Time to Move On

This is in response to the letter from Peadar O’Fiach, “IRA Terrorist Actions,” in the issue of August 17-23.

I appreciate Mr. O’Fiach’s concern to refresh my memory, but believe me, my memory is fine. That horrible March day in 1972 will never be forgotten by the people of Belfast, nor will they ever forget the year 1972.

Including the dead from the Abercorn bomb, 496 people died as a result of the war in Northern Ireland that year.

There were 251 civilians, 174 of those were Catholic; 85 paramilitary, 74 of those were Republicans; 151 members of the security forces, these being the RUC, RUCR, UDR/RIR, British Army and nine others.

Included in the statistics are the two little girls, a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old, killed by a UDA/UFF bomb which was planted in the Docks area of Belfast outside a pub on the street where they lived, and the victims of Bloody Sunday in Derry.

As for the powerful testament to the confidence the Protestant people have in each other, well I won’t go there, for if I did I would have to talk about the Shankill butcher murders and the collusion between the security forces and the Loyalists.

As a matter of fact, since the IRA declared an end to its war against the British establishment, the Police Service of Northern Ireland have issued a number of warnings to the Catholic people of Ahoghill that they are targets for the Loyalists — Loyalist, a person loyal to the British Crown willing to do whatever it takes to keep Ulster British.

But not to worry. The police also issued the families fire blankets so they don’t burn to death in their beds at night.

I believe that the Protestant people will soon wake up and realize that the Unionist politicians kept them living with fear of Roman rule taking hold of Ireland. The Protestant and Catholic people of Ireland deserve to have their country and to rule it together for the benefit of their children.

The children of Ireland deserve to live without fear while walking their own streets. Too late for the 15-year-old Belfast Catholic boy who was stabbed to death recently after buying candy in a store.

His crime? He was a Catholic.

There have been countless victims of this war, those who died, were maimed and those who have been mentally scarred.

I am not trying to give a history lesson here, but if people continue to live with the horrors of the past they will never be able to move into the future.

Catherine Clarke, Burlington, Vermont

Dox Are Over

Is there anything else going in your music columnist Mike Farragher’s mind than the Saw Doctors? I’m sick to death of reading about these has-beens in his column all the time.

There are plenty of music festivals on at this time of year, and great, unheralded bands playing at all of them. Why doesn’t Mike get out a bit more and check out these groups that are deserving of publicity.

The Saw Doctors have had their day. Let’s read about someone else.

Siobhan Kane, Peekskill, New York

Deport Colombia Three

Rarely have I read a more ambivalent or wishy-washy opinion as contained in the editorial “Colombia 3 — Again” in the issue of August 10-16.

The issue of the “Colombia Three” fugitives should be clear to everyone, but especially to Americans. There is no question that the three Sinn Fein/IRA members were in Colombia to teach their terrorist methods to FARC.

There is no dispute that they used false passports to enter Colombia, spent an extended period in an area controlled by FARC and met with FARC leadership.

Shortly after that visit, gas cylinder type mortars (identical to those developed and used by Sinn Fein/IRA) were used to murder 19 voters and churchgoers in Bogota. Car bombs identical to those used by SF/IRA were also used to stop voters from voting in an election.

What should disturb Americans even more is that FARC targets U.S. military and U.S. government agencies, and claims that its number one enemy is our nation. The U.S. is in Colombia at the request of that democratically elected government. We are there to promote democracy, while Sinn Fein/IRA sent its members there to promote terrorism.

It is typically hypocritical of Sinn Fein/IRA, its leaders and the Irish Voice to tell us “Colombia is among the most corrupt countries in Latin America, awash in drug money and a judiciary that has been suspect.” That is an opinion that may or may nor be accurate.

What is factual is that Niall Connolly, one of the three fugitives, was the Sinn Fein/IRA “envoy” to Castro’s Cuba for over 10 years.

It did not bother Sinn Fein/IRA that Castro’s Cuba is a tyrannical dictatorship where hundreds of thousands have been murdered by Castro in the past 40 years where dissent of any kind is dealt with by death or long imprisonment and where human rights are nonexistent.

In December, 2001 Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein/IRA leader made a homage visit to Castro’s Cuba where he praised the dictator and murderer and called Castro, “my brother in revolution.” No mention of Castro’s human right violations, but Adams did find the breath to condemn our nation — he often does so.

Sinn Fein/IRA or Adams have absolutely no credibility; none. Sinn Fein/IRA and its leadership have never met a democracy they liked, and they never met a dictator or terrorist that they didn’t like.

They have a special hatred of the great democracies of the U.S., Great Britain and Israel and a special affection for the vile terrorist scum of the world, especially the Islamic terrorists of the Middle East.

When the editor of the Irish Voice does anything less than demand the extradition of the Colombia Three fugitives you become an accessory to Sinn Fein/IRA.

We Americans must demand that the Irish government return the three fugitives to Colombia or face economic and travel sanctions for harbouring terrorists.

Judging by several recent letters to the Irish Voice, there are still some naive Americans, individuals and “groups” who continue to support the criminals and thugs of Sinn Fein/IRA.

Those Americans are guilty of treason or, if naturalized U.S. citizens, they are in violation of the Oath of Allegiance they took to this nation. There are no words that can express how cowardly and shameful they are.

Patrick McVeigh, Floral Park, New York

Ring Derv’s Neck

So the great hack “Derv” in his opinion scoffs at the bread and butter efforts of less skilled proponents of (in this case) hurling — one of the most skillful games ever.

In his column in the August 17-23 issue, he said those playing in the Christy Ring Cup do not merit any credit to keeping our Gaelic games alive. A “Mickey Mouse” affair is what he called the competition.

Going by his fuzzy logic, then all amateur game participants that do not make top flight in their chosen sport deserve the same lack of exposure for their efforts by “respected” journalists such as Cathal Dervan.

I thought this paper was the Irish Voice, inclusive of Irish sports that readers cannot get news of easily via the mainstream dailies in the U.S.

But I, like others, feel that I am reading some British tabloid with some of the journalistic slants and lack of inclusion of Irish sports in favour of, say, Division 4 of the English soccer league because some player’s granny courted an Irish lad years ago. Derv feels this merits a couple of inches of news above competitions like the Christy Ring Cup, or his golfing, Please report on Irish sports, Cathal.

Declan Dorrian, Queens, New York