Opinion

Many blatant facts being overlooked by so-called liberal lobby

Given the current fad which dictates that it is now trendy to support abortion, it can be seen that many blatant facts are being overlooked by the so-called liberal lobby.

Firstly, for clarification, I will describe a termination here as the deliberate ending of a pregnancy for more general medical reasons including severe disability, rape and incest, whereas abortion is described as the deliberate ending of a pregnancy because the child would be inconvenient for either mother, father, family or society.

In the UK, an abortion can be carried out up to 24 weeks. The time frame for abortion in France is 12 weeks, as it is in Germany. In Spain it’s 14 weeks and in Italy it’s 90 days. Portugal has decided that 10 weeks is the cut-off point. In Australia, regulations vary dependent upon state, with abortion being illegal in some. In the Northern Territories abortions are legal up to 24 weeks, in Western Australia it’s 20 weeks and in Tasmania 16 weeks.

The reasons for these disparities are not difficult to understand. It is painfully clear that the global medical community does not have consensus upon the point at which a foetus becomes a baby with a right to life. Arrogant individuals have drawn firm lines at different stages of pregnancy. An unborn child in France, Germany or Portugal would be deemed eligible for premeditated death in the UK. 

Without such firm agreement upon time frames, it must be asked how anyone can agitate for abortion in Ireland when good sense would dictate that everyone should err on the side of caution, especially when any mistake means the death of a baby. 


In 2014 a spirited girl was born in San Antonio at 21 weeks four days. She is thriving today. This fact alone would indicate that the current 24-week limit in the UK is erroneous. 

Additionally, the unborn develop at different rates, as do those fortunate enough to escape the womb alive. One unborn, at 14 or 24 weeks, may be much further along than another. The unborn do not recognise scientific lines in the sand.

A US study by the Guttmacher Institute in 2004, found that 74 per cent of women polled had an abortion [their definition] because ‘Having a baby would dramatically change my life’. 

Abortion is the ending of a life because that life might prove an inconvenience. 

Today, it may be trendy, it may be fashionable, it may garner votes and sell copy as the ‘liberal’ media pursue their agendas. It is neither moral nor humane.

ANTÁN Ó DÁLA AN RÍ 


Newry, Co Down

Ireland’s indigenous culture is reasserting itself

The ‘weaponisation’ of the Irish language was not by Sinn Féin nor by Irish language enthusiasts. It was by centuries of military colonial occupation which deliberately tried as a political goal to destroy, marginalise and cleanse Irish society of the very culture that in essence bound the Irish people together.

This anglicisation of a conquered and oppressed people was repeated in Britain’s imperial adventures around the world to include many other colonies where white British-armed mercenaries conquered the Inuits of Canada,the native Americans, the Aborigines and the Maoris to name but a few.

What we are witnessing today in the north of Ireland is the end of empire.

It’s the final out workings of colonial supremacy coming to its natural conclusion. That conclusion is simple demographics. The native indigenous culture is reasserting itself after centuries of state repression.

A vibrant living resurgent culture is demanding its place back at the heart of society. It is quite simply a call for recognition and equality.

The failure of unionism to embrace this is the failure of the coloniser to accept the indigenous population as equals.

Having spent 400 years of refusing to integrate with the host nation and nearly 100 years of cultural and political supremacy in the north their days of hegemony are nearly over.

They abhor equality. The indigenous will never be welcomed to sit at the table


of power. Even the calls to abandon the Good Friday Agreement are designed to deny equality to the natives and roll back progress towards a more tolerant inclusive society.

Time to hold national reconciliation and reunification talks now.

FRA HUGHES


Belfast BT14

Broadband connection

I most certainly agree with Louis McGrath (February 5) regarding the lack of a terrestrial broadband service from BT. Perhaps the reason is that 24 million was not big enough incentive to clear the 5 per cent backlog. Openreach and BT are now separate companies, the split instigated by a House of Commons Select Committee, due to the failure of BT/Openreach to fulfil their commitments.

My contact with BT resulted in a statement that they did not have a date when broadband would be provided to the Glens .

Rathlin Island has been connected with a terrestrial broadband service since around 2013, which I do not begrudge, but I do object to being denied a connection date. The real surprise is that Openreach and BT continue to control this ‘service’ when it should have been offered by tender, to communication groups which can provide one. I currently have to use the library to access the internet – a 14-mile round trip. By the way, rural West Kerry are in the process of being connected to a broadband service, so why not us?

EDWARD MURPHY


Ballycastle, Co Antrim

Vote to keep Eighth Amendment

Here it is at last – the much leaked mantra from the lips of Varadkar the Proud, that the slaughter of unborn Irish boys and girls by abortion is somehow pro-life. This confusion coming from Varadkar and his party, is so typical of their efforts to overturn the Eighth Amendment to the constitution. And to safeguard and prevent further referenda from overturning such a decision, they also propose that the future terminations of unborn Irish boys and girls be left solely to the legislators in the Orwellian animal farm that the 26-county parliament has become.

The Irish people are the survivors of previous genocide right from the time of Elizabeth the First, through Cromwell, the Penal laws and the famine. 

The Irish people must vote to ensure we keep the Eighth Amendment in the forthcoming referendum.

RUAIRÍ MacGRÁINNE


Dublin 18

National freedom

Alex Kane (February 9) stated, “there is a broader question lying at the heart of Alex Maskey’s tweet and it is this: what, exactly, did the IRA’s terrorism do to make Northern Ireland a better place?”

Whatever IRA republicans were trying to do or achieve they had no right to murder and maim people. Even if Northern Ireland was Utopia, British sovereignty over Irish people denies them their right to national freedom. Likewise, even if a united Ireland was Utopia, unionists would still want to be British as that is their concept of freedom.

MALACHY SCOTT


Belfast BT15