April 3, 2016
Editor
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NY, NY
Dear Editor:
Shawn Pogatchnik’s “Ireland Recalls 1916 Easter Rising…” (3/30) and others he has written have an unmistakable bias. Saying “Most Dubliners opposed the insurrection..” is a qualitative phrase without the slightest chance to substantiate as historical fact. The phrase the “predominantly Catholic South…” is inaccurate. The northernmost county of Donegal and two others were excluded from the carve out of the 9-county Province of Ulster to create N. I. precisely because they had a predominantly Catholic population. The phrase “A treaty accepted by most Southern rebels…” is inaccurate. There was only a vote by the first Irish Dail or Parliament which voted 64-57 (with three votes abstaining) to accept the Treaty. That doesn’t sound like “most” to me unless of course you are infusing editorial opinion into the coverage. The following phrase is the most objectionable and convinces me and others that Mr. Pogatchnik is writing pieces with a British censor in mind. “…a new Belfast –based IRA launched a ruthless campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the U. K. and into the Republic.” From the very moment the garrison was established every government program of voting, jobs and housing was aimed at forcing Catholics out or subjugating them. They created grinding poverty for Catholics and when they chose protest over the barrel of the gun, the British responded as they always have with murder, internment, and lawless collusion with loyalist thugs to insure the Catholics were put in their place. The Catholics realized they were never going to enjoy equal rights especially after the British army’s murder of 14 Catholics on Bloody Sunday and their absolution by Lord Widgery, so they armed for a battle to rid themselves of Britain’s brutal and lawless rule. To suggest, as Pogatchnik does, that the time-period saw a spontaneous outburst of Nationalist fervor to rid Ireland of a benevolent Britain, without acknowledging the loyalists ant-Catholic pogroms going back to the Paisleyites in the 1960’s, is rank anti-Catholic bigotry and British propaganda.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Cummings
12 Marion Ave
Albany,New York 12203-1814
518-650-6049
Dubliners were not polled in 1916 and most of them were not on the Electoral Register.
The Electoral Register for Parliamentary Elections was reformed so that all adult males and
many women had the vote for the first time.
The result of the 1918 General Election in Ireland left the Unionists with one Unionist in
Dublin/Rathmines and for Dublin University. The other 11 Dublin seats went to Republicans
endorsing the Proclamation of 1916. Of Ireland’s 105 Parliamentary seats 73 went to Republicans.Other than the University seats and Rathmines the Unionists won no seats outside Ulster . Indeed within Ulster the Unionists won no seats in some counties. Republicans
plus Nationalists won seats in 8 of 9 Ulster counties. If we include Belfast in Antrim the Unionists failed to win a clean slate of seats in any of Ireland’s 32 Counties. Municipal,County Council and other local elections in 1920 confirmed the popularity
of republicans under Sinn Fein and Irish Labour colours.
For goodness sake:
““predominantly Catholic South…” is inaccurate”
No, it’s very accurate. If you go south of Northern Ireland you’ll find that it’s predominantly Catholic.
This may apply if you go west of Northern Ireland too but that’s by-and-by.
“The phrase “A treaty accepted by most Southern rebels…” is inaccurate. There was only a vote by the first Irish Dail or Parliament which voted 64-57 (with three votes abstaining) to accept the Treaty”
That’s most. Mathematically speaking that’s most.
If 50% + 1 people vote for a united Ireland in a border poll then that too is ‘most’.
““…a new Belfast –based IRA launched a ruthless campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the U. K. and into the Republic.””
Well, that’s true: Were they Belfast based? Yes. Were they ruthless? Yes. Did they try to force NI out of the UK? Yes?
Furthermore he underlines some reasons as to WHY they did this.
You can’t object to something and then support the very thing you’re objecting to.
He should read a little less Tim Pat Coogan methinks.
“No, it’s very accurate. If you go south of Northern Ireland you’ll find that it’s predominantly Catholic.”
I think the point being made AG, as you can see from reference to Donegal, is that all of Ireland was predominantly Catholic, not only the south.
Ulster had to be gerrymandered to give a 70% to 30% electoral majority. Take into account there were more women than men and they didn’t vote, there was never a protestant majority, it had to be artificially carved out of territory and included counties which were majority nationalist just to make it viable.
There never was and never will be any justification for partition. There never was and never will be any legitimacy for Britain to be here.
“Well, that’s true: Were they Belfast based? Yes. Were they ruthless? Yes. Did they try to force NI out of the UK? Yes?”
You know perfectly well, PIRA were never launched. Their first action was in defence of the Short Strand from loyalist gun attacks as the RUC and British army stood by and let them go ahead.
Their numbers were swollen as a result of British aggression, hardly a launch. If this is the narrative of your British point of view, there will never be peace between us AG.
“…a new Belfast –based IRA launched a ruthless campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the U. K. and into the Republic.”
Now how do you expect to tell anyone, not to kill prison officers when faced with this type of state driven media propaganda?
I mean, why bother even condemning it?
The troubles were nurtured through the 1950s and 60s, escalating in the late 60s and the touch paper lit in 1969. The “new Belfast based IRA” didn’t exist until 1970, its not like it is hard to spot the falsehood.
Whether it is malicious propaganda, ignorant and lazy half assed reporting or deliberate vilification of one group of people, the truth is, such negative attacks aimed towards one section of a community that will recognise them as falsehoods, will no longer believe anything from those sources and therefore they will always have the opposite effect.
Perhaps there is method to the madness of Sinn Fein taking so much such crap on the chin and at the same time continuously reaching out and maintaining their position as the most progressive party in both parts of this island.
.