Sir, – “The Irish language as the national language is the first official language” (Article 8.1 of the Constitution of Ireland). Should we not therefore elect as our president a suitable person who could address with ease in Irish a meeting in the Gaeltacht or elsewhere or give an interview on Raidió na Gaeltachta? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It seems to me the candidacy of Martin McGuinness is polarising the nation. On the one side we have blind optimism that he may actually stand a chance of being elected. On the other there is blind fear that he might actually stand a chance of being elected. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Even by his own standards, John Waters has crossed a line in his column (Opinion, September 23rd). He argues that the appeal of Senator David Norris as a presidential candidate is that mad voters can express contempt for the political process and the higher offices of State by electing a gay candidate. He also explicitly places electing a gay candidate on a par with electing a former terrorist, and he conflates support for either into what he calls the Monster Raving Loony vote. Absolutely shameful. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I am somewhat bemused at the statements by Fine Gael Ministers Shatter and Hogan, respectively, that Martin McGuinness is an “inappropriate” person to become president of Ireland, because of “his exotic background” and for “carrying too much baggage from his past”.
At the time of his death at 23, Phil Kelleher had been a top class rugby player, scheduled to wear the green jersey in the next International match. He was, of course, also a police officer, when shot in the back by IRA gunmen in a provincial hostelry shortly after chatting with the charming hostess behind the bar. The local IRA general who had ordered that 1920 Halloween killing, also saw to the execution of two young Protestants, named Elliot and Chartres, on charges of identifying and informing on Kelleher’s killers. The charming Longford hostess had been Kitty Kiernan, fiancée of Michael Collins, while the local IRA general was Seán Mac Eoin who, in his memoirs entitled With the IRA in the Fight for Freedom, went on to dismiss Kelleher as “a young ex-army officer who was given orders to take action against the IRA and clean up the area”.
Fine Gael, also styling itself the United Ireland Party, was so proud of Gen Seán Mac Eoin’s “exotic background”, that it deemed him a most appropriate person to become president of Ireland, running him as the Fine Gael candidate in both 1945 and 1959.
I would appeal to the Republican-spirited among Fine Gael voters, who like myself believe in unity-by-consent, to recognise the heroic work undertaken by Martin McGuinness over the past decade in working for a New Republic, based on consent and by exclusively peaceful methods, and conclude that there is no more appropriate candidate to now become president of Ireland. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – With the current economic crisis we have all ended up feeling the pain in our pockets, it now looks inevitable that we will end up with a pain in the Áras as well. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – A few points for our Irish friends regarding Martin McGuinness’s entry into the Republic’s presidential election campaign.
The question about Mr McGuinness’s refusal to recognise the legitimacy of an Irish court in the 1970s, and implicitly the legitimacy of the Irish State, is academic now as that State gave away its sovereignty last year through its own crass stupidity and gross corruption.
If it has any legitimacy, it is legitimately a ward of the European Union just like those other failed statelets, Bosnia and Kosovo.
Which leads me to my second point: why in God’s name would anyone from outside the Irish Republic want to be associated with it in any way, shape or form, never mind campaign to become its head of state? It’s a global laughing stock. Its economic collapse busted it wide open for the world’s inspection, showing it to be a grubby, corrupt little Bantustan, governed by economic illiterates who couldn’t distinguish between real economic progress and an accountancy trick.
And as for the Irish outrage and delusional adoption of the moral high ground, they’ve obviously forgotten all the murderous gangsters who founded their state and determined its primitive public culture that finally rendered it a long-term EU welfare recipient? – Yours, etc,
A chara, – It is not up to Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter to decide that Martin McGuinness is “not an appropriate person” to hold the office of president.
That is in the hands of the Irish people. – Is mise,