Stop Shannon Use

The U.S. and Britain used the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons, as a justification for their invasion of Iraq. As the UN weapons inspectors and many others had predicted, the Iraqis did not have any WMDs, nuclear, biological or chemical.

However, despite earlier denials, it has been revealed that occupation forces used White Phosphorous in their attack on the city of Fallujah, during which many civilians were killed.

White Phosphorous is both an incendiary and chemical weapon. It sticks to the skin, burning at over 1,000 degrees and produces highly toxic phosphorous pentoxide fumes, poisoning anyone in the area in which it is deployed.

No doubt these horrific weapons, like the victims and perpetrators of torture, have passed through Shannon Airport. It is time the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat coalition government stopped the use of our country to facilitate the use of torture and WMD.

Would the alternative coalition allow the continuation of this trafficking, which is not only wrong, but is also endangering the safety of Irish citizens?

Dessie Ellis, Dublin, Ireland

Staying the Course

Though the Catholic church in Ireland and indeed elsewhere is mired in crisis yet again, I have no intention of abandoning the institution and the many good people who are still a part of it.

There are good and bad in every walk of life. The bad in the church’s instance is certainly the worst kind of offense imaginable, but the church has helped many, many more people than it has hurt, I firmly believe.

The church is in need of some change, that much is obvious. And those changes should originate from the members. Abandoning the church in its entirety, as letter writer Mary Anne Carroll Ryan suggested in the November 16-22 issue, isn’t the answer.

I think that the church will have to face the reality that priests will eventually have to be allowed to marry, otherwise there won’t be any left. And female priests should also be considered.

I think its time for Catholics to stand up and demand these changes, making our church more in line with contemporary times and needs. I plan on making my voice felt within the structure of the church, not the outside. I hope all other Catholics feel the same way.

Priests are only human, and have natural human needs and desires. We should help them achieve those.

Pat Daley, New Haven, Connecticut

Criminal Dublin

I read John Spain’s column last week about all the drug-related killings in Dublin, and it is really frightening to see the transformation of a once fair city into a hotbed of criminal activity.

With wealth comes a multitude of other social problems, as the Irish are starting to find out to their detriment. I wonder what was better — Dublin in the rare auld times, or the twin terror of wealth and crime?

When I grew up in a Dublin suburb, we had just enough money to get by, but we were happy and healthy. I think that says a lot.

J. Healy, Chicago, Illinois

Cosmic Cathal’s Remedy

As I browsed through the lengthy introduction to Cathal Dervan’s weekly column in last week’s issue, I was eagerly expecting the unfolding of some major event.

Surely the importance accorded to the mundane minutia about Cathal’s bathing protocol and proclivities had to be contemporaneous with some seismic or life altering event.

People who have lived at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, the assassination of JFK, the fall of the Berlin Wall, lunar landings, the white-out of ‘47, and the black-out of ‘77 remember relatively ordinary tasks that were associated with these historic events. They became seared into memory through powerful bonds of association.

What an anti-climax Cathal’s column was! After having my curiosity stoked through 10 paragraphs, as if Cathal was heading to a crescendo, only to be deflated to discover it was the shenanigans of a soccer player.

Granted it was about an aging soccer star, Roy Keane, albeit with some Terrell Owens-type baggage, being given the boot. What a major letdown when it seemed Cathal was on to something of cosmic significance.

Cathal should have finished his column by naming the banished as idiot of the week, and the banisher as hero. On reflection, maybe a belated hero award for Mick McCarthy might be a better idea, now that Sir Alex appears to have vindicated the Saipan decision, if not exonerated the much-maligned former Irish manager from that fiasco.

Upon turning the page, it seemed Cathal needed the long warm-up to his topic. Two more articles followed on Keane’s forced departure from the Red Devils. Enough!

Three large doses of the same journalistic medicine could be injurious to one’s health. It was an overdose. No wonder I wasn’t feeling well at mid-week.

So as to avoid relapse to a less than optimal state of well being, I needed a prescription for more topics with smaller doses. Hope you can supply the remedy, Cathal.

Frank Brady, Yonkers, New York

Slow Down, Tigers

It is heartbreaking to read of all the crime, violence and moral degeneration across today’s Ireland.

Not that long ago myself and many others considered our “Little Green Isle” to be the last bastion of Christian decency in Europe. Why is the corruption there now being tolerated, and what message is it sending to the rest of the world?

I’m sure everyone is pleased with Ireland’s recent prosperity, but what does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his soul?

Shame on you, President Mary McAleese. You’ve made a great show of jetting off to China to drum up new trade. That’s all well and good, but I’ve seen no display at all of how you are making any home improvements of the moral variety.

For heaven’s sake, Mrs. McAleese, before the Celtic Tiger finishes taking the heart and soul out of Ireland, please remind the folks over there (and yourself) that God and country are more precious than what any man can stuff into his pockets.

Elizabeth Larkin Davenport, Bridgeport, Connecticut

On the Run Hypocrisy

The big furor about on the runs from Torys, Democratic Unionists, SDLP, Fine Gael and Labor is the height of hypocrisy.

For nearly 37 years there has been an effective amnesty for members of the RUC and British Army who have carried out several hundred killings, mostly of unarmed civilians, in the North and who were involved in colluding with Loyalists in killing hundreds more.

Where was the outcry from British Conservatives or Unionists after the RUC killed the first victims of the troubles including Samuel Devenney, Francis McCloskey, John Corry and 9-year-old Patrick Rooney in 1969?

On the contrary the RUC killers were fully supported and promoted, as were the British Army killers of Bloody Sunday. And the SDLP seemed to have no problem with the colluders in RUC Special Branch being transferred en masse to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

In the south, the Barron reports into the Dublin/Monaghan bombings and the killing of Seamus Ludlow showed that there was little effort to apprehend the killers or those who planned the killings.

Not one conviction, not one arrest and the investigations wound down after a few weeks. Similarly for other sinister bombings in Dundalk, Dublin, Belturbet, Castleblaney, etc.

As to their claimed concern for victims, the relatives of the victims of these 50+ killings were initially ignored, and then repeatedly told lies by the state authorities here.

Dr. Sean Marlow, Dublin, Ireland