Please Keep Current

READING the Irish Voice, I feel it is stuck in a generation past. I would like to point out Debbie McGoldrick’s continuing writing of Bob Geldof as an example.

In the last issue, she wrote that he sold a total of 45 tickets for a concert in Italy — 45 tickets sold out of 12,000! That is pathetic by any standards. And then he had the nerve not to perform.

The listening public is aware that Mr. Geldof’s better days are behind him. Last year’s Live 8 was a disappointment, I think it’s safe to say. He shouldn’t even be worthy of press. I would like to remind readers this man has not had a hit since 1978.

And yet, with all apologies to Bono, he is probably the most talked about Irish rock star in the newspaper. Why?

I am amazed with the trend of Irish entertainment in the press recently. There are television shows with Irish themes, The Brotherhood and Entourage, and Irish movies with The Groomsmen and The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

There are plenty of new Irish faces in Hollywood such as Cillian Murphy, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Colin Farrell and Nora-Jane Noone. Musical acts include Flogging Molly, Damien Rice and the Corrs.

I spent most of the summer in Ireland and attended the Oxegen festival (not Live Aid) where Damien Dempsey, Artic Monkeys and the Strokes rocked. All recent and all current.

There appears to be a generational gap. I have absolutely no interest in Bob Geldof and except for the unlucky 45 fans, I don’t believe many people do either.

“Page 2” is more likely to report on the Virgin Prunes than Snow Patrol. You guys have done well in the past with the younger Irish acts. I think you should really consider going back to that format.

John W. Holland
Scarsdale, New York

SENIOR EDITOR DEBBIE McGOLDRICK RESPONDS:

Are you sure you’re reading the Irish Voice? Yes, we on occasion write about Bob Geldof, more for his much praised humanitarian works as opposed to his music.

But are you seriously suggesting we haven’t extensively covered actors such as Cillian Murphy, Jonathan Rhys Meyers or Colin Farrell? Bull! All three have received widespread coverage, and all have given interviews to the Irish Voice to promote various projects. Farrell especially is a “Page 2” staple, bless him. You say that Farrell the Corrs are “new acts,” when in fact they’ve been in the spotlight for years!

As for the films and TV shows you mentioned, guess you missed Sean O’Driscoll’s interview with Ed Burns, star and writer of The Groomsmen, in our issue dated July 19-25. The Wind That Shakes the Barley was also reported on extensively, though it still does not have a U.S. release date.

And The Brotherhood? You must have skipped over Sean O’Driscoll’s glowing review, a lead story in the “Craic” section, in an early July edition.

My favorite show on TV is Entourage, and if it has an Irish theme please let me know what it is – other than the odd occasions when Ari curses out Eric as a little Irish “so and so.”

You should probably catch up on all the Irish Voice issues you missed while at the Oxegen festival in Ireland.

Irish Anti-Semitism

THERE is no question that the Irish/Irish Americans and Ireland are anti-Israel/anti-Semitic (in general and more so than most.) I do believe it is due to the “Jews killed Christ” mentality.

Here is a posting on The Irish Times site that I would like to see reprinted in the Irish Voice. At least the “Jew killed Christ” Catholic (Irish Catholic) mentality should be explored.

“I often ponder why Ireland is so much on the forefront of the anti-Israel coalition. And then I think back to my childhood days growing up in Terenure, Dublin, in the early 1950s, and I recall being told by the kids in the street that “I killed God,” when I was still too young to understand what they meant.

“Those were the days when an Irish Jew couldn’t get a summer job in the post office, because there were ‘no temporary positions,’ only to find that there was a job for the next guy in line, a Catholic.

Ireland was one of the last European countries to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. This was explained to me once by a Catholic friend, Seamus (or Shimmy, as I called him), who told me that his priest had explained that Israel shouldn’t exist because God had ‘punished the Jews and taken away their country.’

“With our shoeless legs dangling in the Dodder river (after fishing for pinkeens with a jar and a bottleneck), Shimmy once said to me, ‘I’m worried about you. When I die I’m going to go to heaven, but what will happen to you?’ This is what Shimmy had been taught at home, and I was by then 14, and already knew what anti-Semitism was.

“The problem with Ireland is that anti-Semitism and other forms of racism are too deeply ingrained in the Irish culture. That is why the Dublin street marches against Israel are a bit more extreme than elsewhere in Europe, the slogans are a bit more vile, and the marchers a bit more radical in their anti-Israel chants.

“Ireland has quite a bit of soul cleansing to do before its criticism of Israel gains any legitimacy. It should first turn a critical eye on itself. A land of saints and scholars it is not.

“Ehad Haam, an Irish Israeli.”

Patrick McVeigh
Floral Park, New York

Marriage Yet Again

I WOULD like to offer a few thoughts on Joseph P. Fanning’s letter which appeared in the July 26-August 8 issue where he attempted to justify a loving union between any two people regardless of sex as being entitled to the term marriage.

In his letter he tries again to establish an equivalency between different types of love relationships, which if accepted, would then justify the term marriage. Unfortunately for him, there is no such equivalency.

The objective reality of the love union between a man and a woman with the singular purpose of procreation is the design of God. It is not a creation of man.

Creations of man require defending, as Mr. Fanning with his long meanderings illustrates. Creations of God need no defense. The term used by mankind to describe that matchless and unique-unto-itself union of man and woman is marriage.

If words have no inner meaning, then humans can’t communicate intelligibly to each other.

Whatever type of union Mr. Fanning wishes to create with another man, he can call it what he likes, but he can’t use the term marriage. It has already been assigned to a specified and unique reality. I don’t use the word stone to describe a piece of wood.

Mr. Fanning in his letter also engages in the modern day game of changing the terms in the debate. This blurs the reality underneath and clarity is lost.

Just like in the life issues where abortion is now called choice, so now in the marriage issue loving relationship is now called marriage regardless of sex. Personal choice is another term that all of a sudden endows any type of union with the title marriage.

History shows that the human mind has endless ways of justifying the distortions of reality to suit one’s own perceived version of reality. If we deny objective truth then we wind up with individualized versions devoid of common purpose resulting in a world of chaos. That is not the world I wish to live in.

John Rogers
Voorhees, New Jersey