For a small island on the Atlantic fringe, we occupy remarkable space in the British imagination.<\/p>\n
Being accused of Europhilia by a paper that championed Brexit feels like being mocked for renewing one\u2019s gym membership by someone who cancelled theirs and now criticises your treadmill form from the sofa.<\/p>\n
We are hardly perfect. A generation struggles with housing costs and too many young people still contemplate emigration. That is a serious weakness, not a culture war slogan.<\/p>\n
Still, as my late mother used to say, never worry about criticism from someone you would not seek advice from. On that basis, we may sleep soundly.<\/p>\n
Enda Cullen, Tullysaran Road, Armagh<\/p>\n
Abortion three-day wait period serves no purpose and should be scrapped<\/p>\n
Liz O\u2019Sullivan tells us that abortion is a \u201cprofound decision\u201d (Letters, February 18). Once again, decisions about pregnancy termination are portrayed as being taken on a whim, by flighty women incapable of understanding the consequences of their actions.<\/p>\n
By the time a person seeks abortion, they have given a great deal of thought to their situation and made the choice that is best for them. To insist they rethink is patronising and insulting.<\/p>\n
In fact, the three-day waiting period seems only to suit those who don\u2019t actually need, want or approve of abortions, but would like to influence other people\u2019s private decisions. It serves no medical purpose for those who seek, or provide, this type of healthcare and should be scrapped.<\/p>\n
Bernie Linnane, Dromahair, Co Leitrim<\/p>\n
United States is a much poorer nation following the death of Jesse Jackson<\/p>\n
The death of Jesse Jackson marks the end of an era. During a recent class there was a discussion of how Martin Luther King \u201chad a dream\u201d in which all Americans would live in a society free of racism.<\/p>\n
Nobody would be discriminated against because of race, colour, language, religion or ethnicity.<\/p>\n
One student asked whether Ireland had come a long distance in this regard. My response was that we are getting there, but not there yet.<\/p>\n
Dr King was assassinated in 1968. It shocked an America that was not ready to embrace the \u201cdream\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was Jesse Jackson who built on Dr King\u2019s legacy to inspire generations. From a humble background, Rev Jackson\u2019s tireless work to win racial equity spanned more than six decades and helped shape American politics.<\/p>\n
He changed the Democratic Party\u2019s platform to focus on social and econ\u00adomic inclusion as it moved into the 21st century.<\/p>\n
When he made a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, he lost out, and so Walter Mondale ran against Ronald Reagan, who proved unbeatable. In 1988, Rev Jackson\u2019s hat was in the ring again, and it seemed he was in the right place, but at the wrong time.<\/p>\n
I remember an Irish American saying to me at the time that the US was not ready for a black president. In 1992, Bill Clinton won Rev Jackson\u2019s support and secured the White House for the Democrats for the first time in 16 years.<\/p>\n
Another 16 years after that, he endorsed Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
In 2017, the charismatic Rev Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease, but he kept up the fight. America has lost one of its greats.<\/p>\n
Thomas Garvey, Claremorris, Co Mayo<\/p>\n
Man who sought to be the first black US president only ever tried his best<\/p>\n
The death of Jesse Jackson ends an era in US politics. I remember the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King in April, 1968. Rev Jackson worked hard to emulate Dr King and appeared to be his natural successor.<\/p>\n
I was half expecting he would be elected America\u2019s first black president when he ran in 1988. Although controversial at times, he did his best, and that was all that was necessary.<\/p>\n
Dominic Shelmerdine, London<\/p>\n
EU is not what it\u2019s meant to be, and the people here know this as well as any<\/p>\n
They say \u201cAll politics is local\u201d, and in the past that is how politics in Ireland worked. A politician who worked hard for his constituents was sure to have a long political career.<\/p>\n
In recent years, this doesn\u2019t seem to be the case in the sense that \u201clocal interests\u201d (interests of Irish citizens) appear to be ignored by local authorities in favour of big business, developers and international investors.<\/p>\n
Central funds are only released following various EU directives and regulations that do not make sense from an Irish perspective, socially or financially.<\/p>\n
One size does not fit all, as most people know if they buy their clothes online or at a discount store. Ireland is now the only English-speaking country in the EU. Irish people do not look at life in the same way as most mainland Europeans do.<\/p>\n
We look at \u201chome\u201d as having one\u2019s own front and back door and a front and back garden.<\/p>\n
In most mainland European countries, it is normal for most families to live in apartments.<\/p>\n
The original idea of the EU was of nations joining together in the interest of lasting peace and prosperity, with free trade and free movement of goods and workers from one EU country to another.<\/p>\n
It was not founded on the idea that countries end up as clones of each other in some kind of social and economic experiment devised by the World Economic Forum and the Bilderberg Group.<\/p>\n
We are constantly told how democratic we in the West are, while those we elect are directed by unelected civil servants and the invisible hand of various think-tanks.<\/p>\n
So the question we need to ask is: Do we really have genuine democracy or are we all just pawns in a bigger game?<\/p>\n
Nuala Nolan, Bowling Green, Galway<\/p>\n
Artificial intelligence on the rise, but is it taking hold among our vets?<\/p>\n
I read in the Irish Independent that seven in 10 workers use AI in their place of work. I\u2019m just wondering if that includes vets.<\/p>\n
Pat Canning, Tara, Co Meath<\/p>\n
All this rainy weather is leading me to think the country has gone soft<\/p>\n
A soft month, thank God.<\/p>\n
Ed Toal, Galway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a small island on the Atlantic fringe, we occupy remarkable space in the British imagination. Being accused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5456,37002,57092,2244,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-305615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-barack-obama","9":"tag-bill-clinton","10":"tag-brexit","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}