Sir, – After years of campaigning for Seanad election reform (including in these columns), I am pleased to have stung some people into a response with my use of the word apartheid.
I did not accuse anybody of a crime in my letter of November 13th. I accept the definition of the crime of apartheid as set out in the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
However, your correspondent (Letters, November 16th) seems not to comprehend the broader term, with its Afrikaans origin.
One dictionary describes the suffix “heid” as meaning “hood”. Apartheid basically means “apartness” or “the state of being apart”. It can be interpreted as “separation” or “segregation”, according to Dictionary.com.
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This is exactly what is happening in relation to the election of 10 per cent of Seanad Éireann. Senators in joint Oireachtas committees have almost the same power as TDs.
Would we tolerate such separation in Dáil elections? Trinity College and National University of Ireland graduates get a vote, other graduates are left out. The people voted to change this over 40 years ago. May we please have the legislation to comply with the people’s decision. – Yours, etc,
GAY MITCHELL,
Rathmines Road,
Dublin 6.