Would you risk a dangerous journey in an overcrowded boat, or stay and take your chances in a raging conflict?
This is the dilemma facing families trying to secure refuge from war and poverty by crossing the Mediterranean. On a cold November morning on the foreshore of Belfast Lough we displayed dozens of life jackets used by people who made this journey in 2016 – not all of whom made it. Many of the life jackets were never seaworthy and made of straw and sponge. These life jackets highlight the enormous human tragedy unfolding in our world.
In 2016, 100,000 of the world’s refugees were children travelling alone. Can you imagine the terror – cold, hungry and in danger, they experienced things few of us can comprehend.
Under the awnings of Sicily’s Catania train station on a recent visit, I discovered that some of those who spend their days on the streets and return there to sleep are as young as 11 years of age. We are working in Italy and Greece and the western Balkans providing life-saving support – shelter, clean water, food, clothes, and hygiene items. We also provide psychological and legal support, along with protection for women and girls.
Oxfam is active in nine out of the 10 countries where the majority of refugees are coming from – countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia and South Sudan. We rely on the generosity of people here at home from Belleek to Belfast and Derry to Newry and across Northern Ireland – and in our shops throughout the north – to carry out this vital work and would like to say thank you for this support in 2016.
Due to the continued urgent needs, we have launched a new year refugee appeal online and in our shops to support this vital work in 2017.
During 2016, 6,474 people in Northern Ireland joined 80,000 others across the UK in an Oxfam campaign to urge the British government to increase opportunities for families to be reunited, to host more people forced to flee and to keep providing funds for poor countries which are hosting the majority of the world’s refugees. We need the UK government to be a constructive leader in discussions at the European and global level. We also need expanded, safe and legal routes to Europe with a fair, transparent and efficient asylum system.
A new year brings new hope. Let’s make it one that counts for those with real humanitarian needs.
JIM CLERKEN
Chief Executive
Oxfam Ireland
Belfast BT1
To lose a third First Minister is surely conspiracy
There appears to be evidence for a recurring pattern in Northern Ireland (NI) politics.
Mrs Foster is the third successive DUP First Minister within the space of 10 years to be systematically undermined in the media with the aim of forcing them to resign and so destabilise the NI Executive and Assembly.
The prime beneficiary from this systematic undermining of the First Minister, NI Executive and Assembly appears to be the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) using the BBC NI as its agent in these Machiavellian manoeuvres – in my opinion.
I’ve argued previously that the NI Executive should take control of collecting the television licence and use the monies to set up a NI national broadcaster, and I think that DUP/Sinn Féin should speedily do so to curtail the meddling of the NIO and its agents.
I would now go further and argue that the First Minister should take her Deputy First Minister across to Brussels and on the basis of the NI vote during the 2016 referendum on membership of the EU seek to open direct negotiations to secure the will of the NI electorate.
My own view is that they should negotiate for an independent Northern Ireland within the EU.
When they get back they can engage the other main NI parties in the process to garner the requisite consensus.
And in addressing the DUP I would point out that every single argument ever made by unionist parties in favour of ‘the union’ of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland applies 10-fold to ‘the new union’ of the European Union, and chief of which is unfettered access to a single market of 500 million people.
And they should act now before they lose yet another party leader and First Minister – to lose two within the space of 10 years was careless, but to lose a third so soon is surely conspiracy.
BERNARD J MULHOLLAND
Belfast BT9
SF double standards
Following the recent revelations by The Irish News about additional funding of more than £900,000 to the loyalist Belfast South Community Resources Group, on top of the £1.7m to Charter NI, how can Sinn Féin members and supporters continue to have any faith in their political leaders. At a time when our hospitals and schools and services to the elderly and disabled are being cut Sinn Féin, along with their DUP partners in government, are happy to pump millions of pounds into organisations fronted by paramilitary bosses.
God help the families of the men and women who gave their lives for Irish freedom in the conflict. Little did they know that it was merely about Sinn Féin getting into power with the DUP so as they could fund their own favoured groups.
S FOX
Glengormley, Co Antrim
Well-chosen new word of 2016
The continuing controversy of the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme persists to plague the political establishment. The Oxford Dictionaries word of the Year 2016 ‘post-truth’ is well chosen.
The political class and the media in general appear to have missed two essential points which the tax paying public require to know in order to begin to establish some kind of confidence in local politicians.
Firstly, who drew up this ill-fated scheme which rewarded people with £160 for every £100 they spent? This gives a whole new meaning to the well worn statement – If it is too good to be true it probably is. The suffix should be added ‘except in Northern Ireland’.
Secondly, which minister (or ministers) in government signed off on this scheme?
Until the answer to these two questions are revealed and disciplinary action taken, there is little hope of public confidence being established in local politicians.
BRIAN KENNAWAY (Rev)
Co Antrim
A job well done, Jim
As a regular visitor to Milltown Cemetery, congratulations to Jim McClenaghan who has been the foreman for the past 17 years and retired at Christmas. Jim and his small team of workers have transformed the appearance of the cemetery, which was a major job after years of neglect. It is now clean and tidy for the memory of our dead. Well done Jim. I wish you many happy years in your retirement.
JIM DINEEN
Belfast BT9
Gaeltacht bursaries
May I use The Irish News to vent my frustration at the meanness of the DUP for putting a stop to the bursaries that were offered by the Irish Language learning group Liofa. Some of my nephews, nieces and their friends in Northern Ireland really enjoyed their holidays in the Donegal Gaeltacht learning their native language through these bursaries.
It is a shame that the DUP has stopped this.
PAUL DORAN
Clondalkin, Dublin 22
