Ireland’s Real Enemy 

PRESIDENT George W. Bush’s recent visit to Ireland was the focus of unusual media attention due to the protest of two people in particular. 

Carole Coleman, an RTE journalist, was hailed by some for interrupting President Bush, choosing not to sit passively through his stock answers. Fergal Cavanaugh, a senior counsel and author of a newspaper ad critical of the Iraqi prison situation, was lauded for his challenge of the president. 

There was nothing particularly objectionable about either protest. Who, after all, wants to hear a politician drone on and say nothing? 

American presidents are used to protest. Protests, after all, gave rise to the U.S. and are enumerated in our Declaration of Independence. 

What happened in Ireland was ironic because protests of this nature are rarely if ever directed to those acting in Ireland on behalf of Her Majesty’s government that, arguably, has done a lot more harm to Ireland and its people then certainly any U.S. president. 

If you compare just a few of the issues listed in our Declaration of Independence you can see there are compelling reasons for the Irish media and legal community to direct similar protests when a British official next visits. This list references actions by the English king, but you can readily see how little British oppression tactics have changed with the passage of time. 

”He has dissolved representative bodies of elected leaders. The Northern Ireland Assembly has been dissolved longer than it functioned. 

”He has obstructed the administration of justice.” The cases of Rosemary Nelson, Pat Finucane, Robert Hamill to name but a few. 

After two years of reviewing a million pages of documents and conducting thousands of interviews, the U.S. has now produced a report depicting the facts leading up to September 11 and its immediate aftermath. Britain is now into its fourth year investigating an event of 30 plus years ago. 

Who’s kidding who? The British are seeking to escape their responsibility for those murders and others. 

If Ms. Coleman or Mr. Cavanaugh could direct some of their energy and challenges to Prime Minister Tony Blair and other ministers charged with governing the Northern Ireland colony, two things might happen. First, the world might see what a farce the British government is making of the Belfast Agreement. Secondly, the Irish government and people might see how they have been used and taken for saps. 

Perhaps some Irish people will actually see the U.S. as not as bad as the tyrant on their doorstep. 

Michael J. Cummings 

Member, National Board, 

Irish American Unity Conference 

Albany, New York

Lip Service

NEWS that the Democratic Party platform only pays lip service to the concerns of Irish Americans should be no surprise. The Democrats have become so worried about every offending anyone on this issue that they have lost all sense of how important it is to us.

Let the Irish American leaders get together and suggest some very concrete things they want the Kerry team to do if elected. Among them — who would they name as special envoy, what would they do about our deportees, and what kind of immigration legislation will they introduce to help our undocumented.

And the same questions should be put to the Republican side also.

Thomas Kelly

Scranton, Pennsylvania

Lighten Up 

NO one cares a fig about what the Democratic or Republican party platforms say on Northern Ireland. When was the last time any major policy was enunciated in a party platform anyway? We all know it’s just a catch all document designed to keep everyone in the one tent.

After all, if you read the party platform on Iraq all it says is that people of goodwill differ on whether it was right to go to war. This at a time when the Democrats should be saying loud and clear that the war was wrong from start to finish.

So let’s not get hot and bothered over what the platform says. The real evidence will be how a President Bush or Kerry deals with this issue. 

As always the proof will be in the pudding, not in the nonsense leading up to the election.

Patricia Cahill

Toledo, Ohio

Smoking Compromise

I’VE been reading with interest about the smoking ban revolt in Ireland, which I predict will be a full-fledged war sooner rather than later.

I was in the country a couple of months ago for a short visit. I am an occasional smoker, usually when meeting up with friends in a bar. 

This I did when I was in Ireland, and not being able to enjoy a cigarette and a pint together in a country where it used to be a ritual was very strange indeed. It took the joy out of going out for a couple of drinks. The pub experience in Ireland is completely changed, and for the worse, I think.

Why would it be so unreasonable to have a separate room where smokers could drink their drinks? Both in this country and in Ireland we’ve heard the reasons why smoking is so bad — and it’s hard to argue with the medical facts — but not once have I seen a reasonable answer as to why smokers-only rooms are not acceptable compromises.

The people I know in Ireland are not at all happy about the smoking ban. When the harsh winter approaches, the time of year when no one wants to be outside for a second, I suspect their protests will become louder, and taken more seriously.

It seesm that our society continues to insist on rules and regulations that remove our individual freedoms to do whatever we wish to do wihout damaging others. Ireland now seems to be on the same slippery slope

John Meagher

Baltimore, Maryland