Anne Quinn (July 29) accuses me of lambasting Sinn Féin and complains she has never read a letter from me castigating the root cause of the problem – Britain. It is ironic that the date that letter was printed an opinion poll in the 26 counties indicated that if a poll was held there two-thirds of the electorate would be in favour of a united Ireland.
The significance of that was given more prominence in headlines north of the border than south where establishment parties do not wish to interfere with the status quo. The significance of it is this. The electorate in the south is approximately 3,300,000 while the electorate in the north is around 1,260,000.
This means that if there was an all-Ireland poll, or separate polls north and south, that if all the people in the six counties voted against a united Ireland, which isn’t a realistic scenario, that they would still be a minority on the island as a whole. However, Sinn Féin in signing up to the GFA has given a majority in the six counties a veto over constitutional change.
Anne would peddle the view that following the end of the conflict that there was going to be an interim period before the British withdrew and that we are in that interim period. This suggests that the British wish to disengage but need a period to do so.
Such naivety beggars belief because as the Sinn Féin document Setting The Record Straight shows pre- ceasefire the British government maintained that in any negotiations the only pre-determined outcome was that the constitutional status quo would not change while a majority in the six counties wished to remain part of the UK. The question Anne and Sinn Féin need to answer is as ‘republicans’ why did the Sinn Féin leadership accept that precondition?
Anne asks me to provide a road map to reunification. It’s simple – you don’t destabilise the status quo by supporting and validating it. That is the Sinn Féin approach. To change the status quo you need to mobilise opinion against it – not to use all your efforts to validate it, support its institutions and legitimise it. That is what Sinn Féin is about.
Peace monies have been funnelled through Sinn Féin and its appendices in community organisations aimed at building popular support for the ‘peace process’.
Sinn Féin community organisations have used access to services as a means of social control where, for instance, endorsing the PSNI as an acceptable police force is being promoted.
It is clear that a majority of Irish citizens favour a united Ireland but under the GFA the people of the six counties have an effective veto over the wishes of the remainder of the island. Sinn Féin has endorsed that and in so doing it has relinquished any right to call itself democratic or republican.
SEAN O'FIACH
Belfast BT11
Less than entertained by fanciful platitudes
It almost defies belief, as well as common sense, that in a week whereby it was established, not once but twice, by the director of Féile an Phobail, Kevin Gamble, that, ‘no specific threat was ever issued’ we have been less than entertained by the fanciful platitudes of Sinn Fein’s Jim Gibney, as well as the contrived, choreographed condemnation from so-called community and elected representatives.
There won’t ever be any surprises from the pen of Jim Gibney or indeed the list of usual suspects, who quite conspicuously shed their alleged objectivity, to add their pretentious aghast to the denunciation of this threat – a threat which not one person on that list can claim to have seen, because it simply never existed.
In fact, the only thing threatening in this sorry saga is the capability of those who made these now redundant claims, to enlist their muscle to both stifle and deflect perfectly justifiable political dissent.
The crux of this entire Féilegate scenario was sparked when political activists leafleted streets in Turf Lodge and the Falls Road.
The agenda behind the leaflet drop was not geared towards intimidation but rather to guard the community against the street party and Féile inclusions of a police force which evidence irrefutably suggests remains, totally political and unreformed.
Contrary to Jim Gibney’s claim, Féile an Phobail is most certainly not a platform of free speech or a resistance extravaganza.
Free speech or uncensored debate won’t ever see the light of day in west Belfast Jim, and it won’t ever be listed unscrutinised by Féile an Phobail – it has long since been consigned to the very bins that house the Patten and other such reports. Reports that, had they been realised might of actually provided people with a genuine community platform and one built on real accountability.
NUALA PERRY
Belfast BT12
Sir Roger certainly got around a lot
For a Ballymena man, Sir Roger Casement certainly got around a lot (August 4).
There’s an interesting photograph of him in Tim Couzen’s Tramp Royal: the true story of Trader Horn on page 320 where we’re told that he served as consul to Laurenço Marques from 1895 through to 1898 when he was appointed to Luanda in Angola.
Casement makes a cameo appearance in Alfred Aloysius Horn’s The Waters of Africa.
Horn observes: ‘Naturally I asked for the British consul. He came down to the ship and looked at me. He said nothing, we just looked at each other... An Irish gentleman , if ever there was one, Roger Casement’.
Horn’s adventures were turned into the movie Trader Horn (1931) which was reputedly the first adventure film made with sound.
BERNARD J MULHOLLAND
Belfast BT9
Inflation of north’s importance
How the First and Deputy First Minister got on with the British prime minister is for all of them to be clear about (‘First minister dismisses claims of discord with McGuinness’, July 26).
What grabbed my attention was Ms Foster’s comment that ‘she [Mrs May] is here recognising the importance of Northern Ireland (sic) as a strategic part of the UK’.
Now Ms Foster may have forgotten a member of the British government, a secretary of state no less, said that they had no strategic or economic interest in this place.
This inflation of the importance of the six counties by unionists is self-beguiling. It deflates any nation of outreach to their neighbours. The pandering by a disinterested Westminster, the historical complacency in Dublin is met by a consistency by Republicans as to how we can manage our affairs.
MANUS McDAID
Derry city
March for truth
Fr Jacques Hamel was killed in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in France on July 26. Fr Hugh Mullan was killed in Springfield Park in Belfast on August 9 1971. Both were killed on their knees as they went about their priestly duties – Fr Jacques saying Mass, Fr Hugh saying the last rites over a wounded man.
Both were clearly identifiable beforehand to their attackers as priests. Neither killing was justified nor justifiable. Support the Family of Fr Hugh Mullan and the other families of the Ballymurphy Massacre in their march for truth on Sunday starting at midday from where Fr Hugh was killed in Springfield Park, Ballymurphy.
LIAM STONE
Belfast BT12
Staying true to your faith
Tom Kelly (August 1) writes that the teachings of the Quran should not be interpreted literally by its followers in the 21st century .
Sadly and unfortunately for people living in the Muslim, Christian and secular societies throughout the world this is what is actually happening. The Islamist and terrorist fanatics are simply being true to their faith.
ROY PARK
Belfast
