Where Silence is Golden

by Féachadóir Éireannach Wed Jan 03, 2007 16:29

You shouldn't bring this sectarian bigotry into things - e.g.,:

"The 'catholic' SDLP has led the cover-up in Down District Council.".

I'm no fan of the SDLP, nor of Catholicism, but SDLP are not a religious party; they are a political party. Unlike the UUP or DUP, they have no history of descriminating against members on the basis onf their religion.

If most members of the SDLP happen to be Catholic - something that isn't so certain anymore with the decline of Christianity in Ireland, generally - then this is because they were formed with social democratic ideals intended to promote Civil Rights and end descrimination of all kinds - eh, something not that popular with Unionists, or most Protestants at that time.

On your website you speak of "Protestant neighbours" - as if religion has anything to do with this.

You speak of a "supposedly United Kingdom". This supposition has divided Ulster for eons, so it's not a viewpoint that's as obvious as it claims to be.

Finally, your writing to members of the political establishment (let alone the head honcho) with regard to corruption, strikes me as being particularly naieve. It'd be like complaining to the PSNI/Gardaí about police brutality.

by Gerry Rice - Retired Sun Feb 18, 2007 20:05 gerrice at btopenworld dot com 02897562773

Sorry Féachadóir Éireannach for not seeing your comment sooner, computer trouble and all that.
To state that the members of the SDLP within Down District are overwhelmingly, and ostensibly, members of the Catholic Church is to state a fact. How that can be classed as sectarian bigotry especially as I am a member of the Catholic Church myself is difficult to understand.
I happen to be big fan of the Catholic Church which is why I am able to recognize when those who profess to be members of the Catholic Church are acting in a manner totally at odds with the faith I profess. I don’t belong to any political party but in its earliest days I gave what little financial support to the new SDLP as I could afford. The SDLP was soon to discriminate against my Catholic family simply because I put the principles I have been taught by my Catholic faith into practice.
While I agree with you that the SDLP is not a religious party per se, there is no doubt that religion comes into every act carried out by every human being on this earth. It cannot be otherwise. The word religion comes from older languages than the English language and loosely means a two-way connection – from the latin re and ligo for instance – and that connection is the connection between every human being whether they believe in God or not. That two-way connection is the relationship between each human being and God. Churches exist to help to make that relationship a friendship, something that everybody is in great need of.
I was happy to take my young family to live among “Protestant neighbours”, in fact one of my very best friends and supporters all these years has been the Rev. C.D. Adams, a Presbyterian Minister who has supported me in a very public way.
You are quite correct to class my complaining to the political establishment as “particularly naïve” but when even the legal profession is supporting this massive housing fraud by omission, are you not inferring that I start up another paramilitary organization?
The key to all this lies in your penultimate sentence when you speak of my referring to a “supposedly united Kingdom”.
There is no United Kingdom. There is, as I wrote in the local press recently, a monster cornered in the North East of Ireland whose parents, the Mother of Parliaments and a cruel and ruthless military regime, have been forced to try to placate it with little crumbs of comfort to keep it under control. They are wasting their time.
Bear with me when I say that the Catholic population of Northern Ireland needs to show their Protestant brothers and sisters here the love that is hidden in every heart, and vice versa. The Protestant population, now very strong and articulate, should recognize that their strength can be used to great effect in a complete Ireland where at this moment, they are treated almost with contempt and disdain by the British Parliament. Their power there is almost meaningless and will continue to be so, on a sliding scale – down. In a complete Ireland their strength and, dare I say it, honest character would bring an ethic to government throughout Ireland which is sorely lacking. In fact, Ireland needs our Protestant Northern Ireland people to give it much needed
strength in many ways.

Please see in my story the treatment of a Catholic family by the keepers of English Law at www.gerryrice.net and please see in the story on www.justbelfast.com the treatment of a Protestant by the keepers of the same English Law. The fact is that the English Law in Northern Ireland allows those keepers to set aside the law when they find it necessary to cover their corruption and Protestant and Catholic are treated equally.
Thank you Féachadóir Éireannach for taking the time to look at my story.

Gerry Rice