Manus McDaid (December 30) believes “the republican movement is striving to stay true to the Good Friday Agreement”.
Does that include the GFA declaration that Northern Ireland in its entirety remains part of the United Kingdom?
Manus posed the question, “What does one do when meeting an obdurate administration that has no concern for the hardship it inflicts on people?”
He also mentioned the ‘dirty war’.
Having wantonly inflicted the terror and suffering of the armed struggle/‘dirty war’ on people, are republicans in a position to throw ‘poor mouth’ stones at the ‘Brits’? Have we lost all sense of national self-respect?
MALACHY SCOTT
Belfast BT15
Don’t exclude an evolution of attitude over attending centenary
I am sure that nearly everyone in Ireland will wish Arlene Foster well in her position as First Minister and DUP leader and in dealing with issues both of substance and of symbolism. Everyone has to make progress as they can and realistically it was hardly to be expected that her first step would be to announce she would be attending the commemoration of the centenary of the 1916 Rising in Dublin, before she had time to establish confidence in her leadership with her political support base. However, that is not to exclude an evolution of attitude, depending on other things, as time goes by.
I have little doubt that whatever government is in power in Dublin at the time will be represented at a very high level in 2021 to mark the centenary of the opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament by King George V, whose speech on June 22 provided the overture to the Truce in the War of Independence on July 11. This will be notwithstanding the many reservations still felt about partition, about the type of government that lasted for the next 50 years and indeed the threat of armed revolt and unconstitutional action that brought it into being. Notwithstanding unionist reservations about the manner in which an independent Irish State came into being and indeed its subsequent character, there is an increasing public expectation that a degree of mutual and reciprocal respect and parity of esteem should be afforded to the formative events important to both the unionist and nationalist traditions.
As the 90th anniversary of the Rising in 2006 showed, Britain was represented by its ambassador on the reviewing stand, and since then the queen made an important gesture in the Garden of Remembrance dedicated to those who fought and died for Irish freedom. As a former imperial power, Britain has learned to become relaxed about revolts leading to independence.
As Eamon Phoenix has documented in his column, Pearse and Connolly a couple of months before the rising instructed the Belfast volunteers that there were to be no attacks in the north. The rising also had no bearing, nor was it meant to, on the course of the First World War. One could even maintain that it was the unionist example of arming volunteers and illegally importing arms that facilitated nationalists who wanted to follow suit, and the historian, the late Peter Hart, argued tongue in cheek that leading unionists might deserve some statuary recognition as being among the creators of Irish independence.
MARTIN MANSERGH
Tipperary, Co Tipperary
Entirely right to challenge Invest NI on spending
I am writing in response to an article in The Irish News (December 22) in which Invest NI were challenged on their hospitality spend.
Invest NI do have a tough job to do but they also have significant resources at their disposal which are derived from taxpayers’ money.
It is entirely right that they are challenged on what appears to be a completely excessive hospitality spend. Invest NI should be judged on results. I am happy to give them time to deliver but I am concerned about the sounds coming from them.
Jim Allister MLA was right to question the spending. Indeed he has been one of the few MLAs to scrutinise every department and arms-length body and in doing so has unearthed much that the public was unaware of. But how dare Invest NI in response point the finger at this MLA and ask him to do more to attract investment and send business to them.
Invest NI’s response shows that they are an organisation unwilling to shoulder responsibility.
Jim Allister, as one of the few looking out for public finances, has every right to ask tough questions. Invest NI’s playground retort belies a problem at the heart of their approach.
DAVID PATTERSON
Banbridge, Co Down
In total agreement
I SHARE the view of Patrick Dempsey ‘Who can I vote for?’ (January 7).
I totally agree as I cannot vote for SDLP or Sinn Féin due to their support for same-sex marriage and abortion.
I am quite sure an awful lot of people who voted for them previously think the same way.
PATRICK O'HARA
Newtownabbey, Co Antrim
