Britain's role in loyalist violence

A Chairde,


The killing of journalist Martin O'Hagan by loyalist gunmen brings the total number of gun and bomb attacks carried out by loyalist paramilitaries, in the first nine months of this year, to over 250. There has also been loyalist paramilitary involvement in acts of intimidation against the nationalist community, including parents and school girls going to the Holy Cross School in Ardoyne.

The Good Friday Agreement stated that people should be free from sectarian attacks and intimidation. But for several communities in the North, sectarian violence continues to be visited upon them.

During two recent visits to the North, I spoke to people who are directly affected by and on the receiving end of this campaign of violence by loyalist paramilitaries. They expressed anger at the daily and nightly trauma they endure and at much of the media coverage of it. They wondered why the media gave so little coverage to the need to have loyalist guns and bombs decommissioned, guns and bombs that are being used on a daily basis. They wondered why politicians and sections of the media continuously go on about the need to have IRA weapons that are in sealed dumps and inspected by the international inspectors decommissioned. And they also asked why some commentators still continue to pedal the lie that the two communities were equally to blame, when it is clear to anyone who wishes to examine the facts that what is going on, is an orchestrated loyalist campaign of ethnic cleansing.

I thought about this last evening while watching British Secretary of State, John Reid, on the Late Late Show. According to John, British politicians have been coming over to Ireland for the past 800 years and they have not been able to solve the 'Irish problem'. Well, perhaps it's time that we had some honest discussion on why this is so.

The British people, I believe, have many fine qualities and are no better or worse than any other race, but their government's rule in Ireland has been a disaster. The reality is that the divide and rule strategy that they have used to keep a foothold in Ireland has spawned the ugly sectarianism that is the lifeblood of loyalist paramilitaries.

Having been told for hundreds of years that they are British and superior and having received marginal benefits for being loyal and providing the foot soldiers for the British garrison, loyalist communities now feel threatened by the concepts of the all-Ireland decision making, equality and justice contained in the Good Friday Agreement.

This reality must be faced up to by everyone. British rule and the sectarian state it created, has spawned the ugly sectarianism that looms large over the North. The Agreement threatens no one, but provides the basis for ending violence and taking all the guns out of the equation and the creation of a national democracy, controlled by the people of this island, Protestant, Catholic and all others, regardless of race, gender or religion. I believe this will happen, it will happen all the sooner if we face up to reality and have an honest dialogue about what is really happening.

Brian Stanley.

Portlaoise

Che and Bobby score big in Galway

A Chairde,


I am a member of Sinn FÈin in the National University of Ireland, Galway, and I would just like to congratulate whoever is responsible at Head Office for producing the latest poster with Bobby Sands and Che Guevara on it.

We have been putting these posters up all over our campus and they certainly attracted attention as they are colourful, professional looking, and provided contact numbers for people looking to join.

Indeed, these posters allowed the new students to realise that there is an active cumann in the college long before our societies day.

Keep up the good work!


Jason Mc Gill
Sinn FÈin, NUI Galway

Flouridation facts

A Chairde,


It is a pity that RuairÌ ” BlÈine (M·la Poist, 27 Sept) has not been following the in-depth work your paper has been doing on the effects of flouridation of water but instead just takes Brian MacUaid to task for your latest study.

The letter of Bernard W Miltenberger on 25 January of this year, among other things, states that giving children flouride supplements 'is like giving your child a little rat poison every day'.

The article by Ualtar ” CrÈach·in on 21 June, among other things, states 'Ireland has the highest cancer rate in Europe, the highest osteoporosis rate in Europe, one fifth of the adult population with irritable bowel syndrome and 50% of children have dental fluorosis (structural tooth damage caused by flouride). It's not surprising that Ireland has such bad health when the government dump fertiliser toxic waste in the water... We need a law, like they have in Holland, that prevents our drinking water from being used to dump drugs.'

Ualtar also pointed out that in the US, 'toothpaste tubes that contain flouride have a poison warning on the back, by federal law since 1997, that states "if you accidentally swallow more than a pea-sized amount of toothpaste, you should contact a poison control centre immediately."'

How can RuairÌ judge that Brian has not the slightest interest in the people's health? Other people have highlighted the dangers of tobacco and alcohol. To call someone a 'crank' for talking about the dangers of flouridation is over the top. I am sure the above mentioned information can be got from An Phoblacht archives and RuairÌ can inform himself of the full implications of the dangers of forced intake of flouride.

Litigation is the only thing that will bring powerful people to heel and make them answerable to the people they supposedly serve. Litigation has been tried with some success in the US. So why not here?


Noelle Ryan
Springhill
Belfast

DiospÛireacht faoi fluridi

A Chairde,

Ba mhaith liom c˙pla rudaÌ a r· faoi litir RuairÌ ” BlÈine, a bhÌ in An Phoblacht an seachtain seo caite. An chÈad rud le r· agam na nach mbeidh mÈ ag dul i dtreo ionsaÌ pearsanta, cos˙il le RuairÌ. Is mÛr an trua nach raibh sÈ ab·lta dÈile·il leis an ·bhar a bhÌ i gceist, gan i bheith ag taispe·int a mhÌbhÈasa.

Muna bhfuil an ·bhar seo comh darÌre, beadh litir RuirÌ greannmhar. Is substaint nad˙rtha È "Arsnic" fresin, ach nÌl aon duine ag r· gur deannan sÈ maitheas do do shl·inte?

Is rud maslach È, nÌ amhain domsa, ach do achan duine eile at· i gcoinne fluridi˙. An bhfuil sÈ ag r· gur "cranks agus brÈagadoirÌ" iad uilig, na fiaclÛirÌ, na doctuirÌ, na heolaÌ agus an 90% de dhaoine a scrÌobh chuig an Foram um Fluridi˙ Uisce sa deisceart? Is dÛcha go bhfuil. Nach droch tinneas È a bheith ag smaoineamh gur tusa an t-aon duine amh·in at· gclic sa domhan?

Da mbeadh t˙ ag lorg diospÛireacht ceart faoi an ·bhar seo scrÌobh chugam agus beidh mÈ l·n s·sta an ·bhar a phlea leat.


Cllr. Brian MacUaid,
Cluain Eois,
Co. Mhuineachain

Newington remembers 1981

A Chairde,


Over the past six months, the Newington 1981 Hunger Strike Committee has been organising events in the area to commemorate the ten republicans who died in the H Blocks in 1981.

The hunger strike finished in early October that year, and to mark the 20th anniversary of those historic events, the committee is planning to unveil a large marble plaque in their memory, as a permanent monument in the area, on Sunday 7 October.

The event will begin with a short march, assembling in Marsden Gardens, off the Cavehill Road, at 2.30pm, and marching to Newington Avenue. The starting point and the route that have been chosen are the same as those used in the late '70s and early '80s for marches in support of the prisoners by local people.

The plaque will be located alongside the present mural in Newington Avenue. The unveiling will be performed by Bernard Fox, who took part in the 1981 hunger strike, and the main speaker will be Michelle Gildernew, the Sinn FÈin MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone, the area represented by Bobby Sands twenty years ago.

The committee is calling on the people of Newington, Lower Cavehill and surrounding areas to come out and support this event, and we would especially like to see people who have moved away from the area, over the years, coming back for this occasion.


Sean OilibhÈar,
BÈal Feirste