Opinion

Election not a border poll but it could lead to one

Patrick Fahy has a point, at least on one level, when he criticises the SDLP for threatening Sinn Féin seats in marginal constituencies (May 17). It can be galling to see many unionists crowing when stealing what should be nationalist seats. He suggests that voters should punish the SDLP for their current unwillingness for a pact. However, this is a Westminster election to a parliament where Irish people have zero influence no matter how many republicans or nationalists are elected. There may be some satisfaction in seeing unionism squirm at a further erosion of their puppy dog influence, but the only numbers that count are the total votes for and against Irish unity. In this calculation any tactical unionist voters for the SDLP can only be an advantage. Sinn Féin policies and abandonment of principle, on the other hand, make them toxic to many voters. Estranged republicans and others opposed to SF social policies would at least be able to register their wish for a healed Ireland even if they disagree strongly with the SDLP, as a party. The unionist ostrich can break wind about the union being safe while its head is buried, but they are leaving themselves open to a swift nationalist kick in the backside. This election is not a border poll, yet it could lead to one if enough of us register that vote for unity. 

GERARD HERDMAN


Belfast BT11 

Mr Fahy had ‘vote splitting’ down to a fine art

Following the publishing of his letter May 17, I felt it necessary to refresh the memory of Mr Patrick Fahy all the way back to May 3 1979.

Mr Fahy may want to forget the year he ‘split the nationalist vote’ but many here will not.


Let’s remind him shall we. It was summer in Mid-Ulster and Mr Fahy was a nationalist candidate standing against a strong nationalist SDLP, in a constituency where there was a nationalist majority and a depleting unionist vote. The SDLP strong nationalist voice was Mr Paddy Duffy with 19,266 votes, Mr Fahy with 12,055 offering a majority combined nationalist vote of 31,321.

Many will also remember the unionist pact between unionist parties which took place in this election offering a combined vote of 29,249 with the sitting UUUP MP John Dunlop as the candidate. Mr Dunlop would have lost his seat to the SDLP that year if Mr Fahy hadn’t  ‘split the nationalist vote’ in an election and a constituency where the SDLP were clearly the largest party with a majority of 7,211 votes.

Maybe Mr Fahy has learnt a very hard lesson on how not to ‘split the nationalist vote’, but neither we in the SDLP, nor the nationalist community will be taking any lessons from a man who had ‘vote splitting’ down to a fine art.

It is no secret Mr Fahy is a supporter of Sinn Féin. He clearly articulates such as their election spin master. Please be careful not to throw stones in glass houses, you’ll only shatter your own windows.

STIOFAN MacEADBHARD


Strabane, Co Tyrone

Election pledge for Israel

There are many issues that will determine how people will cast their vote in the General Election. May I ask  readers to add to their considerations one of the most intractable problems of recent decades –  the Israel/Palestinian conflict? In recent years the international community, including Britain, has attempted to solve this dispute by admonishing Israel for defending itself while ignoring violent Palestinian transgressions and an associated lobbying movement that acts like a school bully. That’s a flawed strategy. Israel is a democracy with religious freedom, an unfettered press, equal rights for all its citizens and a strong trade union movement. Like any democracy it has a fundamental duty to protect its citizens from harm. The men and women of violence will only be stopped when democratic nations stand firm against terror.


So I ask readers to consider asking the election candidates in their area to sign a pledge for Israel. A document that recognises the achievements and the challenges that this small nation faces in the maelstrom of the Middle East. 

JOHN GRILLS


Belfast 

Europhobes need to check trading stats

Yet another correspondent (May 19) claiming Britain is Ireland’s most important trading partner. Really?  The Irish Central Statistic’s Office’s December 2016 Brexit

briefing states that:

“In 2015, Ireland exported €112.4bn of goods and €15.6bn (13.9%) of these goods went to the UK.”

Consistently, around 85% of Irish exports are to countries other than the UK. Ireland often exports more to Belgium or to the US than it does to the UK. The EU as a trading bloc is a significantly-more significant export market than the UK.

As ever, when a europhobe presents you with their ‘facts’, take them with a big pinch of salt.

SEAN MacCANN


Trillick, Co Tyrone

Defending morality

The electorate will have many important issues to consider in the run up to polling day but I would appeal to voters to support candidates who will defend Biblical standards of morality.

Although most of the decisions on moral and ethical issues are devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, our MPs at Westminster have a major role to play as well. That role could well become even more crucial if direct rule were to be imposed. It is therefore vital that we return MPs who will take a stand in defence of traditional Christian moral values in an increasingly secular society.

I urge voters to give their support to candidates who will both resist the  imposition of these ungodly laws on our province.

PHILLIP CAMPBELL (Rev)


Coleraine, Co Derry

Mocking mandates

Eamon Hanna (May 23) accuses Eamonn MacGrianna of reading history backwards. He muses about the SDLP’s enshrining of the unionist veto in its constitution from their beginning and its subsequent implementation in the GFA. While mockingly referencing the republican win in the 1918 general election, he does the same thing he accuses others of doing mocking the mandate won then for Irish independence and reading of our history backwards. 

The genesis of the conflict in modern Ireland has been the denial of the democratic wishes of the Irish people and the imposing of an undemocratic and sectarian border along the north-east of the country. 


If the SDLP were true democrats they would address the issue at its root and not from their beginning endorse a sectarian head-count as some sort of benevolent democratic initiative done in the interests of the Irish people, which it has never been and shame on our home-grown collaborators, be they the SDLP, Sinn Féin or Fianna Fáil, who colluded to make it pass as such to this very day.

PATRICK DONOHOE


Clondalkin, Dublin 22