Sir, – PD Doyle's letter (January 21st) on the case of Margaretta D'Arcy in general comprises fair comment. The sole lapse is a gratuitous swipe at "her peacenik and artistic pals". Why the ad hominem allusion?
Your correspondent moreover may erroneously envisage no further published letters from Ms D’Arcy herself. The latter leads from the front.
A final reflection. Winston Churchill pointed to courage as the first of human qualities because it guarantees all the others. – Yours, etc,
JA BARNWELL,
St Patrick’s Road, Dublin 9.
Sir, – I am dismayed by the jailing of cancer sufferer Margaretta D’Arcy, but further dismayed by the response by the artistic community. It must be remembered that she was jailed not because she is an artist, and therefore her being one is unimportant to the issue at hand. But this response strikes a deeper note. It smacks of tribalism and an implicit message that artists have special rights. And it is these same two ideas – tribalism and a special right – that must be present in the minds of those who carry out human rights abuse, many having passed through Shannon Airport on their way to Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo Bay. – Yours, etc,
DONAL Mac ERLAINE,
Synge Street, Dublin 8.
Sir, – My admiration for Margaretta D’Arcy for putting principle first and for Sabina Higgins for putting friendship first. – Yours, etc,
BARRY CASSIN,
Salmon,
Balbriggan, Co Dublin.
Sir, – The incarceration of Margaretta D’Arcy is a further stain on Ireland’s shameful abandonment of our neutrality. While US war planes transit through Shannon to commit war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, they remain uninspected and facilitated by the Irish State. Meanwhile a 79-year-old peace activist is imprisoned for protesting this. I have stood on the roundabout at Shannon airport many Sundays with Ms D’Arcy and others demonstrating against the use of a supposed civilian airport to wage war, and while we are surrounded by gardaí there, the US military is allowed to act with impunity. Indeed it is astonishing that Margaretta D’Arcy’s actions are deemed illegal while wheelbarrows of evidence of human rights violations linked to aircraft at Shannon Airport and provided to the Garda by Shannonwatch have been ignored. – Yours, etc,
ZOE LAWLOR ,
Dooradoyle Park,
Dooradoyle,
Limerick.
Sir, – I respectfully have to disagree with Michael Anderson (January 23rd). I think the President should visit people in prison, including people who are not his friends. That would be to act “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will towards any man” or, as he adds, woman. It would also embody the ethos of the by-implication Christian God that he asks in his oath of office to “direct and sustain” him. – Yours, etc,
GRAHAM FINLAY
Inchicore Terrace North,
Inchicore,
Dublin 8.