Secular politics please
A chairde,
I am glad Gerry McGeough (An Phoblacht 16 September) has clarified that his use of the term ``Keep the Faith'' in his review of Towards a Celtic Church (An Phoblacht 2 September) was a ``pun in the context of the article''. ``Nuance'' cannot apply to references to the ``swathes of republican and nationalist faithful'' driven from the Catholic Church or ``the most loyal Catholic communities''. Gerry explains their abandonment of the Catholic Church as due to the anti-republicanism of Cahal Daly and other members of the hierarchy. There is a lot of truth in that but this does not explain why much wider sections of Irish society have abandoned Catholicism. Republicans and nationalists are also part of that wider society where obedience to an authoritarian church is no longer a social imperative and where the intellectual straitjacket imposed by Rome has been cast off. We have witnessed the decline of the Catholic Church - and of other Churches - as institutions of social control in alliance with the State. The separation of Church and State in the 26 Counties - not yet quite complete - is one of the most positive developments in our recent history.
I refute Gerry's allegation that I was advocating censorship. My argument is not that the book in question, or others like it, should not be reviewed, but that in a paper such as ours, and given the acute need to stress at all times the secular nature of our politics, great care must be taken as to the point of view from which such material is assessed. On re-reading the review I cannot but repeat that there is an assumption therein that all the reviewer's republican readers are either Catholics or `lapsed Catholics'.
I was more than mildly amused at Gerry's concluding salvo which put me in the ranks of the ``Papists Out'' brigade in the Six Counties. The last time I looked in my political baggage I saw no Orange sash or bowler hat.
Mícheál MacDonncha
Baile Atha Cliath.
Fermenting revolution
A chairde,
The geographic concentration of unionist culture on this island is such that it would be folly to try to unite Ireland through war. A new war would inevitably lead to the ethnic cleansing of the Six Counties West and East of the Bann. Militant republicans who criticise the Agreement must ask themselves whether their efforts will only destroy the fragile relations between both communities and lead us toward the repartition of Ulster.
In my view, the principal problem with partition, and by extension therefore with the Agreement, is that it divides Ulster. Rather than risking breaking Ulster again we need to explore means by which it might be built-up and re-constituted into a nine county unit.
Within a European context, Brussels is slowly becoming the mother parliament of Europe such that national level parliaments are assuming the appearance of regional conglomerations. Within each grouping (take Germany for instance) regions such as Bavaria have strongly independent regional identities, while within Bavaria, Franconians see themselves as separate again. Throughout Europe there is in fact highly complex sets of cultural and regional relationships. The skill is to reconcile these identities through rational regional frameworks.
The Agreement, with all its flaws, was all that was possible at the time and it is in fact all that we are left with. To reject it now will open a door to dangerous instability; an instability that young men will pay for with their lives and society at large will pay for in terms of retrenched hostility and mutual suspicion. We desperately need to build on what we have, as fragile as those relations may seem. The starting point has to be the putting in place of a set of structures which allow politicians to begin communicating and building together i.e the implementation of the Agreement. It may be slow and frustrating, it may seem like being offered a grape seed and being asked to produce a bottle of wine:
But where else can one begin other than at the beginning? Many dissenters are in my view like merchants asking for the wine before the grape has come into season and then proposing that the vineyard be destroyed so that better vines can be planted. Time, belief and hard work is all that separates us from our dreams. If the merchants want wine then they must wait on the grape.
Paul Cassidy,
Monaghan
Lessons of 1981
A Chairde,
As a young person today, I feel it is essential that teenagers and school pupils should be educated on the Hunger Strikers and their struggle. As a Leaving Cert pupil, I study history. Our course lasts from 1870-1970. As the Hunger Strike does not come into this time period, we are unable to study it. I feel it is of vital importance that the youth of today are informed and educated on this era of time. I think the idea of forming `1981 Societies' is a very good idea and would be most successful in raising awareness about the struggle over the last 30 years.
Sinéad Travers (Ogra Shinn Féin),
Clonakilty,
Co Cork.
Illegal stockpiles
David Trimble admits: ``The presence of great stockpiles of illegal weapons are a symptom of paramilitarism, not its cause.'' Bingo, David! I couldn't agree with you more. Indulge me to carry that one step further. What might be the inherent cause of paramilitarism when surely the IRA at least could not have survived this long without strong community support? Could it be the failure of the government to provide a means for democratically resolving issues for all its citizens? Could it be the fact that the majority of the Catholic population deems your discredited police force to be not only a paramilitary wing of Unionist politics but totally unaccountable to ordinary citizens? What does this tell you? Implement the Good Friday Agreement now. Move forward. Form a democratic government and an accountable police service for the people of Northern Ireland or suffer the people governing and policing themselves.
Máire Kelly,
Texas
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