A large percentage of the population here take exception to the manner in which certain aspects of Protestant and unionist culture is celebrated, especially the commemoration of historical events. The Catholic and nationalist people in particular regard much of it as being, at best, triumphalism and, at worst, naked sectarianism. Not only are Catholics and nationalists offended by it others are as well.
A few months ago the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Rt Rev Dr Frank Sellar, made his views known on the subject.
He was highly critical of how the union flag and loyalist/Orange Order parading issues were allowed to degenerate into an orgy of gratuitous violence. Dr Sellar also did not mince his words in denouncing the practice of loyalist bonfires as sinful. Strong words indeed. Unsurprisingly not all Protestant/unionists concurred with the moderator.
DUP MLA Nelson McCausland had a go at Dr Sellar and tried to defend the indefensible.
Another thing about bonfires that concerns everyone, may they be Catholic, Protestant, nationalist or unionist, is health and safety. The toxic fumes from burning fires knows no bounds. It affects not only those who live at or near bonfire sites, the winds and breezes carry the poisonous smoke far and wide.
It may be more than a coincidence that respiratory ailments, such as COPD and bronchial diseases are more prevalent in deprived and working-class districts where most bonfires are perennially located.
Another worrying factor is the pressure the Fire and Rescue Service is put under on bonfire night.
Who can forget the sight of the three houses being destroyed after catching fire from a nearby blazing bonfire last July 11 night? Too many Fire Brigade appliances being tied up around the same time could mean a matter of life or death for someone elsewhere.
Furthermore, to add insult to injury, some of our councils actually fund activities that are centred around bonfires. Ratepayers of all political and religious persuasion are contributing to contamination of the very air they breathe. Taxpayers also paid the huge security bill for camp Twaddell and other locations where sectarianism raised its head.
What is happening now in La La Land is beyond words. £500m of public money is going up in smoke, all that cash turning to ashes. When you sit down and try to figure things out, you have to wonder if the Hokey Cokey really is what it’s all about.
SEAN MASKEY
Belfast BT15
Yet again it’s been shown oil and water can’t mix
Now that Martin McGuiness has resigned and the whole edifice has imploded, surely we should demand a structure which has some chance of addressing the big issues which face us.
We have alleged corruption, gross inefficiency, denial of responsibility, inability to make hard societal decisions, the silent majority are being held in hock to vociferous activist groups, and yet we can’t get 21st century solutions to 21st century problems.
Surely the starting point must be the removal of compulsory coalition. In our case we have yet again proved that oil and water cannot mix. In Belfast City Council for some 17 years we demonstrated Belfast could move forward if voluntary coalitions were put in place. Sometimes after fraught interactions, but more often when we had people of good will who realised that progress was needed. No-one gave up firmly held views but the good of the whole community came first.
Let us campaign for normal democratic government as we in the western world in our sports clubs and social societies accept it. Simple majority on most decisions, but 60 to 80 per cent majority for major decisions.
Let us abandon petitions of concern, which have been brought into disrepute.
We had hoped that the new MLA intake, new ministerial teams would be different, would have moved on from decades of sterility but we have been let down again.
As a taxpayer, I have been let down by the profligacy of the assembly and its public sector, typified by Sammy Wilson’s radio comment on cash-for-ash costing the taxpayer ‘only’ £20m a year for 20 years.
If you keep repeating the same action and expect a different result you are at best eccentric. Therefore, no election process should be started until considerable progress has been made on normalising our government.
TOM EKIN
Belfast BT9
Culturally ignorant unionism
On May 18 2011 in a historic visit to Dublin Castle, Queen Elizabeth II, in a magnanimous show of respect for the Irish language addressed the gathering with “A Uachtaráin, agus a chairde”. Five days later in College Green, US president Barack Obama in addressing thousands of citizens of this state, courteously paid due regard to our native tongue when he said: “Is féidir linn”.
It was a pity, but not surprising, that the Stormont Assembly MLA from East Derry, Gregory Campbell, aligned himself, not with the considered all-embracing sentiments of Queen Elizabeth II and President Obama and civilised society generally, but with the bile and bitterness of those who have fomented an anti-Irish agenda over the past number of decades. Indeed, the former first minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson once disparagingly called the Irish language ‘Leprechaun speak’. Despite world admiration and acknowledgement of the achievements of Ireland’s Protestant artistic, cultural and literary traditions, traditions which over the centuries gave us among many others, Berkeley, Burke, Swift, Yeats, Tone and the first President of Ireland, Dr Douglas Hyde, it appears the philistines and curmudgeons of unionism are still unwilling or unable to cross the tribal divide. This fine Protestant tradition should not be allowed to be defined by culturally impotent and ignorant unionism.
TOM COOPER
Dublin 7
Shining beacon for peace
It is a sad irony that in the week that the institutions in the North collapse in acrimony and rancour, the man who towered over the chaos of the Troubles yesterday celebrated his 80th birthday.
John Hume was a shining beacon for peace, tolerance and accommodation for 40 years. Even in the darkest of days he never lost faith in the primacy of politics and used non-violent constitutional means to chart a new future in the north.
Nearly 20 years ago he fashioned the ideas at the core of the Good Friday Agreement. It remains his crowning glory and is a testament to his vision and leadership.
As John Hume said in his Nobel speech, let us build a new Ireland based “on respect for diversity and for political difference. A future where all can rejoice in cherished aspirations and beliefs and where this can be a badge of honour, not a source of fear or division.”
Cllr TIM ATTWOOD
SDLP, West Belfast
Two sides to every story
Antan O Dala An Ri (January 5) raises the heartbreaking case of a young Palestinian boy, Ahmed Dawabsheh. Whoever carried out this atrocity against his family in the village of Duma deserves to face the the full force of law. It was disgraceful and disgusting based on the locally reported attack.
He goes on, however, to accuse Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing across Palestine’.
It’s not what he writes that is of interest. More importantly it is what he fails to include in his letter.
The young, injured and desperately helpless Ahmed was looked after in the Sheba Medical Centre at the Tel Hashomer Hospital, Ramat Gan in Israel. Indeed his grandfather has paid tribute by saying that Ahmed was looked after by the “best doctors in the world”.
To Antan O Dala An Ri I ask one question: Does this look like the face of ethnic cleansing?
ANDREW J SHAW
Belfast BT10
