coaches would emerge the worst dressed people that you could ever imagine seeing.

It seemed to me then that Americans had either no taste for style, or they simply were just too rich to care. Of course, back then I was also of the idiotic assumption that there was no such thing as a poor American.

WHEN President Obama travels to Ireland next week, in between visiting his great-great-great-grandfather’s village of Moneygall and other events, he will undoubtedly face the chaffing issue of the country’s corporate tax scheme.

Currently under duress by the Franco-German alliance to consolidate their corporate tax base as a condition of the EU/IMF bailout, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny understands the harm this holds for Ireland, and adamantly rejected the idea as tax harmonization by the “back door.”

But at a international financial conference hosted by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Financial Times in Washington, D.C., French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde announced that she was “pleased” by her recent meeting with Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan because he signaled that Ireland was willing to negotiate, marking a “step in the right direction.”

WITH reference to Patrick Furey's letter on Shannon Airport in the issue of April 27-May 4, I  totally agree with him.

It is absolutely scandalous that Aer Lingus pulled out of the JFK to Shannon route for three months from the end of December to the end of March. Don’t tell me the numbers are not there to keep a full schedule of daily flights to Shannon.

All of Connacht and Munster as well as some of Leinster would use Shannon and thus avoid the terribly cramped Dublin Airport if the flights were available at the Clare airport.  Instead, you have a scenario where buses are shuttling people to the former, at all times of the day and night.