Letters to the Editor: Ireland is well-placed to build world peace
Then taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair signing the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998. File picture: RollingNews
Hints of peace in Ukraine and new US policies will increase pressure to abandon our neutrality. The well-paid activists of Western arms industries are already talking up our imagined fears and are lobbying for increased spending on weapons and military resources.
The arms industry feeds on fear. Even as a child I heard: “The Russians are coming, The Russians are coming.”
Any person with a knowledge of the conflict in Ukraine will know that they are not. However, we do know who is coming: The arms salesmen.
Our best response is to recall recent times in Ireland when violence and guns dominated politics. We must remember the effort it took to persuade the protagonists to abandon military action, along with the bigger effort to collect and decommission those weapons as part of the Good Friday Agreement.
As a society, we must remember these lessons and recognise that building communications, friendship, and peace are the only logical answers for a secure future for our children.
Spending on military solutions does little but to inflate militaristic egos and further the profits of the presently bloated arms industry — an industry that will handsomely reward the salesmen and the politicians who secure such contracts.
Our country and peacekeeping troops have a sound international reputation. This, and the experience of the Good Friday Agreement, place Ireland in an excellent position to reason through the UN, EU, US, Russia, China, and worldwide for a massive increase in spending, not on arms but on building dialogue and intercultural exchanges for friendship.
Not long ago, our National Symphony Orchestra toured Russia and China while the Bolshoi Ballet visited Ireland. Investing in intercultural exchanges and promoting tourism between our countries would gradually reduce antagonism, bridge divisions, and foster relationships.
Such advocacy by the Irish Government would greatly enhance our international status and our pride as citizens.
Am I the only one on the wrong track or what, that an Irish-language film, Kneecap, has an English title? I know it is about a group called Kneecap, whose aim is to promote the language, but why not an Irish title? Without being too much of a cynic, I would say it is all to do with promotion. It seems like it was easier to promote a film in English rather than the Irish translation of ‘caipín glúine’. Why go to all the trouble to make an Irish-language film then fall down on the title? I am sure the producer has an explanation.
Can you imagine the French giving a film like La Vie En Rose an English title to help promote it. Not likely. It didn’t need it. With its native language, it was a worldwide success with three Oscars.
When it has come to Irish, this country has always let itself down.
Even with all the success Ireland has achieved against all the odds, it has failed miserably in saving and promoting its native language. Its record is appalling. After over 100 years of absolute control of the destiny of the language, they are no nearer in reviving it as they were at the onset of independence.
The Irish language is as much part of Ireland as its landscape, its Celtic crosses, its rich culture, its mythology, and even its under-attack religion.
This country should be kind to its native language instead of abusing it and treating it with contempt.
I’ve lived in Ireland for 52 years, and I have never once been welcomed in Irish. I’ve probably been told to sling my hook many times, but never a “céad míle fáilte”.
With only 1.6%, according to statistics, speaking Irish every day, the question is: Is it a dead language? If it is, perhaps the kindest thing we can do with this well-abused language is to lay it to rest — doing so with the respect it deserves, respect it was never given. It may have a better after life and be more appreciated in academia alongside Latin, Coptic, and ancient Greek.
It is hard to fathom how in 21st-century Ireland views expressed by those opposed to the Irish language can be articulated and defended in public, and how depressingly predictable that such comments still command a significant degree of support in Northern Ireland.
The many academic achievements of members of Ireland’s Protestant community in Irish literature, music, language, and culture is a reminder of the considerable influence the Protestant community in Ireland had on Irish culture in 19th and 20th centuries.
Douglas Hyde, the first President of Ireland, was one of the founders of the Gaelic League; painter Sarah Purser established An Túr Gloine; WB Yeats and Lady Gregory formed the Irish Literary Theatre in 1899, which became the Abbey Players in 1904. Both George Petrie and Edward Bunting are responsible for the wealth of ancient Irish music in our archives. JM Synge, George Russell (AE), and Kathleen Lynn, were all major contributors to the shaping of modern Ireland.
Sadly, when the Irish language was perceived as a nationalist icon, it became a divisive issue with many in the unionist community. The Irish language was, in fact, held with affection and admiration by many Protestants in the 19th century. However, following partition, it was neglected in the education system in Northern Ireland. Protestant/unionist cultural identity was inextricably linked with the wider British and imperial world to which most Protestants pledged their political and emotional allegiances.
It is inconceivable that the wonderfully rich tapestry of Ireland’s Protestant cultural and literary tradition, a tradition which over the centuries gave us the likes of Berkeley, Swift, and Yeats should be allowed to be defined by culturally impotent unionism or sectarian loyalism.
Not even the historic visit by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland in 2011 and the historic preamble to her address to President Mary McAleese “A Uachtaráin, agus a cháirde”, which drew praise from the global media, can convince the philistines and curmudgeons of unionism to cross the tribal divide. Disparagingly referring to the Irish language as “leprechaun speak”, former first minister Peter Robinson perpetuates the domination of one community by another on a sectarian basis.
If Michael Moynihan printed his column this week only in Irish, how many people would read it? How many Leaving Cert students could actually read it?
My brother went through a gaelscoil for his Leaving Cert, and then had to start from scratch again when he went to college. The fundamental problem with teaching languages in Ireland is that we are so poor at it. After 10 years of learning Irish and five years for another language, Leaving Cert students are only truly fluent in English. Now Michael thinks we should inflict that incompetence on immigrants to this country. I think he needs to come down off his pedestal and get real.
The patent cowering and cagey apprehensions being exhibited by many democratic and hitherto respectfully “settled” countries in the fallout from neo-Trumpism to date is both puerile and grossly unbecoming of mature nations. Is the non-US world so in hock to US economic interests and business dalliances that it eschews any sense of moral fibre and ethical resolve?
Fretting and fumbling about how to respond is a sad reflection of the total lack of steadfast decency and decorum at play.
Yes, it could very well hurt in the short-term to have to engage in some version of a global trade war, but it is imperative to weather any such challenges — rather than succumb to the recklessly fickle narcissism of immature bully-boy tactics a zero empathy, kick-butt businessman. Seeing the double felon press briefing of Trump and Netanyahu, both under a vast cloud of criminality, preaching and promoting grotesque aberrations of humanity via Gaza take-over propositions was not only sick — it was a blatant harbinger of the end of global civilisation as we knew it. As for Ukraine and Palestine, the die is almost cast. How shockingly corrupt is that.
Of course, bullies are typically weak at core — camouflaged only with wanton disregard for anyone, and selfish machination. When firmly challenged and exposed as of no value to the common cause of righteousness in well-being for the collective, they will fade and fall. Standing up to the onslaught of insult and rash destructive manipulations is for sure a big undertaking, but all self-respecting countries must be resolute and resilient to retain any modicum of self-respect. While Brexit was an obvious mistake, a corrupted phoney proposition which will haunt Britain for many a year, the election of Trump will spell ongoing for disaster for the US in the future. Other countries can survive if it takes up the obnoxious gauntlet to fight for aforementioned decency and decorum. Vital irrespective of any Paddy Day pandering.
Recently the bravery of RNLI volunteers was again seen in action when the Castletownbere RNLI crew had a ‘call out’ on 16 February at night around 4.20am to help a fishing boat in trouble in a Force 7 storm at sea.
They brought the boat and the two men crew safely to Castletownbere. This is one example of rescues in difficult sea situations by the RNLI every year.
Helen Doe’s hardback book One Crew (Amberley Publishing, 2024), which last year marked the 200th anniversary of the RNLI, will be out in paperback in April and is on pre-order from Amazon.
An apricot coloured RNLI rose called the ‘RNLI 200th — With Courage’ created by Peter Beales Roses had its launch at the Chelsea Flower Show in May 2024. A possible addition to a garden for spring.
