We read with interest Patrick Murphy’s opinion piece(January 30). His comments are both timely and relevant.
The current wave of manufactured urgency for a border poll is based on a simplistic and dangerous concept of geographical realignment, ignoring the fundamental discussion necessary about the nature of Irish society and disregarding the potential for deepening the already deep sectarian fissures in Northern Ireland.
It ignores also the harsh social and economic realities facing working-class people across the island, worsened by the effects of the global pandemic. This campaign, supported as it is by an all-class alliance, has no time for these problems and no intention of discussing the fundamental social, political and economic restructuring necessary to provide a solution. The clear, but unspoken, message is simple: ‘Labour must wait’.
When the rhetoric is stripped away, when the realities are exposed, then the border poll campaign becomes little more than a religious headcount, an undisguised sectarian crusade designed to promote Sinn Féin and benefit some sections of the professional middle classes, north and south, on its rising tide.
The thinking is determined by the inherently divisive concept of the ‘two communities’ in Northern Ireland and an appalling and dangerous arrogance that ‘we’ are in the ascendancy. What is the nature of the ‘unity’ that civic nationalists and Sinn Féin envisage?
Is it the unity of the thousands of children in west Belfast and Limerick City living below the poverty line? Is it the unity of the unemployed in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Derry? Is it the unity of the homeless or the unity of the thousands of people throughout this country waiting for tests, diagnosis and treatment?
There is a real risk and possibility of sectarian violence in the approach to, and aftermath of, a border poll. The whipping up of nationalist rhetoric, British and Irish, is a real and imminent danger. The last thing our people deserve is another generation of bloodshed, intimidation and death.
The unity of the working class and a fundamental restructuring of our social, political and economic structures is an absolute and non-negotiable prelude to the creation of a single unitary state.
It is incumbent upon all progressive forces in this country to challenge and oppose the clamour for a border poll, to expose it for the shallow, sectarian scam that it is, and to continue to build the basis of working-class unity as the only secure foundation for the people of this island and beyond.
Cllr TED TYNAN
Workers’ Party, Co Cork
HUGH SCULLION
Workers’ Party, Mid-Ulster
Not happy to see British soldiers helping in our hospitals
It was with disgust and considerable anger that I read about Paddy McElhone whose inquest was held at Omagh courthouse recently. This was an innocent man shot dead in cold blood by the British army in 1974 as he came home from work.
“There is no dispute he was shot by a soldier and the person who pulled the trigger was Lance Corporal Roy Alun Jones,” the coroner said summing up. Jones was charged with the murder in 1974 but acquitted the following year. Meanwhile, our nationalist politicians are telling us to ‘face down’ those republicans who would oppose British rule in Ireland as they are ‘morally wrong’. This argument holds no water whatsoever, in my opinion. You see it must be a different story, if this murder was a one-off. But it wasn’t – what about Pat Finucane and the loyalist death squads with whom the British army colluded throughout the Troubles? How many innocent people lost their lives because of this collusion? No, I, for one, am not happy to see British soldiers in our hospitals helping us get through the Covid-19 pandemic. Those uniforms bring back too many bad memories for many Irish people.
CIARAN MacDONNCHAIDH
Belfast BT15
Irish people treated with candid disrespect
To date Taoiseach Micheál Martin has brought dignity and respect to that high office. That he had to sit in a television studio and confirm that he had not been informed, in advance, of the European Union’s plan to partially close the border with Northern Ireland, is a pernicious political insult to him and all of the people of Ireland.
That the European Union’s vaccine ineffectiveness, in this matter of life and death, prompted them to even think about activating a month-old protocol is an indication of how vicious they were in self-defence of their monumental error. When the taoiseach goes to Brussels for “pointed discussions” regarding this matter, the hitherto beholden attitude will be dispensed with, and Ireland and its people will never again be treated with such candid disrespect.
WILSON BURGESS
Derry City
Extend St Colman’s Cemetery
I recently received some photos of the old site of St Michael’s School in Lurgan. It is an eyesore in the north Lurgan area. I propose that St Colman’s Cemetery should be extended to the old St Michael’s site as cemetery ground is becoming limited.
There is no need to demolish St Mary’s and St Paul’s secondary schools and relocate to St Michael’s site as they are in a prime location and easily accessible for the local community. It is important to build up the existing community and not destroy educational institutions that have served the needs of Lurgan people for many years.
KIERAN McPARTLAN
Sydney, Australia
Getting our priorities right
We are going through a pandemic. Many have died and thousands have been hospitalised. So what is the minister of agriculture worried about? His worry is, because of the Northern Ireland Protocol, there could be food shortages in schools and hospitals. You may think by that statement that the rest of the country will have enough food.
Well, no, because he has come up with another worry. He says that there may be a shortage of jelly or gravy on the supermarket shelves.
Glad to see he has his priorities right.
TONY CARROLL
Newry, Co Down
