Jake O’Kane (March 9) makes some very interesting observations regarding the Earl of Shaftesbury and the historical inheritance of Lough Neagh.
I wholeheartedly agree with many of the general public who have demanded that Lough Neagh be taken back into public ownership. However, the Earl of Shaftesbury has made it abundantly clear that while he is open to selling the lough, he has absolutely no intention of ‘giving it away’. So why does this aristocratic English gentleman born into privilege think it is his God-given birth right to sell Lough Neagh rather than hand back what was never his?
The fundamental question therefore is, how can you ‘give away’ what you never rightly owned in the first place, namely Lough Neagh.
Historically, as Jake O’Kane rightly asserts, Lough Neagh was gifted to the Chichester family during the plantation of Ulster – in effect a form of ‘war booty’ or a collection of valuable things gained by military victory – which then was transferred to another English aristocratic family, the Shaftesburys, in the 19th century. Quite simply, Lough Neagh was passed between English aristocracy who had no legal, cultural or geographic link to Ireland.
The first Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act of 1870, the Land Law (Ireland) Act of 1881 and subsequent Irish Land Acts, particularly the Irish Land Act of 1923, quite rightly confiscated estates from many landlords, or subjected them to compulsory purchase orders, which in turn enabled tenants to buy their own farms. Following partition, Northern Ireland, which remained part of the UK, introduced its own Land Act in 1925.
No longer can land, including loughs, be looted, stolen, or taken by the Crown, then given or inherited to aristocratic English landed estate landlords for military services following war.
The Earl of Shaftesbury should do the honourable thing and pay to restore the lough to the state it was in when his family got it, plus return Lough Neagh for the nominal fee of £1.
Patrick Clarke, Castlewellan, Co Down
Wind of change blowing round the grounds of Belfast City Hall
Belfast City Hall in its past had been an unwelcoming bastion of sectarianism against Belfast’s nationalist representatives. Opening in 1906, it was considered by purists as a great architectural crime, because the existing White Linen Hall was demolished to provide the site for the new City Hall. In its early years it was the location for two major events. The first was the signing of the Covenant on Ulster Day in 1912. The second was, pending the construction of the new government building at Stormont, the first session of the new parliament for the north of Ireland in 1921. In time, Belfast civic buildings became aligned with a unionist and British image.
The perfectly nurtured lawns surrounding City Hall contain a wealth of memorials to the history, people and events associated with the city. The first monument to be unveiled on the grounds was the statue of Sir Edward Harland, followed later with a statue of Queen Victoria. In the early 1960s a group of Queen’s University students – as a Rag Day stunt – placed at night a number of imitation footprints from the statue of Queen Victoria to the long-gone ornate brick communal lavatory unit located outside the grounds boundary on Donegall Square North. What a surprise it was for people to see when passing the city hall the following morning.
On International Women’s Day, bronze sculptures of Mary Ann McCracken and Winifred Carney were unveiled in the grounds of Belfast City Hall. The women came from different generations. Mary Ann McCracken, born in Belfast in 1770, was part of the revival of the Irish language and a supporter of the United Irishmen movement. She also worked to help those in poverty, particularly women and children, and campaigned against slavery. Winifred Carney, born in Bangor in 1887, was an Irish republican, suffragist and trade unionist who took part in the Easter Rising in Dublin against British rule in Ireland in 1916.
In the Irish context, the sides that must be taken, the choices that must be made, relate – as for Mary Ann McCracken and Winifred Carney and others throughout Irish history – to one single binary: empire versus republic.
Today the City Hall is a rallying point for the people of Belfast and others to meet, have a coffee, somewhere they can celebrate, protest or grieve together. In Stormont, a devolved government has been restored after a 24-month hiatus.
James G Barry, Dublin 6
Ireland should be mindful of its history and humanitarian responsibilities
As the people of Ireland celebrated our national holiday on St Patrick’s Day, we should be mindful of our history and our humanitarian responsibilities. As war crimes, arguably amounting to genocide, are occurring in Gaza with tens of thousands of civilians, especially children, being killed by bombs, bullets, disease and starvation, we should recall our own Irish famine and colonial occupation abuses.
Our government should be taking all possible measures to comply with its international obligations and humanitarian responsibilities to help end the suffering of the Palestinian people. Our government leaders have failed to recognise the Palestinian state, and our successive ministers for foreign affairs and ministers for transport have been approving the transit of US military aircraft and aircraft on contract to the US military through Shannon airport and Irish airspace, while falsely claiming that this is not a breach of Irish neutrality.
On March 14, US Marine Corps KC130J, number 168068 arrived at Shannon airport about 18.20pm, coming from Fort Worth Texas, and spent the overnight at Shannon.
Also, on March 14, US Air Force C40 number 02-0202 refuelled at Shannon coming from Washington and flew on to Amman, Jordan.
On March 12, Omni Air N828AX on contract to the US military landed at Shannon airport coming from the US and flew on to Kuwait and also refuelled at Shannon on its return journey to the US on March 13.
These are just some recent examples of Irish government complicity in war crimes and failures to comply with our international, humanitarian and moral responsibilities.
US military aircraft are also being refuelled at Aldergrove airport in Belfast.