Tomas O Dubhagain had three letters published – the most recent appearing on May 20, to which I would like to respond.
The Irish News had published a letter from myself (May 4) which was critical of Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy for releasing a virtual broadcast on social media commemorating and praising the life of convicted IRA terrorist Seamus McElwaine. I criticised Mr Carthy and also his two fellow Sinn Féin TDs for their continuing propaganda campaigns to glorify and justify the IRA’s campaign of violence which was responsible for the deaths of more than half of all victims murdered in ‘the Troubles’. In his letters Mr O Dubhagain falsely stated that the source for my information on the atrocities committed by the late Mr McElwaine was none other than Arlene Foster. My actual source was Wikipedia which stated, and I quote:
“McElwaine was an active member of the IRA, who became Officer Commanding of the IRA in Co Fermanagh by the age of 19. On February 5 1980, McElwaine killed off-duty Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) corporal Aubrey Abercrombie as he drove a tractor in the townland of Drumacabranagher, near Florencecourt. Later that year, on September 23, McElwaine killed off-duty Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Reserve Constable Ernest Johnston outside his home in Roslea. He was suspected of involvement in at least 10 other killings.”
Secondly, he also claimed that Seamus McElwaine was “in the same army, fought the same enemy with the same objective” as Michael Collins. I don’t believe there are any credible scholars of Irish history who would agree with this statement. In any case it is not up to me to answer this point – as he himself states in his own letter – Michael Collins died 11 years before the formation of Fine Gael. I am only accountable to answer for the time since I represented this great party of which I am very proud as I had equally been of my time in the Alliance Party.
I have always had huge respect for Fine Gael’s policy on Northern Ireland, based on the principle of consent, ever since I became a full-time politician in 1974 for the Alliance Party. In that year, the power sharing executive was established following talks between the British and the Irish governments led by Fine Gael’s Liam Cosgrave and Northern Ireland’s three main parties in Sunningdale. In 1985, it was Fine Gael taoiseach Garret FitzGerald who negotiated the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Incidentally, both Sinn Féin and the DUP opposed these initiatives. In 1995, when I was a Fine Gael MEP, Fine Gael taoiseach John Bruton negotiated the Framework Document with British PM John Major on which the Good Friday Agreement was based.
Thirdly and finally, Mr O Dubhagain claims that I “fail to accept that the physical war is over”. On this point he is partially right. It is not totally over as there have been a number of IRA murders since the Good Friday Agreement. After the murder of ex-IRA member Kevin Mc Guigan, an independent review in 2015 concluded that the IRA “Provisional Army Council” remains in place, and this body “oversees” Sinn Féin’s strategy. In February 2020, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris supported the PSNI view that this remains the situation.
JOHN CUSHNAHAN
former Alliance Party leader and Former Fine Gael MEP, Lisnagry,
Co Limerick
Unionism betrayed again
Alex Kane (May 28)decries the notion that “Unionists are always betrayed by Tory PMs”. Betrayal, it could be argued, is a false narrative that is hard to substantiate, similar almost to Trumpianisms of ‘fake news’ coupled with incredible and disproven claims of a ‘stolen election’.
Mr Kane imparts a detailed analysis providing a list of previous prime ministers from Eddie Heath to Boris Johnson who he assures us are all guilty as charged, although it is difficult to comprehend why ‘interesting’ John Major is included on this rogues’ gallery of alleged ‘betrayers’; his only misdemeanour was surreptitiously talking to republicans about calling it a day, much to the chagrin of unionists.
Mr Kane asserts that every “Conservative PM since the 1970s has been guilty in some form or other of betraying unionists”. Put in context, the first 50 years of unionist one-party domination 1921-1970 witnessed successive unionist regimes, along with their unchristian conduct, usurp the rights of their Catholic neighbours in order to maintain the status quo of their squalid colony.
It is plainly obvious that the message never changed nor was the wallpaper ever replaced. Unionism was of the opinion that the British would safeguard their ‘immoral visions of supremacy, maintain the lie and keep the ‘Croppies’ down’. In total that is 100 years of false representation, 100 years of misplaced loyalty in numerous so-called leaders of unionism and the union. And while the one-party system maintained the selfish status quo for a century, the DUP who forcibly advocated Brexit and then attempted to exculpate themselves from the consequences will be solely responsible for the ultimate betrayal.
KEVIN McCANN
Belfast BT1
Actions speak louder than words
Hubert Butler, the great essayist, sometimes described as ‘Ireland’s Orwell’, made the perceptive comment which is highly relevant in so many ways today:
“Compared to how we behave, what we believe is of little importance.”
Could this perhaps help the DUP escape the criticism regularly heaped upon them for being ‘sectarian’?
After all, rather than merely ‘talking the talk’ about religious equality, they leapt into action by cruelly defenestrating Theresa May, daughter of a Church of England minister, and deliberately replaced her with the UK’s first RC Prime Minister.
Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance and the UUP did absolutely nothing practical to redress this longstanding religious imbalance against Catholic politicians; it was the DUP alone. Actions often speak louder than words (to use a cliche rather than Hubert Butler’s elegant language).
Of course, one way for the DUP to go even further to prove their non-sectarianism might be for them to bring about Northern Ireland’s first Catholic first minister. This could be easily done by Edwin Poots following the lead of Tony Blair and Boris Johnson... and converting to Catholicism.
PHILIP McGARRY
Belfast BT9
Take the medicine
As the DUP political party disintegrates in front of our eyes, perplexed political pundits question, unsuccessfully, as to why Arlene Foster, Sir Jeffery Donaldson, Gavin Robinson, Gregory Campbell, Lord Nigel and Diane Dodds, left the meeting before Edwin Poots took the stand to make his inaugural speech as incoming leader. Well, the answer is simple. Following a humiliating football defeat, Sir Alex Ferguson was asked what he was going to do about it? “I am going to take my medicine and go home,” he replied. No doubt those self-serving members who left the meeting early were doing exactly that.
WILSON BURGESS
Derry City
