Madam, - I have read The Irish Times regularly for some 30 years, including the "Irishman's Diary" since Kevin Myers took the reins, and before. Over the years Mr Myers has covered many subjects in his own inimitable and often controversial way, though regular readers will be familiar with his tiresomely recurring themes, such as the North and the first World War.
I find Mr Myers's column compulsive reading. Although I find I can rarely agree with anything he writes, I am always interested in reading views other than my own, providing they are articulately and intelligently made.
I suppose it is the nature of journalism to be controversial, and many a columnist puts forward strong opinions on what they write about, but his offering on Joe Cahill was offensive. Mr Myers is capable of original, witty and well reasoned pieces, but this article was pure gutter press.
Whatever Mr Myers thinks of Joe Cahill and his life, to use every opportunity to use descriptions like "cretinous loon" and "ghastly old savage" is bad enough, but he goes on to dig up all his other bogey men, tacking them on to the end of his article. Having castigated Mr Cahill, we then have the inevitable reference to the "gibbering half-wits in An Phoblacht", followed by "itchy Shinner paws stretching out". Tiresome, predictable and hardly central to whatever point he is making.
Something has touched a nerve here. Often, Mr Myers has quoted all sorts of details about individuals who were victims of the "Troubles" - usually as a prelude to an anti-republican rant - or similar details regarding those who died in the two World Wars, so he is clearly capable of handling facts, figures and statistics accurately, when he chooses to do so. He will therefore be well aware that there is no such body as "Sinn Féin/IRA" which he mentions in his closing paragraph.
However, leaving all that aside, his closing sentence strays into completely new territory. Ostensibly this is a piece about Joe Cahill and the various folk Mr Myers links with him. Why, then, end with an irrelevant reference to what he calls "that odious orgy of self satisfied nationalist preening, the West Belfast Festival"?
As one who (though not originally from Belfast) works in this area, I am aware of the tremendous efforts made by those who organise the festival each year, and their desire to make it an event for everyone - often hindered by attitudes outside West Belfast.
I think they deserve better.
Continue being controversial, Mr Myers - it brightens my lunch break - but leave your personal prejudices out of it. This is the sort of stuff that has fuelled intolerance here in the North for years. - Yours, etc.,
JONATHAN BEAUMONT,
Lisburn,
Co Antrim.
*****
Madam, - Tom Cooper (August 4th) seems to suggest that anyone who does not hold his seemingly rose-tinted view of the Belfast Agreement and its achievements is a begrudger, a peace rejectionist or a political pygmy.
The fact is that both the Irish and British governments gave Sinn Féin/IRA an inch, and allowed them to take mile after mile, resulting in the mess that our peace process is in at present. To suggest that for the former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds not to have attended the funeral of Mr Joe Cahill would have been political cowardice gives the erroneous impression of Mr Cahill as a great champion of peace and deserving to be honoured as such.
If we are to apply Mr Cooper's logic one might as well suggest that former taoisigh should attend the funerals of other convicted criminals. Imagine the public outcry if a former taoiseach attended the funeral of a prominent person convicted of a high-profile white-collar crime. It might even provoke another disgruntled letter from the pen of Mr Cooper!
Over the 35 years or so preceding the Belfast Agreement, while the two Governments along with the constitutional parties in Northern Ireland were trying to bring about a lasting peace, Mr Cahill was arranging an illegal arms shipment into this country from Libya, in contravention of the laws of this State, and with no electoral mandate whatever.
Also, Mr Cahill's colleagues in the Provisional IRA were conducting armed robberies and other violent crimes, often at the cost of the lives of unarmed gardaí.
Mr Cooper should remember that Mr Cahill was a very late convert to the peace process, and even then after many years of engaging in violence as a first resort.
It is largely thanks to Mr Cahill and his colleagues that we needed a peace process in the first place. - Yours, etc.,
MICHEÁL Ó FLAITHEARTAIGH,
Elm Mount Road,
Beaumont,
Dublin 9.