Madam, - On the eve of the European elections we would like to remind voters, whatever their party allegiances or political views, of the service to the public good that Patricia McKenna MEP rendered by her constitutional action before the Supreme Court in 1995, which stopped Irish Governments using taxpayers' money to put just one side of the case in constitutional referendums.
In Irish referendums the people themselves, not their representatives, are legislating directly. It is therefore clearly important that the people's exercise of this law-making function should not be distorted or unfairly influenced by government abuse of public resources, as had been happening before Patricia McKenna took her court case.
The McKenna judgment of the Supreme Court led that body to make explicit two new civil rights for Irish citizens: the right to a democratic referendum and the right to equality between citizens in referendums. The Supreme Court effectively ruled that these rights had been abused by successive Irish governments using public money, raised by taxes levied on citizens on both Yes and No sides in referendums, to advocate the position of just one side, namely that favoured by the political parties currently in government.
Patricia McKenna put herself at considerable financial risk by taking this court action, which she initiated before she was elected an MEP. If she had lost and costs were awarded against her, she would have faced a legal bill of tens of thousands. She did in fact lose at the High Court stage of her action, but despite living in her own house, which could have been imperilled if she had lost again, she pressed ahead with an appeal to the Supreme Court where, luckily for herself and for everyone concerned for the democratic quality of our public life, she won her case.
While we do not necessarily share Patricia McKenna's views or those of her party on other issues, we write this letter to remind voters of the service to Irish democracy that this remarkable Irishwoman rendered by her action.
We urge them, whatever their political allegiances, to bear it in mind in allocating their voting preferences in the European Parliament election, in which she is standing for the Dublin Constituency.
This letter has been initiated quite independently of her, and she is not aware of its existence before its publication. - Yours, etc.,
ROBERT BALLAGH,
PAUL CALLAN SC,
ANTHONY COUGHLAN,
MARY CULLEN,
GLORIA FRANKEL,
PEADAR KIRBY,
JAMES LYDON,
TERENCE McCAUGHEY,
CHRISTY MOORE,
BRIAN MURPHY OSB,
DERVLA MURPHY,
EMMETT O'CONNELL,
BOB QUINN,
JOHN ROBB,
RICHARD ROCHE,
c/o 24 Crawford Avenue,
Dublin 9.
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A chara, - Sinn Féin must certainly be ruffling a few feathers amongst the political establishment in Ireland. We now have Minister John O'Donoghue (June 4th) accusing Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin European election candidate, of political hypocrisy and doublespeak.
Well, dear me, the irony of it all. Can I refer the Minister to his party's previous election manifesto and his party's political gymnastics concerning the invasion of Iraq? And dare I mention the word tribunal? - Is mise,
ENDA F. FANNING,
Whitehall Road,
Churchtown,
Dublin 14.
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Madam, - Like, I suppose, many people growing up in Ireland, I have not always been sure what the various parties stood for.
In recent times, I thought I was beginning to see patterns with at least some of the parties, such as the PDs. Unfortunately, the PD TD Fiona O'Malley (daughter of a founder member of the party) has gone and confused me again by saying she's "very keen to see someone like Ivana Bacik elected".
As I understand it, Prof Bacik is standing as a "socialist and feminist campaigner" and, as a lawyer, will presumably be pushing for legislation in line with these ideologies.
I obviously picked up the wrong message about the PDs as I was beginning to think that such legislation wasn't what PDs were "keen" on. - Yours, etc.,
TOM KINDLON,
Beechpark Lawn,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.