There is currently a movement across the US to remove all statues of General Lee, the Confederate who fought to preserve slavery. One such notable monument has already been torn down in Durham, North Carolina. Other statues of those prominent citizens who supported slavery are rightly being targeted. Understandably, any lauding of General Lee is deemed highly offensive to those in the black community.
In the Occupied Six Counties (OSC) of Ireland, we have a statue of Edward Carson, an Orangeman and bigot, who took part in the division of our country. Carson assisted in the creation of a sectarian statelet in which an artificial unionist majority mistreated the contrived nationalist minority. He also helped to create the first unionist paramilitary organisation. He partitioned Ireland and then slithered off to live out his days in England.
There is also a statue of James Craig in the hallway of Stormont. Craig was yet another of the founders of the UVF. He was the first prime minister of the OSC and is remembered for stating, ‘All I boast of is that we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State.’ It should be noted that Craigavon was named after the notorious James Craig.
It is therefore unfortunate that some nationalists should feel obliged to use this manufactured name, as it confers undeserved respectability upon a disreputable character who caused untold suffering to the nationalist people of the OSC.
Carson’s imposing statue stands at the entrance to Stormont, seat of the now defunct regional government. Nationalists were obliged to gaze upon the figure of Carson every day as they entered the buildings in a blatant demonstration of the contempt that unionism has for parity of esteem and the rights of the nationalist people.
Perhaps it’s time that the nationalist community stood up for all of their rights, as the black community of the US are currently doing. Pandering to the whims of right-wing, white supremacists in the US, or the colonial supremacists of the unionist community in the OSC, will do little to bring about justice.
Such statues belong in museums, where they can then be used as a stark reminder of the type of ill-set individuals who all too often assume positions of responsibility and influence in our flawed societies.
ANTAN O DALA AN RI
Newry, Co Down
Parties need to do more than talk about support
Like many thousands of public sector workers I have had to live with the consequences of austerity for years as a result of the financial crash of 2007. We have been forced to accept 1 per cent year-on-year resulting in a loss of earnings of up to 8.4 per cent due to increasing living costs. On average this means a loss of more than £3,000 for each worker.
This is at a time when the richest 1,000 people across Britain have seen their wealth increase 5.4 per cent, reaching a record £547bn. It is clear that the rich are not suffering.
Public service workers and their families have been forced to survive as wages are constantly failing to meet the cost of living. This is having a real and detrimental impact on us and our families. This is also having a negative impact on our economy as we are forced to make cuts on our spending. This has created a vicious circle of less money going into shops and businesses resulting in a drive to the bottom on wages and the soaring of zero-hour contracts.
We have had no shortage of elections over the last few years where political parties have campaigned for our votes – we are now demanding what will they do for us in relation to our pay?
Public sector workers are asking the assembly parties to do something more than talk about support for public services and public servants.
We are asking MPs, MLAs and councillors of all political parties to fully support calls for the 1 per cent pay cap to be lifted and to campaign for a real pay rise. They should demand full investment in publicly-owned and run services to guarantee a fully functioning public sector.
This would offset in a real way the legacy pay cuts and ensure the provision of the much-needed jobs and essential public services for all our communities.
PAT LAWLOR
Branch Officer, Nipsa 730
Belfast
Complacent slide into strife needs to be halted
In recent times I have heard the two largest Northern Ireland political parties claim that because of the large numbers who voted for them in recent elections, those large numbers support their stances on contentious issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion, remembrance and the past etc. This is surely misleading.
The main messages received by the electorate were sectarian, and deliberately so, despite the long manifestos and unsurprisingly this is the way people voted.
So here we are on the revitalised merry-go-round. Can we the ordinary people not see that sectarianism and ‘conservatism’ are the poisons which helped to create decades of misery in Northern Ireland and that the big parties have no intention of changing that? Can we not see that the generation born since 1990s are being led blindly towards repeating what my generation of 1940s to1960s helped create and suffered?
We see the usual outworkings of tribalism, sectarianism and their big brother nationalism, create horrific behaviour throughout the world. Can the people of Northern Ireland not show our political and social leaders that we should learn from recent local history and thus stop the complacent slide into further years of dissatisfaction and then strife?
Nothing much will happen until more ordinary people start saying that the politicians and community leaders must lead forward, they must be seen to achieve something, they must find ways to accommodate each other.
TOM EKIN
Belfast BT7
Credible border solution
Amidst all the hullabaloo over the border checkpoints coming into force following Brexit – there are already immigration checks installed by the Gardaí on the buses from Northern Ireland to Dublin – I feel that there isn’t enough done to promote outside-the-box solutions.
There is also a certain degree of misinformation on the matter of immigration. Statistics about ‘Catholics getting jobs’ is more than likely Catholics from Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, etc. I feel that a nine-county Ulster nation open to anyone with either a British or Irish Passport, but operating outside the EU, is the most credible solution.
DESMOND DEVLIN
Ardboe, Co Tyrone
Well said, doctor
Dr Owen Gallagher’s letter (August 9) should be read by everyone seeking the answers to his questions.
His letters deal with the main issues and concerns of most readers.
Congratulations, doctor.
DENNIS McCANN
Portadown, Co Armagh
