I DON'T have a doctorate or a letter of any kind after my name but I’m still entitled to a common sense opinion on the Covid preventative jab as it affects every single person around the globe including me. In a normal setting 100 per cent of people would be ecstatic when a preventative cure is discovered for a disease that deprives people from enjoying a few more years on this earth to see their children, nephews or nieces growing up. What is so abnormal about the vaccinations this time around is that there is a mixed-grill of minority voices applying megaphone diplomacy by spreading ridiculous rumours through social media platforms about how pharmaceutical companies are making mega-buck profits out of this pandemic. Yet these same people pump up profits by buying their beauty, health/medicines/birth control and cigarette products that are mass-produced by multinational companies the world over, and see nothing wrong with it? Conflicting standards if you ask me. Covid-19 should be looked at in the same way as your car going for the NCT test, if it is not roadworthy it fails, unless checked and gets the required bits and pieces to put another 30,000-80,000 miles on the clock. Perhaps not the correct analogy to make, but there you go.
If you refuse to get the Covid jab, you fail the test, as you’re no longer roadworthy because you’re a danger to yourself, never mind all other family members, friends and neighbours. It’s a simple analysis to clear muddy waters of unsolicited debris. I find it insulting that people who partake in unwarranted protests think it wholly acceptable to use the tricolour as a beacon in justifying their opposition to restrictions that are deemed necessary on the advice of our country’s medical profession to prevent hospital wards being overwhelmed by patients suffering with the debilitating and life-threatening effects of Covid. The alternative to doing something is to do nothing which seems to be the airy-fairy cure that anti vaccination believers are insisting on.
If distancing/mask-wearing restrictions were not in place, all other medical procedures, as bad as progress may be right now, wouldn’t have a hope in hell of seeing the light of day otherwise. It’s unfortunate that there are people who blindly choose to wear blinkers in regards this pandemic by being led up a blind ally by people with ulterior and selfish motives.
James Woods
Gort an Choirce
Dún na nGall
Marches, bonfires and flags won’t solve unionist problems
PERHAPS the ultimate paradox in Irish politics is that unionists now pose the greatest threat to the Union. One would think the last elections, when unionists lost their majorities in Stormont and Westminster would have been a wake-up call but little has changed. We still get the same hostile rhetoric from certain unionists, no need to mention names, but at least Arlene hasn’t mentioned crocodiles for a while. The stark reality is, unionists will need the support of traditional nationalists to maintain the union in the near future, yet collective unionism has done nothing to secure even one such vote.
The inexplicable Brexit campaign by the DUP has done the party untold damage on both side of the Irish Sea. Long gone is the DUP’s euphoria when the Brexit result was announced, presumably thinking this ensured the reinstatement of a hard Irish border; they have their border now, but not where they wanted it and Sammy and young Ian are now crying in the deaf ears of their erstwhile, Old Etonian friend who no longer needs their votes. There must be an element of karma here; the DUP held Theresa May to ransom, demanding £100 million to support her minority government and then humiliated her on the international stage by failing to support her Back Stop deal.
Eamon Phoenix’s column (March 24) records how Ted Heath and Harold Wilson implored Brian Faulkner’s government to introduce reforms in 1971. Instead they introduced internment (for Catholics initiallly) and within a year we had the Ballymurphy Massacre and Bloody Sunday, adding to the long list of British atrocities since Cromwellian times.
Unionists still propagate a totally biased version of history, perpetuating bitterness and the myth that Catholics and Protestants cannot co-exist. They have a qualified definition for words like ‘terrorist’ ‘victim’ and ‘innocent’ and totally ignore the historical fact that one third of all troubles victims were Catholics with no paramilitary affiliation, in other words ‘innocent Catholics’ – a term you won’t hear at an Eleventh Night bonfire.
The majority of nationalist minded people just want to live in peace with their neighbours, irrespective of their religious persuasion, while unionists are still wedded to the politics of the Orange lodge and a 17th century fear of Catholicism. They will shortly face a democratic deficit and their only solution seems to be more marches, more flags and bigger bonfires.
P McKenna
Newry
Policing of dissident funeral a selling point for united Ireland
NATIONALISTS and unionists should recognise that the blatant show of 'force' at the Bobby Storey funeral has two effects.
1 Unionists see it as a celebration of terrorism and 2 that while the 'terror' campaign has been put on hold republicans will only obey the law if it suits them.
It is interesting to note the funeral of Michael McKevitt in the Republic was properly policed and no large demonstration was permitted. Why do the republicans/nationalists who want a united Ireland not use this as an example to persuade unionists of the benefit of unification never mind the advantage of having to pay for GP appointments.
Lyle Cubitt
Ballymena
