Opinion

Sinn Féin’s empty words and crocodile tears fooling no-one

Grief is certain. When it hits it overwhelms us. It turns our world upside down and nothing will ever be the same again. When that grief occurs because of the murder of a loved one it concurrently sparks a quest for justice.


Last week the families of those murdered by the Omagh bomb lost hope in what was possibly their last chance at getting justice for that evil atrocity that robbed 29 people of their lives.  

The year 1998 was our anno mirabillis but for the people of Omagh it was their annus terribillis.


The civil courts could prove the guilty but not imprison them and so they walk the streets like so many ‘freedom fighters’ before, going about their daily lives while their victims lie buried in the ground.

The bomb was the weapon of choice for the IRA.


How bombing Omagh was going to free Ireland is beyond all comprehension.


Their political counterparts SF clearly supported the IRA but supposedly not the real IRA. Why?   Had they not the same objective?  Did they not employ the same methods? Why should they think differently of these ‘soldiers’? 


Sinn Féin’s empty words and crocodile tears fool no-one.

We as a society in our clamour for normality turned our eyes away from the suffering of these people. 


Every vote given to Sinn Féin is an acceptance of their version of a war, in which they killed their own people.


Every single vote is an endorsement, encouragement and an affirmation of the need for those murders. Those who rewarded them with their vote because of their change of stance are now taking part in the everlasting SF ‘after party’.  

Sinn Féin must be have information in relation to this mass murder. How could they not.


Today SF are very good at telling people with information to go to the PSNI. The republican movement has had no difficulty in the past informing on their own, why not now? 


Futile empty condemnation is not enough – a man is judged by his actions and not his words.  

If Sinn Féin want to move forward then they need to show genuine remorse for the terrible atrocities carried out by those they represented.


I admit they are trying in their rhetoric and there are symbolic gestures but they should utilise their strong position and harness their very evident energy to demand the inquiry that the secretary of state has rejected.  


For the people of Omagh that might go a some way in showing genuine remorse – more substantive than shaking hands with queens and princes. 

DENISE JOHNSTON


Magherafelt, Co Derry

No place for religious metaphysics in 21st century discussion

It seems distinctly paradoxical that a person whose profession relies so profoundly on facts should embrace concepts which have no factual basis but are wound up with myth and superstition.

Prof Rooney (February 24) invokes original sin, the Marian apparition at Lourdes and the ‘soul’ to uphold his views on abortion. His poorly judged alignment of scientific expertise and religious metaphysics has rendered his argument ineffectual and desultory.

He lectures us on conception as the moment a ‘soul’ is created, yet fails to mention stem cell research. As a Catholic he is well aware of his Church’s view on this subject – it condemns such research as it considers it to be the equivalent of abortion because an embryo is destroyed.

The process involves the destruction of an embryo which has been cultured ‘in vitro’ for two to three days, at which stage it is called a blastocyst consisting of approx. 150 cells. We have not the slightest reason to believe that such embryos have the capacity to suffer pain (they have no brains or neurons).Yet stem cell research has the potential to find cures for the most horrible of diseases like cancer, and relieve the suffering of millions of sentient beings. But its progress has been hindered by religion. Why? Because some religions consider that a ‘soul’ is created at the moment of conception (incidentally this is something which previous theologians have disputed, eg St Anslem).

It seems that a few cells with no capacity to feel pain trumps that of fully formed humans suffering the most terrible of diseases.

But occasionally embryos split and become identical twins, or two embryos fuse and become one (a chimera). What happens to the souls in these instances, if the soul is created at conception? Does one soul become two or two become one? The mathematics is unimportant but hindering such development is immoral.


It’s time we admit that religious metaphysics has no place in a 21st century discussion on matters of scientific advancement.

Prof Rooney’s argument imploded once he allowed his religious beliefs to override 50 years of professional knowledge.

DANNY TREACY


Templepatrick, Co Antrim

Good republicans, good Brits?

I listened to Stephen Nolan on (February 29) which started off about the election result but soon stopped on the subject of Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy and tax evasion. Nolan wanted to know if Mr Murphy was a ‘good republican’ even if he failed to pay tax that would be used for treating sick people, very emotive.

I wondered, tax avoidance by being efficient and slipping the money to an off shore account to minimise the amount one has to pay to the revenue, does that not also deprive the NHS of needed money? Not to mention the roads that have to be maintained – the rich love to drive their cars on the roads and complain regularly about the pot holes. Perhaps if they paid their fair share then the roads could be fixed.

It is rumoured that the BBC ‘talent’ can arrange to have their ‘fees’ paid into off shore accounts that are registered as businesses that employ the ‘talent’ at a lowly wage that attracts minimum taxation. A good question might be are those Brits that practice this tax efficiency, are they good citizens?

PATRICK J DORRIAN


Belfast BT15

Russia a novice compared to Daesh

James McCormack’s letter ‘Shame on Russia’ (February 26) is commendable when he condemns Russia for ‘raining bombs down on war-weary civilians in Aleppo City. But Russia have been in Syria for just four months James, while this war has being going on for five years.

I would agree that we need peace along with a new power structure in Syria but I don’t think I have to remind readers of the brutality carried out by the various ‘moderate’ rebels in that unfortunate country since 2011. Priests have been shot dead – others beheaded – and thousands of Christians have been slaughtered, far more if the Syrian Arab Army wasn’t protecting them.


But James is right. Instead of terror groups like Daesh being funded, armed and trained by some western countries they should stop prevaricating and wipe them out once and for all Russia are novices compared to Daesh, Al - Nusra Front and others in Syria and some countries should know better by arming these terror groups. 250,000 died before the Russian military decided


to act.  

Padraig O Feinnain

Belfast BT14