When we march tomorrow, we are marching with refugees who are running from persecution, and to ensure what they are fleeing from is not part of what they are fleeing to – more refugee gulags under the guise of direct provision centres.
We are also marching against Minister for Justice and Equality Charles Flanagan and his policies, which make life for refugees and their children, a miserable one; we are marching against Seán Kyne’s policy of inability to do anything, knowing what Flanagan said and meant for those children and indeed us.
We are marching with the past and present victims of Ireland’s gulags, which include the Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby Homes and the other gulags which held thousands of girls and boys in children’s internment camps all over Ireland for more than 100 years.
We cannot allow these gulags and internment camps to continue to exist ever again, in any shape or form.
We also march for democracy itself, for Flanagan and Kyne are in chorus in that what clearly matters to us does not matter to them. The shame is on these ministers only.
Oughterard, Connemara, Ireland and beyond our shores are not for turning, now or ever. Please join us.
Barry Clifford
Oughterard, Co Galway
We should allow young people to own their future
What have our children and ordinary citizens done to rise Ian O’Doherty (Irish Independent, September 24) to an utter dismissal of their legitimacy?
History has taught us great change has always been led by small groups of committed people. If Greta Thunberg has galvanised global awareness of our planet’s precarious position, I salute her. There is no age limit on owning your future, or advocating for a responsible vision for the future.
Similarly, while many supposedly mature western societies have been driven to the extremes by difficult questions, our thoughtful and respectful use of Citizens’ Assemblies has gently delivered transformative change which few would have thought possible.
In ancient Athens, public representatives were chosen by lot with no re-election to office. In the Roman Republic, the consul’s chair was deliberately uncomfortable, so no one could feel comfortable or secure in their place. Perhaps the rise of idealistic advocacy and citizen-centric democracy represents a return to the best of how a civilised society governs itself. As Mr O’Doherty should know, the alternatives can be far worse.
Dr Tony O’Donnell
The Curragh, Co Kildare
King and MacDonald set precedent to be followed
Author and journalist Simon Jenkins, in his ‘A Short History of England’, states that the real hero of British history, if there is one, is Parliament. When it was at its strongest Britain was most successful.
Before the Blair years and the creation of a Supreme Court, it was said the British constitution is what the principal private secretary to the monarch and the principal private secretary to the prime minister, on a stroll in Hyde Park, might decide it is.
Jenkins says he once thought countries with written constitutions were immature. Over the years he has changed his mind.
In 1931, Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald submitted his resignation to King George V. The king accepted the resignation of the government but not MacDonald’s advice. He, his cabinet and Stanley Baldwin were stunned when the king asked him, not Baldwin, to lead a national coalition government including the Conservatives.
Where there is no written constitution it is difficult to know what happens next in a constitutional crisis. Surely King George V has set a precedent? He did not accept the advice of his prime minister. Could not the present monarch do the same if the current prime minister loses a vote of confidence and choose an MP to lead a national coalition government to sort out Britain’s mess before an election? Then the people could pass judgment on the outcome.
Gay Mitchell
Dublin 6
We must take care of the weakest in society
Two excellent articles by Liam Weeks and Donal Lynch (‘Sunday Independent’, September 22) on the immigration issue.
I have been hearing the same old mantras – take care of our own first; immigrants are spongers – for 40 years or more.
Irish emigrants are well aware of them. Does it take the arrival of immigrants to remind us of the need to take care of the weak in society? Anecdotal information is the bane for immigrants, personally and in society. It feeds prejudice, fear and resentment.
B Gilmore
Dorset St Lower, Dublin 1
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » Letters to the Editor: 'We’re marching to bring an end to our shameful gulags'
Letters to the Editor: 'We’re marching to bring an end to our shameful gulags'
When we march tomorrow, we are marching with refugees who are running from persecution, and to ensure what they are fleeing from is not part of what they are fleeing to – more refugee gulags under the guise of direct provision centres.
We are also marching against Minister for Justice and Equality Charles Flanagan and his policies, which make life for refugees and their children, a miserable one; we are marching against Seán Kyne’s policy of inability to do anything, knowing what Flanagan said and meant for those children and indeed us.
We are marching with the past and present victims of Ireland’s gulags, which include the Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby Homes and the other gulags which held thousands of girls and boys in children’s internment camps all over Ireland for more than 100 years.
We cannot allow these gulags and internment camps to continue to exist ever again, in any shape or form.
We also march for democracy itself, for Flanagan and Kyne are in chorus in that what clearly matters to us does not matter to them. The shame is on these ministers only.
Oughterard, Connemara, Ireland and beyond our shores are not for turning, now or ever. Please join us.
Barry Clifford
Oughterard, Co Galway
We should allow young people to own their future
What have our children and ordinary citizens done to rise Ian O’Doherty (Irish Independent, September 24) to an utter dismissal of their legitimacy?
History has taught us great change has always been led by small groups of committed people. If Greta Thunberg has galvanised global awareness of our planet’s precarious position, I salute her. There is no age limit on owning your future, or advocating for a responsible vision for the future.
Similarly, while many supposedly mature western societies have been driven to the extremes by difficult questions, our thoughtful and respectful use of Citizens’ Assemblies has gently delivered transformative change which few would have thought possible.
In ancient Athens, public representatives were chosen by lot with no re-election to office. In the Roman Republic, the consul’s chair was deliberately uncomfortable, so no one could feel comfortable or secure in their place. Perhaps the rise of idealistic advocacy and citizen-centric democracy represents a return to the best of how a civilised society governs itself. As Mr O’Doherty should know, the alternatives can be far worse.
Dr Tony O’Donnell
The Curragh, Co Kildare
King and MacDonald set precedent to be followed
Author and journalist Simon Jenkins, in his ‘A Short History of England’, states that the real hero of British history, if there is one, is Parliament. When it was at its strongest Britain was most successful.
Before the Blair years and the creation of a Supreme Court, it was said the British constitution is what the principal private secretary to the monarch and the principal private secretary to the prime minister, on a stroll in Hyde Park, might decide it is.
Jenkins says he once thought countries with written constitutions were immature. Over the years he has changed his mind.
In 1931, Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald submitted his resignation to King George V. The king accepted the resignation of the government but not MacDonald’s advice. He, his cabinet and Stanley Baldwin were stunned when the king asked him, not Baldwin, to lead a national coalition government including the Conservatives.
Where there is no written constitution it is difficult to know what happens next in a constitutional crisis. Surely King George V has set a precedent? He did not accept the advice of his prime minister. Could not the present monarch do the same if the current prime minister loses a vote of confidence and choose an MP to lead a national coalition government to sort out Britain’s mess before an election? Then the people could pass judgment on the outcome.
Gay Mitchell
Dublin 6
We must take care of the weakest in society
Two excellent articles by Liam Weeks and Donal Lynch (‘Sunday Independent’, September 22) on the immigration issue.
I have been hearing the same old mantras – take care of our own first; immigrants are spongers – for 40 years or more.
Irish emigrants are well aware of them. Does it take the arrival of immigrants to remind us of the need to take care of the weak in society? Anecdotal information is the bane for immigrants, personally and in society. It feeds prejudice, fear and resentment.
B Gilmore
Dorset St Lower, Dublin 1
Source: Read Full Article