Dail pickets were an insult to Connolly
Wednesday March 04 2009
There is no image from this nation's painful birth more poignant than that of the trade unionist and patriot James Connolly, with his broken body strapped to a chair, awaiting execution. It's disgustingly ironic, therefore, that those who claim the right to clothe themselves in his mantle only sully and defile it.
No-one should claim the right to place a picket on Dail Eireann. The next time the trade union movement take to the streets of Dublin they would do well to study the inscription on the Parnell Monument, "no man has a right to say to his country; thus far shalt thou go and no further". The refusal of Sinn Fein TDs to pass the CPSU pickets outside Dail Eireann last Thursday was a cheap publicity stunt and a gross insult to the State and to those who paid in blood for this nation's right to self-governance. The right of any TD to take their seat in Dail Eireann and the price paid for the noble privilege to do so, imposes a duty of obligation that no cause or principle be considered more worthy so as to obstruct them in fulfilling that right and honouring that duty.
As a nation, we are perilously close to a stage when the freedom to manage our own affairs may no longer be ours. The time has come when we can no longer afford to stand still, pointing the finger of blame. Neither can we afford to let selfish individualism take precedence over the national interest.
This country is in urgent need of firm leadership. It is incumbent on those whom we have charged with the task of providing it that the nation doesn't follow a blind trade union leadership into the cul-de-sac of industrial chaos.
Liam Reddan
Nenagh, Co Tipperary
I'M so fed up of all the tomfoolery in this country -- is there nothing free from taint?
The bankers were the big fish, but I reckon catching the tiddlers would expose the same problems.
Over the years, many Irish citizens have gone away and made great contributions in other countries. Now we need a massive influx of people to break the incestuous ties of cronyism and corruption which seem to flourish on every level. I just find it all too much.
Jacqueline Cotter
Skibbereen, Cork
