Galway Advertiser 1996/1996_02_15/GA_15021996_E1_018.pdf 

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Comment & Letters

T

here was a depressing sense of deja vu about the media coverage after last Friday's terrible and completely unjustifiable bombing of Canary Wharf. We thought - we hoped - we had heard the last of car bombs killing innocent peo ple, security checks, and sinister communiques from 'P. O'Neill'. We thought - we hoped - that bur television screens had shown their last images of bloody faces and shattered buildings and police cordoning off scenes of destruction while ambulances tore through streets, sirens wailing like the keening for the dead. It was like your worst nightmare, and then realising you're not asleep but wide awake and this is all actual ly happening. Again. The crucial difference was, the North, the South and Britain had nearly complet ed eighteen months of peace, eighteen months during which we didn't have to uncon sciously ready ourselves each moming and each evening to hear of yet another killing, yet another father shot in front of his children, a son murdered in front of his mother. The most blessed thing about the peace was not having to imagine broken, torn and shattered people, and the horror of their last moments. Gerry Adams always says, when he has been asked to condemn, on behalf of Sinn Fein, the latest atrocity, and his reply has been "I don't engage in the politics of con demnation." He has a point, of course; it is easy to simply condemn and then turn away, as if you've actually done something. But there are circumstances in which the most fundamental reaction is to condemn, and the Canary Wharf bomb is one of them. There is no possible justification for planting a large and deadly bomb where the odds are some innocent person or persons will be killed. And no amount of anger or frus tration with John Major or DavidTrimble or anyone else whom the I.R.A. blames for the lack of progress towards all-party talks justifies taking such a step. At the very least (and we stress least), it is disproportionate.

T h e Struggle for P e a c e Must C o n t i n u e

'What in the name of God are ye up to?' asks Ray McBride
O
Minister Howlin, City Manager, City to looking out a this 'Monster* which is pro t Councillors, posed for the middle of our Bay. What in the n m of God are ye up to? Would a e None of us w n to suffer having to view this at ye ever cop-on once and for all, before its too ugly monster sticking its long n c up out of our ek late. Please listen to the views and demands ofbeautiful Bay now or in the future. die Galway people. After all it was we the peo Please, Please, Please - stop it now before it's ple of Galway who elected ye to represent us,, too late, or will s m o e have to rewrite t e o en h and what are ye doing about, yes - good old song m d 'famous' by the late Bing Crosby and ae 'Galway Bay*? rename it: "Watch t e Sludge go down on h Thousands of tourists visit Loch Ness in Galway Bay'. n this day in 1932 a Scotland every year to view the 'famous' Loch remarkable general Ness Monster. Do they see it? No. Because it's aSo cop-on, Minister. election took place in myth. Likewise thousands of tourists visit Cop-on, Manager and Councillors. what was then called the Galway every year to view our 'famous' Galway This is our Bay. Irish Free State. Bay. Do they s e it? Yes. Because it is not a So Hands off e It was a notable occasion in myth. No way. the establishment of the Hopefully we in Galway and the thousands Ray McBride process of democracy for of tourists (whom we depend on for our econo Fair-hill Road the main democracy for the my) will not be subjected to inflicting our eyes Claddagh Galway.

The Swing toDev

I.R.A. Cease Fire Based on Talks Promise
Having made that point, however, it has to be admitted, as even Peter Temple Morris, Conservative Chairperson of the Commons Committee on North Ireland, that if a declaration was made by the British Government that after three months of the cease-fire talks would begin, and yet eighteen months later, those same talks were no closer to beginning, how can Mr Major not take some of the responsibility for this delay? Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness persuaded the I.R.A. to lay their weapons down on the understanding that the nationalist case would be accorded a hearing in face-to-face discussions. Nobody thought a United Ireland would come about as a result of this, but there was a belief that a united constitutionalist position by nation alists of all shades would carry considerable clout. The I.R.A. 's responsibility is, unquestionably, the heaviest; as Albert Reynolds, whose pragmatic approach is badly missed, said in an RTE interview, even if there were delays and frustrations, you don't plant bombs; you intensify dialogue. Yet the I.R.A. leadership watched as decommissioning became the crunch issue, even though nothing had been said about this prior to the cease-fire. And, within the past fortnight, the decommissioning requirement was suddenly dropped, and into its place was put elections. Face-to-face talks again put on the back burner. / To men and women as suspicious as the I.R.A., tactics and moves such as these could not but seem as if the British Government had no serious intention of ever sit ting down with them. A bomb, they must have imagined, concentrates the. mind won derfully. The tragedy is, of course, that it has. /

British Dismissal of Mitchell Report 'Final Straw'
It is not adopting a 'Republican' line to say that both Sir Patrick Mayhew and John Major seem, at best, to have been badly'advised over the Mitchell Report. Sen. Mitchell is a subde and shrewd individual. His painstaking report deserved more than the abrupt dismissal it received from the British Government. If that was unfortunate, Mr Major's enthusiastic embrace of a Unionist proposal for elections was, as Mr Reynolds accurately pointed out, 'the straw that broke the camel's back". Mr Reynolds made one point very clearly and forcefully in his RTE interview: there is no way you'll ever find a solution if you aren't prepared to sit down and talk. The British Government received coldly the idea of using the United States as a venue for Bosnia-like talks because it likes to insist Northern Ireland is an internal affair. But there is another precedent that Mr Major ought to consider. Israel is a sovereign state, like Britain, and die P.L.O., in any tealistic view, has much in common with the I.R.A. It was much more difficult for Isrtel and the P.L.O. to sit down together, many more deaths have occurred on both sides in that conflict than in Northern Ireland. It took the offer as honest broker and moderator of a Norwegian diplomat, a mem ber of the same fraternity as Sen. Mitchell, to get Israel and the P.L.O. talking. That conflict, while not over, is at least moving steadily in the direction of a peaceful res olution. The I.R.A. must make the first move; political stalling, if that's what it has been, bears no comparison with planting a lethal bomb. It must, through Sinn Fein, make it clear that the cease-fire is back in place. But then there must be rapid progress to sub stantive talks. The vast majority of the population of this island, in both communities, desires a lasting peace with a desperation that was shown in the immediate aftermath of the Canary Wharf bombing. It is time for the politicians to take bold steps, even dangerous steps. Lives are at stake; that is the only issue worth that ultimately mat ters.

main protagonists had faced each other less than a decade before in Civil War. Those who had won that struggle had held the reins of government since and had fought three elections. On no occasion had they achieved a majority of seats in the Dail nor more than the 39 per cent of first preference votes which they won in September 1923. Oppostion had become more organised in the six years before 1932 and the depression which began in the late 1920's undermined the govern ment The Treaty of 1921 was still an issue but eco nomic and social problems were coming to the force. Galway county was, at the time, a single large con stituency. It was the biggest in Ireland returning nine members to the Dail. Cumann na nGaedheal put forward sex candidates while Fianna Fail fielded seven. Labour had two can didates and there was one independent. These fared badly in what was almost a straight battle between the government party and the main opposition. Rival Candidates boasted of where they were in 1916 and in 1922 and 1923. Educational background and experience included, for some.university and professional training, for others the then prestigious Frongoch and Harepark internment camps. Frank Fahy was the main protag onist for Fianna Fail and he was to head the poll and to become Ciann comhairle in the Seventh Dail. The out-, going Minister For Ahriculture, Patrick Hogan, was to lead the Cummann na nGadheal candidates.

Next Time - Drive Past Shell
Dear Editor, You may recall the executions of Ken Sarowiwa and others by the Nigerian authorities in November 199S. The exploita tion of the Ogoni people and their oilrichland continues by Shell, hungry for profit. These events may disappear from our newspapers and TV screens but the day-to-day problems con tinue for the local people. Although it may s e futile em and pointless to some, we urge your readers to boycott Shell Nelson Mandela would b e and its petrol/oil products. President of South Africa? This There s e s to be s m many w s largely achieved by eco em o e a things we should avoid buying nomic pressure and by people from dubious countries it's very boycotting South African pro confusing and we can't boycott duce. all of them! However, pressure So, next time you need to fill can work; the French up, drive past Shell! Government recently cancelled two of its Nuclear t ss due in Yours faithfully, et part to people refusing to buy Emer Crangle French wine, which h s hit (Member ,Ogoni a their exports. Who, ten years Solidarity Group) ago, would have believed that

Giving Land Away In Renmore!

The Claddagh Swan That Jumps on the Wall
Dear Editor, We are students in Fifth class in the Claddagh school. Last w e there w s an article in the paper about the s a s in ek a wn Claddagh Basin by Naomi Richardson. In our class are doing a project on the s a s in the Claddagh. My friend and I have the wn part of writing to the paper. Last w e we fed the s a s cereal and bread. My teacher said ek wn that Mr. Tony Luff is going to call in and talk about the swans. ' It said in the paper to please write in and try and n m the a e hen swan that jumps up on the wall beside the Claddagh Basin. We have a f w suggestions - Fionnula, Eala, Bouncer and e Jumping Jenny. I'm sure it'll get a good name! Yours sincerely, Darren Barry & Mark Healy St Nicholas' N.S., Claddagh.

Dear Editor, Would the City Manager please tell us who initiated the idea that publicly owned land at Renmore be given away to a couple of private individuals without any direct or mean ingful compensation in rearm? . I am sure that nobody would insult the public's intelligence by suggesting that public a c s hours is sufficient com ces pensation since anyone wish ing to increase their wealth through the proviso of a facil ity such a a swimming-pool s will be inviting the public to use this facility in any case. Without doubt the responsi ble and competent elected members and civil servants of the Corporation, who do a splendid job, have commis sioned and seen an open-mar ket valuation of the green site concerned, and I want J e o Gavin to tell us what this val In this election for the first uation w s so that w may a e time Fianna Fail took a form our own opinions on the majority of the first prefer merits of this heretofore ence votes in Galway, 54 unquantified magnanimity of percent It was part of a the Corporation.

THIS WEEK...

swing which brought de Vetera to power as head of government.

P. O'Neill