Opinion

The days of the Jacob Rees-Moggs of this world are long gone

Jacob Rees-Mogg, now there’s a character worth a second look.  Or should I say caricature, for that is surely what he is? I wonder what the Irish ever did on either him or his ancestors that he yearns to drive a coach and horses through our fragile peace process in pursuit of his personal holy grail, the ‘One True Brexit’? I’ve heard him variously described as an eccentric, an oddity, a crank, a reactionary, a traditionalist, a right-wing populist.  

Rees-Mogg is the very embodiment of privileged Tory arrogance. For all his condescending talk of bringing cheaper food to the nation by crashing out of the EU with no deal, Rees-Mogg is no lover of those farther down his particular food chain. After all, it won’t be him eating the hormone-injected beef and the chlorinated chicken, will it?


Nor is his disdain reserved only for the mere commoner, he now consistently takes aim at the Irish for having the insolence to dare challenge the master Brexiteer’s views on the avoidance of a hard border here.

In a jaw-dropping interview he gave to The View (May 10), this high priest of the Eurosceptics had the audacity to state that he had no need to visit NI to understand the challenges  Brexit poses for the border communities. “My going and wandering across a few roads isn’t going to tell me anything further about that” was his patronising opinion.


If he had attended the same workshop that very day that I did in Enniskillen, he would have learned a heck of a lot more than ‘what one can get by studying it’. Organised by ICBAN, (Irish Central Border Area Network), our group was focused on real people, many of them in business on the border, who are genuinely worried about the impacts Brexit will have on their lives and livelihoods.  

These people are fearful of the damage to cross-border trade and good community relations that a hard Brexit will visit on them, but does

Rees-Mogg and his band of extreme Brexiter friends care one jot?  


This is a shameful and cavalier disregard for the many citizens here who voted to remain in the EU.  Tough he says, (and tough say the DUP puppets too); it was a UK-wide

vote and you’ll just have to like it or lump it. Well, I choose to lump it.

The days of the Rees-Moggs of this world telling the croppies to lie down are long gone, and they aren’t coming back, Brexit or no Brexit.

EO CASSIDY


Omagh, Co Tyrone

The deposit of faith from Christ is binding on all Catholics

I am not the first to say that history is irreversible and we start from where we are at. 723,632 people voted yes to insert the following wording into the Constitution of Ireland, Article 40.3.3: ‘Provision  may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.’  


Were the 723,632 people aware that article 15.5.2 reads as follows: 

‘The Oireachtas shall not enact any law providing for the imposition of the death penalty.’

Article 44.2.1 guarantees freedom of conscience to every citizen exception being members of the Oireachtas of Fine Gael and Sinn Féin.

What does it mean to be a Catholic who is Pro Fide? The date on the top of each page of The Irish News indicates that Jesus Christ lived. He proclaimed that all power in heaven and on earth had been given to Him.


Either He was divine or He was the greatest charlatan who ever lived. There is no middle course and it seems to me quite foolish to ignore Him as if He did not exist.

The deposit of faith which has come down to us from Christ and the Apostles is binding on all Catholics and includes the following: Christ appointed the apostle Peter to be the first of all the apostles and to be the visible head of the whole Church, by appointing him immediately and personally to the primacy of jurisdiction. The successors of Peter are the bishops of Rome. Christ founded the Church in order to continue his work of redemption until the end of time.


In his letters, St Paul confirms that Christ is the head of the Church which is His body and the pillar and ground of truth in the final decisions on doctrines concerning faith and morals the Church is infalliable and the pope is infallible when he speaks ex cathedra.

Christ speaks through his Church: ‘Therefore by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his successors and in communion with the bishops of the Catholic Church I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral.

This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law which man in the light of reason finds in his own heart (cf ROM 2.14.15) is reaffirmed by sacred scripture, transmitted by the tradition of the Church and taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium.

Evangelium Vitae para 57 (The Gospel of Life by St John Paul 11).

GERRY GLENNON


Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin

Partitioned from reality

Fr PATRICK McCafferty appears determined not to allow any of his parishioners to marry in his church, who oppose laws that force women to give birth (whatever the tragic circumstances).

How far does he intend to take this matter? What of those who oppose a ban on contraception, or who think people in a marriage that has broken down have a right to divorce, or who think a priest could be a woman? These things too are against Papal teaching.

If it is only in the matter of abortion that Fr McCafferty takes his stance, his is the action of a politician not a theologian.

He is entitled to his views. So too are his parishioners.

Northern Ireland can partition itself off from reality only for so long. In the 1960s nationalists demanded that Westminster intervene to dismantle sectarianism in Northern Ireland. It looks like London will have to intervene again against those who deny women a right to control their own bodies.

In this Westminster will be opposed by Fr McCafferty and Protestant fundamentalists, who ordinarily are occupied earnestly debating finer points of Christian belief.

If reform comes from London the majority will utter a sigh of relief that deadlock in Northern Ireland has again been bypassed. In this and in other matters it is long past time that the Dublin-London Intergovernmental Conference be convened.

NIALL MEEHAN


Cabra, Dublin 7

President Higgins is a true patriot

President Higgins is worthy of his elevated position as representative of the Irish Republic. A case in point is his reception for the Magdalene Laundries’ ladies at the Aras. His speech to the women was moving and indeed hard-hitting at the State policies which shirked its responsibilities and allowed mistreatment of citizens.

Michael D Higgins continues to show, and from his first day in office, that he is indeed a true patriot.

ROBERT SULLIVAN


Bantry, Co Cork

Expression of thanks

South-West Belfast food bank  would like to give a massive thanks to the people of west Belfast for their generosity in donating £628.60 at the street collection on the Andersonstown Road on April 28. It is great to see neighbour helping neighbour in this way.

JOHN DUFFY


Belfast BT11