McAleese Spoke Truth

Critics and pro-Orange Protestant leaders publicly condemned President Mary McAleese. Why? Because she compared Protestant anti-Catholic beliefs and actions to those of the Nazi Party.

McAleese did not say that all Protestants in Northern Ireland were anti-Catholic. No fair-minded Catholic thinks that.

In the six counties, there are many Protestants who are not anti-Catholic. These brave Protestants, at their peril, publicly attempt to cement bonds between Catholics and Protestants.

A recent example would be Pastor Jeremy Gardner of the High Kirk Presbyterian Church. He and his parishioners showed Christ-like compassion by helping terrorized Catholics paint and repair their church.

But unfortunately, one rose a summer does not make. There is a Nazi connection to the beliefs and practices of the anti-Catholic Protestant Orange Order. For absolute proof, read in total the infamous Nazi anti-Jewish, Nuremberg Laws.

To briefly make the point, only a few of those unholy and bigoted policies will be cited. Please note that Orangemen and Nazis both took sacred oaths to adhere to and carry out their bigoted policies.

For example, no Nazi was allowed to marry a Jew. Today, no Orangeman may marry a Catholic. Both the Orange Order and the Nazis, to maintain superior bloodline, discriminated, the Nazis against the Jews and the Orangemen against the Catholics.

The Orange Order forbids any Catholic bloodline. To be an Orangeman you must be Protestant, and both your mother and father must be Protestant.

These hateful practices are a Nazi-like attempt by bigoted Orange Protestants to define the Catholic as a morally corrupt second class citizen. In the past, the Nazis called the Jew “infidel” and “anti-Christ.”

Today, anti-Catholic Protestants like Ian Paisley also call Catholics the same degrading names. In the six counties, anti-Catholic public statements become a violent terrorist reality.

Catholic homes, churches and schools are pipe-bombed and firebombed on a daily basis. President McAleese spoke the truth. She should stand by her conviction, and we applaud her.

Hal Cousins,
Del City, Oklahoma

IRA Was Wrong

I read with interest Catherine Clarke’s letter “Time to Move On” in the August 31-September 6 issue. I was gratified to learn that her memory loss was of a temporary nature, as she appeared to concede that the IRA war was against the Protestants.

She correctly noted that there were 251 civilian casualties of the war in 1972. However, she stopped short of pointing out that of the 496 people who lost their lives in 1972, the majority died at the hands of Republicans. But let’s not go there.

Clarke expressed admirable sentiments about the Catholics and Protestants ruling the country together, but the reality is that the IRA took the war to the Protestants. They fought the war for 20 years, but failed to bring it to a conclusion favorable to them.

The IRA war was wrong. It could not be justified and when the Irish people got the opportunity in 1998 they nixed the IRA by voting to relinquish their territorial claim to Northern Ireland.

Finally, I think that the Protestants would have to be a very forgiving people if they were to just let bygones be bygones.

Peadar O’Fiach
Bronx, New York

Learn the Facts

John Spain’s article “The Humiliation of America” in the September 14-20 issue on President Bush and Hurricane Katrina was the most outrageous I have read. The ignorance and gullibility displayed belongs way up there with the worst.

Spain showed he knows nothing about state/federal government interaction in the American system. The fact that he lives in Ireland which hasn’t much of anything but crocked politicians does not excuse this ignorance. Bash Bush first, to hell with the facts.

Fact: The state governor is in control of the National Guard, not the president. Duh.

Fact: A declaration of emergency by the president authorizes the governor to activate the National Guard. Bush issued the emergency two days before Katrina hit. Duh.

Fact: Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco told Bush at a face to face meeting she needed 24 hours to think it through. The president can’t order the governor around like a puppy dog. Perhaps in your little island he could. Duh.

Fact: FEMA and Red Cross were poised to go in on the first day but were refused permission by local officials. The president has no authority to override this. Duh.

Fact: An emergency plan exists in writing in the hands of the mayor and governor and local officials. It tells when, how and what to do. The president has nothing to say about it. Duh.

The facts now emerging show that the local officials blew it big time.

Mr. Spain, you and your cohorts will not define this tragedy from 3,000 miles away. You stuck your nose in where it does not belong, especially when you are in a state of invincible ignorance.

John Rogers
Voorhees, New Jersey

Why Were They There?

OH my! The Colombia Three are back in the headlines again.

Were we supposed to forget them? After all, they did receive the appellation the “Colombia Three,” which in the jargon of Sinn Fein means the are indeed victims.

They are soldiers in the cause of Irish freedom. There were calls to “Bring Them Home,” which strongly implies that they were somehow “forced” to be in Colombia. Hmm . . . were they kidnapped?

But we should forget all this, and chalk it up to another instance of British propaganda. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said the Three were “not our people,” until a picture of himself on the speaker’s podium with one of the so-called “bird watchers” appeared.

Journalists, diplomats, politicians, jurists and millions of just plain people just ask the very simple question — why were they there?

Aw, come on folks, aren’t we coming on a little too strong? Why can’t a few munition specialists wander into South America to partake of the joys of nature?

Joseph Delaney
Montclair, New Jersey

Home Rules!

I Just moved home two weeks ago and just wanted to say to all the Irish in New York to move home now.

Believe it or not, home is the land of opportunity. I am a joiner from Co. Down, and I have been offered more work than I can imagine.

Over in the U.S. I was struggling to drive a mate’s car which was brilliant. But here i can get 10 cars if I want. I can get a house, a pension and all the stuff you forget about living over there.

I am 30 years old and had a blast in New York City, but I am very happy to be stress free living in good old Co. Down.

Eamonn Dolan
Down, Northern Ireland

Irish Sickening

I have contacted my two senators, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, and put on the record my annoyance with the Irish attitude towards the U.S. after Hurricane Katrina, as articulated by John Spain, who becomes more and more annoying by the week.

I do not want to see one more penny of U.S. money going anywhere near Ireland, a nation that is by and large populated by ingrates. Why should our tax dollars go towards supporting jokes like the International Fund for Ireland, one of the wealthiest nations in the world?

And my advice to U.S. businesses investing in Ireland is to come home and support the local economy here. It might be more expensive, but Americans are just laughingstocks over there, taking our money all the way to the bank.

It sickens me that the land of my ancestry could be so horrible.

Marilyn McGrath
Albany, New York