President Higgins was right to raise issue of Ireland’s neutrality

The reaction to the intervention by President Michael D Higgins on the government’s Consultative Forum on International Security Policy, in my opinion, has been unfair, unreasonable and over the top.

Government sources have said his input on a debate around Ireland’s neutrality was ‘extraordinary’ and ‘pushed the boundaries’.

Perhaps our president did push the boundaries, but is it any wonder he felt compelled to do so considering how far our own government has pushed the boundaries in recent years regarding its full unquestioning cooperation with and the facilitation of the further militarisation of the EU, together with its most recent so-called ‘consultative forum’, which nobody looking at the forum line-up and rules of procedures could honestly say is a balanced exercise in public debate. Our government is pushing the boundaries far beyond what should be permitted so it can get rid of the ‘triple lock’ and push us further into nuclear-armed Nato.

I must recall that the triple lock was used to coerce voters in a second referendum on the Nice Treaty to accept what they had already rejected and to amend the constitution accordingly. Now the government wants to scrap this triple lock, declaring it is no longer fit for purpose. Who’s purpose it is unfit for has yet to be determined, but we can hazard a guess.

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I would argue that, as the defender of the people’s rights under the constitution, President Higgins had a duty to speak out given the conduct of government and its clear disregard for the constitution and principle enshrined therein and in particular Article 29.2 which affirms Ireland’s adherence to the principle of the peaceful resolution of international disputes. This is a key principle close to the hearts of the majority of Irish people, as successive polls have shown. The president’s intervention was a natural and necessary response by him to protect the integrity of our constitution and the wishes of the vast majority of Irish people.

While our president apologised for allegedly making a personal attack on the appointed chair of the forum, Dame Richardson, in my opinion no such apology was necessary. He did not make any personal attack, he simply stated an undeniable fact, that Dame Richardson is a Dame of the British Empire. She clearly has an impressive record and considerable expertise in security policy, but it is from a very western US/Nato perspective. This begs the question, was she the ideal choice for heading up such a forum in a neutral state?

In my opinion, President Higgins was correct to raise the issue as there was no alternative and he has done his people a great service for which he should be praised, not attacked.

PATRICIA McKENNA

Glasnevin, Dublin 9

Dilapidated heritage needs be protected

The Assembly Rooms building at the Four Corners in central Belfast is in a very dilapidated state and the people who own it should be ashamed of themselves and held to account, but our politicians are too busy arguing over matters of political one-upmanship to do anything about this terrible situation.

The Assembly Rooms building is part of the £500m Tribeca proposal.

The building, built in 1769, is the oldest public building in Belfast and as such must be preserved for future generations (not to mention the possible lure of the tourist industry).

It is where the Harp Festival was held in 1792 on the second floor, at which Edward Bunting recorded many of the old Irish airs before they were lost to antiquity. Where Henry Joy McCracken and other United Irishmen were tried and sentenced to death for their part in the rebellion of 1798.

It was latterly used as a bank.

This building has been to the forefront of Belfast public life for all these many years and hopefully will be for many more. With the listed building off North Street catching fire a few weeks ago and being burnt to a point where it is unredeemable, it makes one wonder will the same scenario be fated for the Assembly Rooms building – hopefully not.

Unfortunately the building it is not alone, there is also the old police station in Queen Street – formerly the Children’s Hospital (built in 1878) – in a similar state of disrepair. The Crumlin Road Court House (opened 1850) – an important Charles Lanyon building – is in a current state of virtual ruin.

These buildings are an important part of our local history and heritage and need to be furnished with better laws to ensure that they are kept in a reasonable state of repair.

If the current owners are not prepared to look after these buildings then they should be vested by the state, refurbished and then resold/leased/rented to owners who will look after them. These buildings and others need to be maintained (and could be repurposed for a variety of uses) to keep the importance of our built heritage alive for future generations to enjoy.

PATRICK GREER

Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society

British had a ‘racist’ attitude towards Irish

I am convinced that the interrogation and torture methods carried out by the police and British army on nationalists during the Troubles – ‘Shocking treatment a reminder to nationalists of how they were viewed by British establishment’ (June 14) – was more racist in its intentions than trying to gain evidence for a trial. Remember, the interrogators were 100 per cent unionist policemen, but more important, in my estimation, was the fact that the soldiers that were involved were, again, 100 per cent English, who had been brought up to regard the native Irish as ignorant and so the treatment they were subjected to was fully deserved.

That, by inference, was part and parcel of the British state’s attitude also towards the native Irish, the unionists being looked upon as true British law-abiding (albeit by their own self-serving laws), citizens who needed to be protected from the ‘savage’ Irish.

PETER PALLAS

Bantry, Co Cork