Galway Advertiser 1984/1984_05_03/GA_03051984_E1_010.pdf 

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American President Ronald Reagan will visit Galway City on Saturday, June 2nd, for approximately two hours. Details of the President's itinerary have not been officially decided but it is understood the President will be conferred with a Honorary Degree from the National University of Ireland, at U.C.G. Even, though the President's visit is a direct result of an invitation from the Quincentennial Committee, the visit has aroused some controversy. Some group and individuals, concerned about U.S. policy in Central America and the nuclear arms race feel that the U.S. President should be made aware that Ireland is unhappy and concerned about these policies. What do you think? The Galway Advertiser invited several individuals and groups to send in their reasons why we should welcome or not welcome President Reagan. The Galway Quin centennial Committee have declined to contribute believing, it is surmised, that its best to leave matters well alone. Deputy Robert Molloy was just too busy, but the rest complied.

T h e Reagan Visit
President Reagan's Visit Will Reinforce Links Between Galway and U.S. Irish

-- Chamber of Commerce

The President's Visit

NUCLEAR WAR THREATENS THE HUMAN RACE
Galway is a N u c l e a r - F r e e Zone. This m e a n s that G a l w a y C o r p o r a t i o n h a s outlawed, on b e h a l f o f the people o f Galway, all the trappings of preparation for nuclear war. President Reagan's visit d i r e c t l y c o n t r a v e n e s Galway's N u c l e a r - F r e e Zone. As c h i e f o f s t a f f o f the United S t a t e s a r m e d forces, the A m e r i c a n P r e s i d e n t c a r r i e s with him the infamous "briefcase" which enables h i m to launch a n u c l e a r a t t a c k . W e a r e celebrating 500 y e a r s a s a City; will Galway see a n o t h e r 500 y e a r s ? The human race is threatened with annihilation by the huge nuclear stockpiles of both Superpowers. Yet the Reagan Administration, with 26,000 nuclear warheads, continues to build new ones at the rate of 8 per day ! (This present stockpile is equivalent to half a million Hiroshimas.) Reagan's commitment to disarmament hinges on the notion of "peace through strength"; a huge increase in military spending (Rearmament) is meant to bring the U S S R to the disarmament negotiating table. This has patently failed; the U S S R response has been one of fear, mistrust, and aggression, and an increase in their own weapon systems. Under the Reagan Administration, the. U.S. national debt has increased by 53%, largely due to spending on the arms race; the U.S. arms industry is on a war-production footing. This scandalous over spending by the world's biggest economy has been one of the principal causes of inflation and unemployment throughout the world, not least in this country. Reagan now proposes to spend 1,800 billion dollars on the arms race in the next few years ! Nuclear weapons may annihilate the human race, but even now they cause death. Every day, all over the world, people die as resources are transferred from health,, education and construction to military spending. It is a crime against humanity that so much money and resources should be spent on such evil and anti-Christian weapons. As an example, for the price of 10 F i l l U.S. fighter-bombers, the World Health Organisation could eradicate malaria from the entire world in O N E month ! 367 U.S. Catholic Bishops last year published a pastoral letter which declared that nucler war is evil and immoral, and called for an immediate freeze on the development and deployment of nuclear weapons. Ronald Reagan's response was an emissary to the Pope, asking him to warn the bishops about intruding into politics The bishops stand is not a lonely one: millions of people in the American Nuclear Freeze Movement, in Europe and in Ireland are united in their opposition to the build-up of arms by the superpowers. Ronald and Nancy Reagan would be welcome to Ireland as private visitors. But this is not a private visit, it is a political one -- part of Reagan's re-election campaign. Mr. Reagan's policies threaten the future of civilisation. We oppose his visit because we see it as a cynical attempt to consolidate his power.
Submitted by Reman Scaife, on behalf of C.N.D. Park Road, Greenfields. Gainsay, c/o 7 Elm

Dear Sir, For years now we've had wars and rumours of wars and one doesn't have to be clairvoyant to realise there must be some hidden hand orchestrat ing the violence on a world wide scale. Manv things are taken out of context, and about such we hear loud protests, but no protest about the rest. Who took to the streets here in the West when the pastoral people of Afghanistan were invaded or when the Khmer R o u g e in C a m b o d i a delivered up their people to genocide. How come the protests against the violation of human rights are restricted exclusively to what is happening in Chile, S.A., El Salvador and the Philippines. Would the protesters please note that 95% (sic) of all refugees come from Marxist countries. This forces us to the conclusion that Marxist tyranny is twenty times as great as that of fascist terror. Tens of thousands of Cuban soldiers are s t a t i o n e d in foreign countries as forces of occupation. Who protests here in the West? Holy Week is an important event in our lives, I would like to know if there is O N E Com munist country where Christians can practice their religion without interference from the authorities, no, not even in Catholic Poland. Now here is much protest about the missiles but who put them there? As Solzhenitzen says, truth is seldom sweet. Truth is invariably bitter. The bitter truth is that there would be no nuclear missiles either this side of the Iron Curtain or the far side of the Curtain if the self same people hadn't put them there in the first place. Russia has had no technology to make such weapons e x c e p t that supplied to her and much else by American billion aires and Internationalists of the same ilk. This can be documented to the last comma. Deirdre Manifold, 15, Dalysfort Rd., Galway.

T h e G a l w a y C h a m b e r o f C o m m e r c e and this to each of us as individuals may seem remote, but I n d u s t r y w e l c o m e s t h e f o r t h c o m i n g visit o f the in terms of our communities standing in the world it is P r e s i d e n t o f the United S t a t e s o f A m e r i c a to very important. I r e l a n d , and p a r t i c u l a r l y to G a l w a y on J u n e 4th 3. The visit will reinforce the links between f o r the following r e a s o n s :-- Galway and the Irish in the United States. The Irish1. W e c o n s i d e r it an h o n o u r to the C i t y o f Americans play a very important part there and, as a G a l w a y , in its Quincentennial Y e a r , t h a t the group, have been very successful in civic and in private life. The link is not only of historical interest, P r e s i d e n t o f the United S t a t e s is visiting us. The visit of a world leader must confirm our own but is most important to Ireland now and in the proud view of our City and encourage all its citizens future. and organisations, both business and voluntary to 4. President Reagan's visit emphasises the support with voluntary work and with money the contribution to Galway of investment from his Corporation's drive to promote the Quincentennial. country. This has meant much to many, many as a result of the Quincentennial we are coming to families in the City and County. Galway people have know our City better and to value what we have. The good jobs and a regular income from these U.S. City's assets are the responsibility of everyone, and Companies, and the work done is as high a standard as that means positive effort and support with work and any in the world in the quality of the work and its technological content. Their contribution to the money. It is also time to consider the status of Galway, as a City's life is unparalleled. self governing community, and to have it a City in fact We look forward to more investment of this type as well as in name. and will make sure that the Presidential visit will help 2. The U.S. President's visit will draw the this, and improve the welfare of Galway and its attention of the world to Galway. The relevance of citizens.

B i s h o p Casey's Statement
B i s h o p E a m o n Casey o f G a l w a y was also invited t o c o n t r i b u t e a t some length his feelings on the f o r t h coming Presidential visit but he pointed out t h a t he h a d nothing

f u r t h e r to a d d t o w h a t within the bounds of has already b e e n c o u r t e s y , the Govern widely r e p o r t e d in t h e m e n t in particular, m e d i a : " n a m e l y t h a t a s b e c a u s e o f our friend first citizen o f A m e r i c a , ship with America, the President repre s h o u l d leave him sents the A m e r i c a n u n d e r no illusion how people a n d t h e r e f o r e m a n y I r i s h people feel m u s t be w e l c o m e d a n d a b o u t h i s C e n t r a l t r e a t e d with c o u r t e s y . A m e r i c a n policy. A t the s a m e t i m e ,

Galway's Labour Party Opposes Visit
T H E G A L W A Y West Constituency of the L a b o u r P a r t y is totally o p p o s e d t o t h e visit of U . S . President Ronald R e a g a n t o this c o u n t r y in J u n e . A t a r e c e n t m e e t i n g o f t h e C o n s t i t u e n c y C o u n c i l it w a s u n a n i m o u s l y d e c i d e d t o o p p o s e t h e visit mainly o n t h e grounds of t h e President's anti-human foreign policies and also b e c a u s e of t h e g r a v e t h r e a t of n u c l e a r a r m s build up presented t o the world. The U.S. advised army of El Salvador has 'killed many civilians by indiscriminate bombing' according to Rivera y Damas, the acting Catholic Archbishop of that country. Since 1979, this country has received nearly 400,000,000 U.S. dollars in military aid from the U.S.A. The situation in neighbouring Guatemala is similar. General Rios Montez is alleged to have killed 10,000 people since he came to power in March 1982. This country is the chief ally of the U.S. in Central America. It is no coincidence that 2% of this nation's inhabitants own 70% of the nation's wealth. In contrast to this, a major land redistribution programme has occurred in Nicuragua since the popular Sandinista revolution of 1979. Illiteracy has gone down from 80% to 20% in two years. There is no justification for Reagan's attack on this country, through his financial and military support for the counter-revolutionary 'contras' who carry out daily attacks on ordinary Nicaraguans, not to mention the recent mining of Nicaraguan ports by U.S. warships. In short, Reagan's policy in Latin America leaves much to be desired. The story is similar in other parts of the world, e.g. in the Philippines. Furthermore, Reagan's track record on the nuclear arms issue represents we believe, a major threat to world peace. For these reasons, the Labour Party in Galway West believes that the U.S. Presidential visit h e r e in J u n e must be unambiguously opposed. Tony O'Lectry, P.R.O.

Fintan Coogan asks;

Who Questioned Kennedy ?
T h e visit o f a n y i m p o r t a n t figure to Galway is a n i m p o r t a n t o c c a s i o n ; it is unfortunate that in this c a s e , the visit o f R o n a l d R e a g a n will be c o l o u r e d as a result o f his foreign policy.. I myself feel strongly about U.S. involvement in El Salvadore and Nicaragua and do not agree with what America is doing there. Yet I remember when the late President John F . Kennedy came to Galway in June 1963 there was no dissenting voice with regard to his foreign policy in South East Asia or his stand in the Cuban crisis. The Speaker of the U . S . House of Representatives Mr. Tip O'Neill said last weekend that even though he was a political antagonist of President Reagan he felt we should extend our hospitality and welcome for which we are so famous. Regarding American foreign policy, it should be noted that President Reagan has received a number of set-backs recently from Congress and the Senate, so it would appear that the American people are coming to realise that American interference in the internal running of other countries is ill-advised and often counter productive. It's a pity we are not going to have a visit from the Soviet President Mr. Chernenko when we would have the opportunity of expressing our feelings on the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and other areas including their prohibition of various dissenting voices within their own country or sphere of influence. However, Mr. Reagan was elected in a democracy and I am glad we too live in a democracy where opposite views can be expressed freely. Finally I hope that any protest which takes place will be carried out in an orderly fashion and that there will be no reaction against those protesting. They are merely exercising their rights as each and everyone of us is entided to do. F I N T A N COOGAN, T.D., (West Galway)