There has been much discussion recently about a ‘new Ireland’. A number of people have approached me to ask about my views on that concept and I feel it would be worthwhile setting out my general response.
First and foremost, I am northern Irish and an Ulsterman. This enables me to be both British and Irish and, no matter what new relationship Brexit throws up, I will enjoy the European aspect of my identity. I also enjoy having a global connection through the Commonwealth and a close relationship with the US where half my wife’s extended family live.
While my constitutional preference is for Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, I want great relationships with the people with whom I share Ireland. I like to think that we can have a united people in Northern Ireland and Ireland as a whole. In my view, that ambition is achievable even if the two parts of the Island are constitutionally separate. There are many ways that this can be achieved and sport is one great example.
There are many who regard the failure in relationships between us as a tragedy. So long as we acknowledge that using violence outside the law to promote a constitutional preference was wrong, unjustified and unjustifiable, we can build a genuinely shared future – one where we all prosper socially and economically together.
There are others who want to pursue old battles and promote politics based on division and hatred of the ‘other’. We will just have to continue to challenge and frustrate them in their ambition to cause further conflict.
The only legitimate way to promote a constitutional preference in Northern Ireland is to try and make this place work. For that purpose, we need to review the way our political structures operate. The people of Ireland endorsed a way of working in 1998 that has been corrupted by the St Andrews’ Agreement. It should be scrapped and the institutions should be allowed to evolve from the original arrangements set out in the Good Friday Agreement.
The agreement gave us an opportunity to draw a line under the mistakes of our history. There are so many mistakes and events to point to. It was about freeing up the future for our children. Nationalists and unionists must be persuaded to stop demonising one another too. The PSNI are our police officers and we should be supportive of the difficult work they do. It’s right that we criticise the security services where in the past they acted criminally, but we should appreciate also that without them we would have had a civil war.
When we look at legacy issues, it must always be with an eye to recognising where and why we got things so wrong. My generation has taken some hard decisions so that we do not burden our children with brutal historical baggage and we must be vigilant that that progress is not unravelled by skewed versions of the past.
Let’s focus on building constructive relationships between those in civic unionism and nationalism who share similar values even if we differ on constitutional preferences. Let’s create two groups that are complementary – a Northern Ireland for all and an Ireland for all – through which we unite people and then leave it to future generations to determine their political future, as better friends.
After all, Northern Ireland belongs to all of us who live here.
In a future all-Ireland state, the same would be true, so its interests are best advanced by building friendships too.
TREVOR RINGLAND
Holywood, Co Down
Abortion is gravest human rights abuse of our time
Eamonn MacGrianna (March 13) cites some shocking national abortion statistics from across the world. Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) website contains a 06 09 2018 lecture by Dr Peter Saunders, who questions if abortion might now account for more than 40 per cent of yearly human deaths worldwide.
An Evening with Prof Byron Calhoun is also available on the CMF website. Prof Calhoun connects abortion to risk of premature delivery in future pregnancies, and potential for neonatal harm or disability.
The speaker explores a range of other adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Potential associations with drug abuse, alcohol misuse and self-harm are explored. The powerpoint slides from the lecture are freely available via the CMF website.
Is abortion arguably one of the greatest and least reported global healthcare scandals of our time?
I agree entirely with Eamonn MacGrianna. Are media debates on this topic sometimes dominated by bombastic circus clown chicanery, so that the mass abortion of unborn children is concealed from public scrutiny? Sir Roger Casement achieved a spectacular human rights coup, when he and others exposed the barbarity of the 19th century rubber industry of the Belgian Congo. A new technology, Kodak images, exposed dismemberment and wider abuses of native Africans on rubber plantations. The ‘media articles’ section of the ‘Brephos’ website contains an article by Dave Brennan, which references the role Roger Casement played.
Dave Brennan questions if modern pro-life activists need to make much greater use of images, if they are to successfully expose abortion as one of the gravest human rights abuses of our time.
THOMAS HARDY
Belfast BT5
Women would be foolish to let their rights be lost
The rights of the unborn seems to be an unusual statement when the rights of those already born, from baby to adult, apparently merit no mention.
Three countries, whose rights have been deemed to be surplus to their abusers, are Afghanistan, Yemen and Palestine, but this same problem which affects them covers all the countries in this world, with individuals or groups suffering this indignity and no real coverage by the general media to inform us.
However, the unborn seem to take centre-stage with no regard for the rights of the woman involved. It must be up to the individual woman whether she carries the foetus to term and not for me, JDP McAllion (March 13), or anyone else, to decide otherwise.
It’s been a long time for women to have control of what happens to their bodies and they will be foolish to allow it to be lost.
We should never forget the natural miscarriages and stillbirths that occur on a regular basis, with the devastation caused to the distraught parents, but then this is God’s will, even though the child was clearly wanted.
EDWARD MURPHY
Ballycastle, Co Antrim
The Lord is only therapy needed
In response to Andy Barr – ‘Therapy will not alter gay lifestyles’ (February 28) – the most therapeutic, ie wholeness giving experience an individual can enjoy is conversion; a change of direction in life to accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
If an individual is content to believe they are self-sufficient, in no need of change and can face God their maker and eternity claiming their own goodness, then no human argument will persuade them otherwise.
I believe they will be in for a shock but if I told them so they may just laugh.
It is the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ who enables all conversions to the Saviour. He is the One who teaches us that if we want to reach up to Heaven we have first to get down on our knees in prayer.
We are all sinners and we all need the Saviour.
Ultimately, admitting our sinfulness, accepting His sacrifice on the Cross in our place and living as His kingdom of Heaven subjects, is the only true therapy for everyone – be they gay or straight.
JACK LAMB
Newtownabbey, Co Antrim
