In the aftermath of the recent Omagh shooting, I would be obliged if a spokesperson for dissident republicans would explain their strategy, if they have one. Presumably their ultimate aim is the reunification of Ireland through a campaign of violence. Do these dissidents really believe they can escalate their crusade to a point where Britain will be forced to withdraw, fighting a rearguard battle as they exit the Port of Larne, like their ignominious retreat from Afghanistan?
The reunification of Ireland is now achievable through the ballot box, as laid out in the Good Friday Agreement. In a purely sectarian head count, Catholics outnumbered Protestants for the first time in the 2021 census, although greater numbers are now expressing no religious affiliation.
However this demographic shift is reflected in election results, unionists are losing ground at every election and this inexorable trend is set to continue, irrespective of the birth rate, because of the aging Protestant population.
In my younger days the discriminating, gerrymandering Stormont regime, with the acquiescence of Westminster, forced Catholics to emigrate and denied many of those who remained the right to vote. The Civil Rights Movement, fervently opposed by a certain reverend gentleman, took to the streets demanding the right to vote – ‘One Man One Vote’ being their slogan, for those too young to remember. Now everyone over 18 has the right to vote and nationalists have the numbers to make a real political difference, if they would take their seats, but in some areas up to 40 per cent can’t be bothered voting.
Dissident republicans cannot succeed in their military objective and are simply descending into anarchy, like their drug dealing, racketeering loyalist counterparts. “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” is a quote attributed to Samuel Johnson dating back to 1775. It applies aptly to both dissidents and loyalists, who use a pseudo form of patriotism to legitimise their lawlessness.
P McKENNA
Newry, Co Down
You know it’s springtime when slurry hangs on every breeze
Yes, spring has sprung and you can feel those warming morning breezes press onto your face and nostrils with that gentle smell of new growth. You can pick out that certain fragrance of woodland, shrubbery and something else? Yes – slurry.
It’s not, however, that delicate aroma you may have picked up 50 years ago as you walked by a cowshed or drove behind a tractor and trailer with dog and grape sitting proudly atop trailer contents prior to manual dispersal.
No, no, this is pure 21st century, industrial, overpowering nasal assault by agricultural slurry and methane. Agh! Sure it’s the natural smells of the countryside and if we want cheap meat it’s the price we must pay?
Well, actually no. They are not natural countryside smells and the price is already too high in terms of overuse of petroleum fertiliser-based chemicals and air pollution by methane (a gas multiple times more damaging than CO2).
Methane capture has been a long-standing option for progressive farmers with the capital and operation scale to implement them. These proven systems give controlled soil nutrient return and a captured energy product readily available for farming transport or farming processes like drying or heating. The viability of these systems are subject to available capital and operational scale. Presently there isn’t a debate as to how this might happen for the average family-owned dairy or stock farm. That debate has to happen and happen soon.
The immediate reality is that farmers who cannot quickly bolt down this technology will have to cease animal husbandry, move into other areas of agricultural production or simply cease to operate.
AIDAN TONER
Ballycastle, Co Antrim
Ireland should be promoting peace not war
When asked on RTÉ Radio on Sunday if the Irish government’s decision to send Defence Forces personnel to train Ukrainian soldiers was a breach of Irish neutrality, An Tánaiste Micheál Martin TD denied that this was the case and stated: “We are all anti-war”. Mr Martin was a senior minister in successive Irish governments, including in 1999, 2001 and 2003, when the Irish government allowed the US military to use Shannon airport and Irish air space during the US/Nato wars against Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq. All of these wars were in breach of the UN Charter and in breach of Irish neutrality.
Ireland was elected on to the UN Security Council for a two-year period in 2021 based substantially on its record as a neutral state actively promoting international peace and justice, yet failed shamefully to live up to its important responsibilities to promote peace in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Ireland has no credible capacity to promote and support wars yet has had a proud tradition of promoting peace and justice internationally. Not only are our government actively supporting wars, and reducing our traditional commitment to genuine UN peacekeeping, but it has also allowed the strength of the Irish Defence Forces to fall below 8,000 personnel and denied them the necessary resources to provide adequate working conditions and essential equipment.
The Irish people have strongly supported the peace process within Ireland and our government should likewise be supporting international peace.
ED HORGAN
Castletroy, Co Limerick
Good Friday Agreement has failed to deliver on its promises
I was a kid when the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) was signed. I remember the super-hype around it. But for my generation and other generations what has it achieved?
Okay, it may have eased or stopped armed conflict, but it hasn’t eased or stopped sectarianism. Belfast is a far more divided city than it was 25 years ago. Today we have a worse housing crisis than we did before the civil rights campaign in the 1960s. We have people on our city streets with needles hanging from their arms, we have a mental health crisis and every time we have an equality issue at Stormont the English government has to jump in and deal with it. The GFA was renegotiated in 2005 at St Andrews to bring the DUP on board, who are today huffing, along with the TUV, blaming the protocol just because they don’t want to play second fiddle to Irish nationalists in the Stormont administration. Twenty-five years on I wonder will anyone remember Ciaran Heffron, a 22-year-old Catholic student who was murdered in Crumlin after a loyalist anti-agreement protest in 1998? The GFA has not delivered revolutionary progress, peace with justice or the unity of Ireland and the Irish people. In fact it has delivered the opposite.
SEÁN ÓG GARLAND
Belfast BT10
