How many times must we say No?

A Chairde,


Here we go again - Bertie the Shepherd, herding us down the European road to suicide.

Will Bertie ever learn? Recently, we displayed our soccer adulation with wild abandon - as is our wont. We are not afraid to let our hair down. We're fun loving, and maybe raucous at time, crazy in merriment, but fiercely conscious, and proud of our Irishness, and our land of many tears and torments.

Love of country - patriotism - honesty - integrity - sincerity - loyalty - all those things meant much to the Irish politicians of long ago - Not any more!

Must we endure a social-climbing Finance Minister throwing money after money, and ignoring the moneyless? We hear him on the radio laughingly telling us that he can still pull white rabbits from his hat, let him tell that to the European vultures - and still laugh! What a way to run a country!

It's the dent in democracy that defies logic, and where incompetence is rewarded. God was abandoned, and substituted by a series of 'unhaloed' politicians, who are ruthless, selfish, arrogant (very much so), and brain-dead from the ankles up. They are the court jesters on the European political stage, who want us, by hook or by crook, to surrender ourselves, our country and our culture to an unelected and unknown band of capitalists in Europe, for a mess of pottage that our forefathers fought against, for over 800 years.

Ireland and its people are not your playthings to swap, or sell, or betray. Yet we have a crass and inept leader of our country, and his ilk, endeavouring to sell our very souls for the few lousy valueless Euro - that defrocks them of honour, patriotism and any symbol of decency. Judas, at least, had the decency to blush!

We must realise that it is our country that's on the line in this Nice Treaty. Let's not forget. It was the current crop of politicians who were amongst the earliest in Europe to capitulate and surrender our country for a mere £5.5 billion. The beneficiaries here were the rich, who became richer, while the poor became poorer. The old familiar pattern - the never-ending line of deception, but yet, the barber keeps on shaving, while the taxpayer pays for all.

You called us "whingers" for having exercised our democratic right - How dare you! As our Taoiseach - you are our biggest embarrassment. Your inflated ego reflects your midget mind, that cannot discern right from wrong or Yes from No.

We may be crazy - but not stupid.

What part of "No" does Bertie not understand?

The Nice treaty is dead - Let the dead rest!


Joe McNally,
Westport

Mixed messages

A Chairde,


Several of your esteemed correspondents and letter writers have raised the prudent concern as to what our fellow Europeans will think of us if we say No to Nice. According to one insider the following was their reaction after the first referendum on this issue:

"Over the past two days I attended a meeting of the interim European Security and Defence Assembly. I was amazed and gratified in equal measure at the response by European parliamentarians from 28 different European nations to the Irish referendum... there was no finger wagging or suggestion that the Irish people had got it wrong or were confused, rather there was a degree of admiration for the decision the Irish people had made... speakers from a number of countries both within and outside the Union indicated that the Irish people in the No vote reflected a common view and concern that now exists both within the EU and in those states most proximate to the EU.

"Members from the EU states who contributed directly in the debate or who spoke privately to the Irish delegation members indicated that it was their view - I made an effort to do a straw poll - that referenda on the Nice Treaty, as it currently stands, if held in other member states would meet with the same public response as in Ireland."

The speaker was Mr Dick Roche, Fianna Fáil spokesman for a 'Yes' vote in the forthcoming Nice Referendum.


Seosamh Ó Cuaig
Elected member,
Údarás na Gaeltachta

Sure, you knew all along!

A Chairde


Based on the experience of the General Election, I am willing to make two predictions.

1. In the remaining days before the Nice Referendum 2, the government and its supporters will continue, despite the evidence, to deny that the EU can be enlarged without the Nice Treaty.

2. If the voters reaffirm their decision on the unchanged Treaty and enlargement goes ahead, Mr McCreevey will, with his bewildered expression, proclaim "Ah, sure any fool should have seen that there had to be a Plan B"!


Seán Marlow
Dublin 11

Stormont déjà vu

A Chairde,


The circus at dawn at Stormont, with scores of PSNI officers in full riot gear, accompanied by armoured cars and in the full glare of the TV cameras conveniently in place, is the ninth occasion that the Northern Ireland Office has made concessions to save David Trimble's hide in advance of the UUP Council meetings.

Despite the Assistant Chief Constable's verdict that almost all of the street violence has been orchestrated by loyalists and "moderate" SDLP leader, Mark Durkan declaring that "the UUP have set out a manifesto to destroy the Agreement and the agenda for change, with David Trimble no more than a front for the rejectionists who now control the party", the NIO has decided to throw the UUP another bone. The lowly Stormont messenger had no access to security correspondence between London and Belfast, because this transferred electronically.

I am reminded of the talks before talks at Stormont to secure the Agreement, when it was deemed expedient to sweeten unionists by having Sinn Féin expelled for a while. Then, RUC Chief Ronnie (now Sir) Flanagan, called a press conference at which he trumpeted that three men, indubitably IRA, had been arrested for the killing of a drug dealer. He said the RUC had forensic evidence, including the gun they used, linking the three to the crime, and left his audience in no doubt that they were guilty. Sinn Féin was duly expelled from the talks.

Six months later Flanagan was knighted and two months after that, after languishing in jail for eight months, the three men were brought to trial. The RUC could produce no evidence of IRA membership against them, nor forensic evidence. Further, they could not produce the alleged gun, nor account for its whereabouts.

The trial judge was incandescent at this waste of public money and time and threw the case out. There was no glare of publicity to match that at Flanagan's press conference, but the purpose had been served and the present hubbub is serving a similar purpose. Trimble will be handed another concession and wee, self-promoting, Jeffrey Donaldson will probably have to wait another year for Trimble's job and a return to the good old days of the '60s, when the nationalists knew their place.


Arthur Valentine,
Edinburgh

Discrimination on the Net

A Chairde,


Interestingly, the BBC discriminates against an Gaeilge on the Net - high tech discrimination if you will.

A non-republican poster recently included a few phrases as Gaeilge and lo and behold, they were deleted.

Rising to the chalenge as any good republican would, I replied with my tu'pence worth and was treated in the same anti-Irish fashion. This is part of their reason for so discriminating:

"The House Rules don't permit us to let through messages in languages other than English. Best wishes, BBC Message Board Moderators."

As the other poster pointed out, this was against the spirit and the letter of the GFA. So there we have it - discrimination alive and well in 2002.


Niall Pender