There is a depressingly uniform support from those who style themselves as on the ‘left’ in Irish politics for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, which will remove the constitutional protection for the child before s/he is born. For many republicans and human rights activists, this is difficult to understand.
Parties such as Sinn Féin and PBP haven’t even tried to produce a class-based analysis of the pro-life position. ‘Choice’ is the only ethical principle which they recognise, even when that choice is one to end another person’s life.
We know that abortion disproportionately affects the poor, those from ethnic minorities, females, and the disabled. The vocal and well funded militant feminists and what used to be human rights groups have climbed the high moral mountain, and abuse and censor anyone who dares question the basis of their thesis. The left, hidebound by the dogmas of ‘bodily autonomy’ and ‘trust women’ refuse to consider the real lack of choice which many working class women have. They don’t do facts, only rhetoric.
Of course we need a health service worth the name, houses, social care, jobs and hope. Many pro-life people recognise that social justice is central to caring for women and families, but they do not have the power to change the structural inequalities in our system of governance. The political class, those who can bring about positive social change, instead use the most vulnerable as scapegoats for their own failures. Their greed and incompetence was never to blame. The same politicians and media who colluded to lead the nation into a bubble-and-bust economic crash now imply that aborting preborn children will help solve the housing crisis, joblessness, poverty and despair. The safety valve of emigration was used over the years, and the removal of the right to life serves the same end.
It is a fact that abortion rates are higher when women are in crisis and feel unsupported, and that for many women it not so much a choice, but what they see as the only way out of an impossible situation. There is now a wealth of medical evidence that women have much higher incidences of depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse and completed suicide after abortion. But you won’t hear the sisters talking about this.
The Proclamation of the Republic is a blueprint which for many of us still describes the Ireland we will work to achieve. In this document we have a blueprint for a nation which could be a beacon for the world. We must reject the failed solutions imposed by those who do not have the interests of all people at heart. We must cherish all the children equally if we are to achieve freedom. Vote no. Save the Eighth.
Dr ANNE McCLOSKEY MB
Derry City
People of Syria and Iran will suffer same fate as Iraq
So Israel has launched yet more air-strikes against Syrian targets. In any other arena that would be a declaration of war, but when they do it, it’s considered OK by the west. When Syria moves to defend itself it is accused of breaching Israel’s sovereignty.
Of course the same logic has been applied to the Gaza Strip for decades. Israel continually provokes Hamas by launching incursions into the beleaguered Palestinian enclave. Such infractions are not reported in the western media. They have surrounded, isolated and pounded the two million people trapped in what is a large prison.
They have cut off the electric using their puppet, Abbas, and control the food and medical supplies which have now dwindled to dangerous levels. All this is taking place as UN and international observers condemn the blatantly illegal Israeli actions.
Yet should Hamas or some ill-conceived Salafist group strike back at Israel, the Zionist regime assumes the role of victim and the western media willingly trumpet this agenda.
The real victims are the babies and children of Gaza who have been killed by Israeli tactics of civilian slaughter. The real victims are the people who have no food or medicine. The real victims will be the people of Syria and Iran who have and will inevitably suffer the same fate as the civilian population of Iraq, as the Zionists of Israel and the US get their greedy, warmongering way.
ANTÁN Ó DÁLA an RÍ
Newry, Co Down
Tourism is our main industry
There is a lot of discussion and controversy in the media about the Irish language. Shouldn’t we be looking at the more positive role for the Irish language in promoting tourism, signs, etc in the north of Ireland or Northern Ireland as a tourist attraction, after all this is Ireland and the tourist sees it as Ireland. The former head of tourism, John McGrillen, said tourism was a £1 billion industry with the capacity to employ 55,000 people.
We need to portray a community living in harmony with each other and respecting each other’s differences. In other words a civilised community. Removing the flags from the communities, making them inviting to tourists, and in the spirit of community togetherness, flying both the Union Flag and the Tricolour from Stormont.
If both sides have principles, they are working for the greater good of the communities and whether you are Orange or Green becomes irrelevant.
The manufacturing industry is dead because the trend is for companies to set up in third world countries where the exploitation of cheap labour maximises profits. You can buy a product from China cheaper than it can be manufactured here. Tourism is our main industry and we cannot afford to sabotage that industry through the portrayal of a divided community behaving in a uncivilised manner.
LIAM ARCHIBALD
Draperstown, Co Derry
Martin and Ian template still stands
Frank Hennessey’s letter (March 6) ranges over many aspects, both past and present, of political success and failure, insofar as they are relevant to the current stalemate in Northern Ireland and the challenges facing the Republic. His simplistic, incorrect, analysis of Eamon de Valera’s behaviour and as such its relevance today is highly questionable. His forays into predicting the future, while entertaining, are on shaky ground.
His criticism of the DUP failure to agree to anything is unfair. Above all, negotiations demand clarity and honesty both during engagement and in what has been agreed. Politics may be seen as the art of the possible, but for a long-term engagement, as is clearly required in the current situation, the participants must trust each other. The Martin & Ian template still stands.
All the indicators are a hard border on this island. How we all respond is in the lap of the Gods, not Leo or Mary Lou.
PETER GRIFFIN
Dooneen, Co Waterford
Thank God for Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson’s latest faux pas reveals with a typical flourish of cheerful arrogance the mind of the present British government.
Causing serious harm to the European Union, placing the Good Friday Agreement in jeopardy and facing an uncertain economic future are small prices to pay for the exhilaration of ‘going it alone’ and reviving memories of the empire.
J ANTHONY GAUGHAN
Blackrock, Co Dublin
