Remember the Victims
MICHAEL McIlveen (a/k/a Mickybo) was a 15-year-old Catholic schoolboy in Ballymena, Co. Antrim who while on his way home from buying a pizza on May 6, 2006, was jumped and severely beaten by a sectarian gang who repeatedly stuck him with a baseball bat and stamped on his head in an alley he was forced into on the Garfield Place in Ballymena.
While he somehow managed to stagger home he died in hospital two days later after being switched off life support.
Mervyn Moon, 18, from Douglas Terrace, along with seven other youths have been charged with the murder. However, at least four received bail. As of now they are still awaiting trial and are presumed to be innocent unless proven guilty.
Thomas McDonald was a 16-year-old Protestant schoolboy on the Whitewell Road in North Belfast who while riding his bicycle around neighborhood on September 4, 2001 was intentionally run over with a car during a sectarian attack carried out by a 33 year old woman named Alison McKeown. Thomas later died from head injuries sustained during the attack.
In 2003 McKeown confessed, but she was only sentenced to two years in prison and ended up only serving one year.
Neither of these two boys were members of any paramilitary organization that would have encouraged them to be targeted. They were simply teenagers with their whole lives ahead of them.
Both of our island’s two communities need to put our differences aside and work for the justice these two young men deserve.
RIP Thomas and Mickybo.
Eric Hafner Monmouth County, New Jersey
In the Gutter
IF is one word in the English language that best describes letter writer Robert O’Sullivan, it is guttersnipe.
America went to war in Vietnam, killed indiscriminately, and John McCain as a pilot in the conflict and now presidential candidate in nothing more than a common murderer. That is the sum total of his letter “No Honor in War” (April 9-15).
Cornered as Mr. O’Sullivan is in his abject hatred of America, he is incapable of making distinctions.
Anytime America went to war it was to liberate the oppressed or prevent them from enslavement. Not one inch of land was ever aggrandized.
Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam, as did Mao Tse Tung of China, went to war against their own people in order to enslave them. Regrettably they succeeded, and today we see over a billion people reduced to mere chattels of brutal totalitarian states.
China is not finished yet with slaughter — witness the murders of the peaceful Tibetan Buddhist monks.
Is that the kind of social progress Mr. O’Sullivan embraces? The tone of his letter seems to say yes.
We can somehow understand, if not forgive, the crazed hatred poured on America by the Islamist fascist. They come from closed societies and are indoctrinated from infancy in hatred of America.
No such understanding can be given to Mr. O’Sullivan. He is from the land of saints and scholars.
As the saying goes, there are some things that defy human reason. As Mr. O’Sullivan fits that classification he is best left to God and the guttersnipes.
John Rogers Voorhees, New Jersey
Who Cares About Vote?
WHEN Garret FitzGerald was taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, he would often say he was first a “European” and he was “Irish” after that.
For the leader of the Irish state to say stuff like this was at the time silly if not insulting. The simple truth is he is still giving us the same old guff regarding the Lisbon Treaty.
Look, whether we vote yay or nay it’ll make not one iota of difference to the non standing Ireland has within the EU. We are ignored now, and a No vote merely means our new taoiseach Brian Cowen will be again off to Brussels to apologize for us not doing the “right thing.”
We’ll not even get the “opportunity” to have a second referendum to atone for the first one next time. The bosses in Europe will just forge ahead anyway.
They have already implied this, so why the big deal as to the sanctity of our vote? In this context it is meaningless — deal with it.
Life will go on and we will have further erosion of our national and personal rights anyway. Nothing new there.
Nice and sunny today. That’ll do me for now.
Robert O’Sullivan Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland
United Ireland Disaster
ON the recent 10th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement we should take note of one major flaw. The agreement states that a united Ireland will come about if a majority in Northern Ireland vote for it.
Notwithstanding the agreement, I believe that frog-marching one million Unionists into a united Ireland on the basis of a simple majority, possibly without the consent of a single Unionist, would be disastrous for peace on this island.
The agreement requires the consent of both communities before implementing most matters of any significance. Surely, therefore, in the momentous matter of changing the North’s constitutional status, an overwhelming majority of both communities should be required.
Furthermore, in case things don’t work out, the right to a “velvet divorce” a la the Czech Republic and Slovakia should be agreed.
Dick Keane Dublin, Ireland
Respect for Horses
THANK you so much for your recent article about the horse and carriage business in Central Park. The horses are well cared for, and the drivers and owners are very interested in what they are doing.
I was the owner of Smoothie, the horse mentioned in the article who died in 2007 after the sound of loud drums sent her running into a tree. Smoothie deserved her name. She was a lovable standard bred mare with a playful personality.
She loved to interact and nuzzle with children. I continue to mourn that horse and feel very offended when opportunistic politicians or radical animal rights activists get involved and try to deny me the proper mourning process.
With groups like PETA claiming to be friends, these horses sure don’t need enemies. They are hypocrites claiming to be ethical. It seems they are so depressed about life that they think death is a good option.
This is surely not true of our carriage horses, who lead happy and content lives. Everything good that can be provided is given to these horses.
Once again, thank you for your article about our loved and respected horses.
Cornelius Byrne New York, New York
Horse Atrocity
YOUR article about the poor horses in Central Park has attracted much controversy, it seems, and I would just like to put my two cents in and say that I am in total agreement with those who are appalled by the practice of poor horses lugging around human beings with more cash than sense.
You see these animals sweating in the summer, and they’re obviously uncomfortable with that they’re doing, no matter what the money hungry, deluded owners say. Why should these horses have to do this? Why should they be subject to such cruelty?
They should be taken off the streets of New York immediately, and given the humane and decent treatment that they deserve. Surely there are more ethical ways to make money in this town?
Maria Delaney New York, New York