In a slight mutation of his usual single transferable letter – ‘State Forces good, all others bad’ (May 11) – Trevor Ringland makes the astounding assertion that “only the republican movement appears to struggle with the idea that a crime including murder... is still a crime”.
Where has Trevor has been living for the last 50 years? British policy throughout the conflict has involved surreptitious dirty tricks, mass murder and cover-ups including indefinite closure in the interests of ‘national security’ of files on killings by state forces. These include those on 61 children killed by state agents and those relating to the 1974 Dublin/Monaghan bombings, which claimed the Troubles’ greatest loss of life in a single day.
Statements from Thiepval Barracks or RUC Special Branch claimed victims of atrocities eg Ballymurphy, Bloody Sunday, McGurk’s Bar, were themselves implicated in violence and these lies were accepted by a compliant British media. Honourable servants of the state who bridled at murder and collusion in murder by the state, were routinely pilloried, framed, their reputations and careers destroyed.
While 17,000 Irish were interned or imprisoned by non-jury courts, often on foot of statements made under torture or testimony from supergrasses, the handful of soldiers charged with murder were ‘released’ after a derisory period, and reinstated, receiving back pay, even promotion. Fr Faul, an unflinching critic of all violence, claimed it could not be established that any British soldier convicted of murder here ever served a day in real custody.
The British establishment has always regarded the Irish as ‘Untermenschen’, a sub species undeserving of rights and privileges accorded to Anglo-Saxons.
A former cabinet minister recently dismissed the murder of an innocent vulnerable man as “something that happened 46 years ago in Northern Ireland”.
Outrageously Good Morning Ulster recently provided a platform for a retired colonel to taunt relatives of murdered OIRA man Joe McCann, rubbing salt in their wounds by claiming that Joe, unarmed, had ‘received justice’, having been shot in the back. As a lawyer Trevor is surely aware that Joe McCann was never charged with any offence relating to the troubles and at the time of his murder was in the eyes of the law, an innocent man. A High Court judge excoriated the failure of military police and RUC to properly investigate his murder.
Britannia subdued, raped and plundered a quarter of the world’s population, coining the phrase ‘the white man’s burden’ to perversely present avarice as altruism. In her 500-year reign of global terror, the territory she most eagerly sought and professed to hold, was ‘the high moral ground’. It will never be hers.
BRIAN PATTERSON
Newry, Co Down
Distorted rhetoric
A wise old friend told me once you put something in print expect debate or criticism, but most importantly be sure of your facts. My former school friend John Cushnahan (May 4) condemns Sinn Féin for commemorating the life of Volunteer Seamus McElwaine, labelling it divisive rhetoric and time to put the past behind us. Maybe John could inform us why his beloved Fine Gael commemorate Michael Collins every year at Béal na Bláth, an event always aired on RTÉ? Sinn Féin’s tribute to Seamus was aired on social media, a big difference from RTÉ. I previously asked John (he failed to respond) how Fine Gael claim Michael Collins to be a founding member when he died 11 years before their formation.
John acknowledges Seamus McElwaine as being an IRA volunteer. Accept it or not but Michael Collins was likewise, both in the same army, fought the same enemy with the same objectives. According to John though, Seamus was a bad volunteer because he tried to kill Arlene Foster’s father and was responsible for up to10 further deaths in south Fermanagh. John’s source for these revealing statements – none other than Arlene herself. Maybe John thinks innocent until proven guilty is irrelevant. He fails to accept the physical war is over and is fearful that new generations in Ireland are having their eyes open.
TOMÁS Ó DUBHAGÁIN
Belfast BT11
Misleading statement
In your coverage “Gaza and Israel violence spreads” a paragraph states: “The use of artillery fire in Israel’s four day old offensive increased the likelihood of civilian casualties”.
This statement is both factually wrong and therefore misleading. The piece was not attributed to a specific source, not surprisingly.
Firstly, Israel is carrying out a defensive campaign. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been targeting Israeli civilian centres for months, culminating in a ratcheting up of their attacks.
As for civilian casualties, Hamas have targeted Israeli civilian centres only. There are many military bases near to the Gaza strip which they could have fired their missiles at. They chose not to, why?
Israel is faced with a cowardly opponent. Hamas deliberately places rocket launchers and munitions in civilian areas. Hospitals, schools and residential districts. They do not care about their own people.
The prime responsibility of any government is to protect its citizens. Israel does this with impeccable commitment. Hamas laughs at the very idea. Their people are dispensable and are treated, by them, as such. Hamas sees propaganda gains in every frame, sadly.
ANDREW J SHAW
Belfast BT10
Repeatedly used mantra
The mantra – ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’– is trotted out on every occasion that Palestinians react to Israeli evictions and demolitions of Palestinian families and homes, apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing, degradation and denial of universal human rights to the unfortunate captives of the colonisation of Palestine. The same slogan is repeatedly used by every government which supports the Israel project.
The author of the mantra, Frank Luntz, a US political consultant, wrote the rule book for Israeli spokespersons in December 2009 called The Israeli Project 2009 Global Language Dictionary in which he wrote, “Words that work: It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear”. It was made clear that the report was confidential but it was leaked to Newsweek. And so, on every occasion that Israel carries out horrendous actions against the captive population, the world’s media is bombarded with this slogan which, in other circumstances, would sound perfectly reasonable.
EUGENE F PARTE
Belfast BT9
