Republican News · Thursday 30 January 2003

Rubbish at City Hall

A Chairde,

I have to say it's disgraceful the rubbish which came from City Hall last week. I am in total disagreement with the fact that Minister Martin Cullen has the power to sack City Councillors (our elected representatives), and appoint his own people to run the City Hall.

Combine this with the fact that the same minister has already taken away planning powers from local government, planning powers which can decide whether or not an incinerator will go in a certain area, and we have a picture of a state heading towards an 'elite' partnership where local council decisions can be dismissed by national politics, which does not have any sense of emotion or feeling for local issues.

However, what has amazed me more is not Minister Cullen's antics but Mayor Dermot Lacey's.

Why is it that all of the Labour Party, with the exception of Dermot Lacey, voted against the proposed increase in the bin tax. Why didn't he vote with his party? Does Dermot Lacey have his own agenda? (Yes, it seems the homeless is his issue!).

There are a number of things that baffle me about the mayor's approach to all this.

If my boss tells me to do a job and I don't do it, I would be sacked. So if Dermot Lacey did not do his job and vote with the Labour Party, he should be sacked. Will he be? I don't think so.

But maybe he's a nice man after all. As he puts it, the bin charges are not as serious an issue as the homeless. This just sounds like sidetracking though.

Charlie Haughey's shirts were not as serious an issue when we took into account the state of the nation.

Michael Lowry's political donations were not as serious an issue when we considered the benefits of Esat investment.

Raymond Darling,
Dublin 9

Bohs on right track

A Chairde,

I just wanted to write to say how welcome it was to read Bohemians manager Stephen Kenny's comments in the programme for last Sunday's end-of-season match against Derry City.

Complimenting Derry on their success to date, given their limited resources, Kenny wrote: "Derry is a club with a fascinating history and will be significant in the future development in the league as it evolves to become a 32-county league. Their chairman Jim Roddy is central to this and in my view has a major role to play in its future."

I just hope that the imprimatur of the manager of the championship-winning side will speed this process up. Soccer in the Six Counties has for too long been a one-sided sectarian show, with Cliftonville as the single put upon nationalist team in the top division.

all-Ireland league would help dilute the ugly sectarian face of soccer in the Six Counties as well as offering greater variety for fans across the country.

Olive Sloan,
Ballybrack,
County Dublin

Euro reality

A Chairde,

Congratulations to the delegates to the Felons conference on the EU (An Phoblacht 16 January) on taking the progressive step of proposing Six-County entry to the Eurozone. (If passed at the Ard Fheis, we should push for entry before Britain).

While I still wish that Ireland had not voted for the centralising treaties of Maastrict, Amsterdam and Nice (after a perfectly legit result was ruled offside!) I think the phrase 'critical engagement' is misleading to the wider public, whose support we have to win, as it suggests defensive, reluctant acceptance of EU reality rather than the positive promotion of democracy and equality in both Ireland and the EU.

The theme could be something like (A Democratic Ireland in a Democratic Europe) or (An Ireland of Equals in a Europe of Equals) - not very original I Know. Maybe summed up in a pithy soundbite like EuroEquality or Euquality - Jaz, this is gettin worse! Clearly we need some more creative thinking on this one!

Sean Marlow,
Internet Cafe,
Santiago de Cuba

Sanctions for some

A Chairde,

In your issue of 23 January, you carry a report about the visit of a Sinn Fein TD to the "Shannon Peace Camp", which you illustrate with some photographs of Sinn Féin protesters with signs bearing the message: Sinn Féin says Lift the sanctions. No to war on Iraq.

This may strike some as a noble sentiment, especially in view of the fact that sanctions tend to have little adverse impact on the leaders of countries who are its presumed target, and are borne disproportionately by those who are on the lower end of the economic and political scale.

So it would seem somewhat incongruous to learn that Sinn Féin have been calling for sanctions against Israel. In the 11 April 2002 issue of An Phoblacht, you carry the following quote from Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD: "I am calling on the government to call for EU trade sanctions to send a very clear signal to the Israeli government that their activities are unacceptable to the international community.

"The EU has already played a leading role in supporting the legitimacy of the Palestinian state, they should follow up on this commitment with the imposition of economic sanctions against Israel."

Presumably, therefore, sanctions per se are not the problem. Does Sinn Féin imagine that sanctions, which levy such hardships on ordinary Iraqis, will permit ordinary Israelis to avoid such a fate? Or does Sinn Féin simply not care?

Must one conclude that while the activities of Israel are "unacceptable to the international community", those of the Iraqi government are somehow less egregious or more acceptable?

Given that the sanctions on Iraq were actually imposed by the same international community, why are Sinn Féin against them? Hoping someone can shed some light.

Mel Grimes,
Woodside, NY,
USA