New Government

A chara,
The excitement has all but disappeared since the elections‚ and everyone is beginning to settle into the same old routine.
For some it was like deciding to repaint your faded sitting room. After a bit of thought rather than opting for a bright new colour‚ you take instead the easy way out‚ and opt for the same, tired, old colour because someone said why change?
So there you have it – the same status quo for the next five years. Welcome to the return of rogues gallery‚ once again – the Mercs‚ the sports utility vehicles, not forgetting all the wakes and the funerals that you must be seen at.
It explains one thing – people do not seem too eager to embrace change just in case, in their mind, it might upset the Celtic tiger.
This fear has been manipulated very well by Bertie and Brian Cowen the finance guru‚ in the months leading up to the election. Brian possessed very deep pockets. There seemed to be no shortage of  money or promises‚ and people bought into it hook, line and sinker‚ thinking good times never end.
But end they will when it becomes apparent that the Celtic tiger is suffering from a very bad  dose of toothache (Bertie and Co being the toothache) an extraction will be required. People will think that maybe if they had been a bit more adventuress when marking our ballot papers‚ we would not have to witness the smug look on the faces of dome TDs who were re-elected‚ not for what they did‚ but just because they smiled‚ shook hands or waved, when boarding at Carrick Finn for a flight to Dublin‚ pretending to be on the mobile, not wanting to listen to your woes while checking the latest value of their shares.
Is mise,
J Woods

A chara,
So, after Fianna Fáil strung along the Greens for a week, the governmental crisis continues in Ireland. What is the root of this crisis? It is the history of corruption in the modern Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael parties.
This means that enough voters no longer trust these parties for there to be a straightforward government formed by them. There can be no long-term stability if these parties and their “gene pool” make up the government.
Therefore, no TD of Labour, the Greens, Sinn Féin, or anyone else who considers themselves to be on the  left of  Irish politics should go forward as Speaker of the Dáil and no left TD or party should be abstentionist on either of these two right-wing parties but should vote against any Taoiseach they put forward, both now and into the future. If another general election were to be precipitated, the blame lies with those two parties and their history of political corruption.   
 Is mise,
Joe Murphy,
(Formerly Secretary of the Campaign for the Birmingham Six, England)

Irish Government should implement boycott of Israeli goods

A chara,
Today, Saturday 9 June,  I had the privilege to take part in the march in Dublin city centre to highlight the justifiable cause of Palestinian freedom which has been denied to them by the Israeli Apartheid regime.While walking through the city center my mind kept turning back to Amira Haas the well know Israeli journalist who had the courage to do what no other Israeli journalist would do and that was to live and report from among the people of the Gaza strip.She described how a doctor in Gaza could not get permission to accompany his terminally ill mother to hospital She died alone. She had many sad stories which she  wrote about in the well known newspaper Ha’aretz another one where a young man, whose fiancee was in Jordan, was denied a travel permit, a couple undergoing fertility treatment, received one permit for the day of their appointment, for his wife only.Amira’s mother survived the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen, but what her mother taught her was how the ordinary German people would “Just look from the side”.
It is now time for the Irish Government to stop looking from the side and implement a boycott of all Israeli goods until such time that the Palestinians are given proper freedoms in a  democratic society
 Is mise,
Paul Doran,
27 Monastery Walk,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22