Sir, — The statement issued yesterday by President Michael Higgins (“President reiterates condemnation of war against Ukraine — but does not address letter controversy”, News, August 1st) does nothing to address the serious misstep of his wife, Sabina Coyne Higgins, when she wrote to this newspaper last week.
Ms Coyne Higgins (Letters, July 27th) suggested an equivalence between Ukraine and Russia, there is none. Russia is the aggressor who has illegally invaded a peaceful country, occupies more than 20 per cent of its territory where daily it murders, rapes, tortures and deports innocent citizens. Ukraine, on the other hand, fights for the lives of citizens and for its very existence as a nation.
It is not enough to say Ms Coyne Higgins is a private citizen and entitled to her views. She is the wife of the President and regularly accompanies him on State business, a position compounded by the publication, even if later removed, of her ill-advised letter, on the website of Áras an Uachtaráin.
Disinformation and lies are part of Russia’s war playbook, deployed not just against Ukraine but against all of us in the West.
:quality(70):focal(842x369:852x379)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/KVOQTYKN5FDFBO4PKIUV2NWXLU.jpg)
:quality(70):focal(1485x1450:1495x1460)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/C72ORNOJDJFUROBXAJ34DCLTHA.JPG)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/DUW7K3XD5SZIF4YYVBYQIBV4I4.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/MTJH2Z7NLZRRCEMB2CXKBE4RKY.jpg)
Ms Coyne Higgins has helped Russia and damaged the trust in her of many Irish and Ukrainian people.
She needs to see Russia through Ukrainian eyes. I have no doubt a cup of tea in the park with a few members of the Ukrainian community in Ireland could clear up misunderstandings and mend important fences. — Yours, etc
CORMAC SMITH,
Former strategic communication adviser to the foreign minister of Ukraine,
London, UK.
Sir, — Much of the comment surrounding the letter by Sabina Coyne Higgins concerns assertions that she is a private citizen entitled to express her personal views, whatever they may be. This is at odds with a previous description of her used as the “First Woman of Ireland” in a speech given in January 2022 (hosted on the Áras an Uachtaráin YouTube video channel) on gender-based violence, and again with the same title in a podcast of an interview given to the London Irish Centre dating from March 2022.
Ms Coyne Higgins has her own section of the President’s website dedicated to her public engagements. As she has clearly adopted a very public “First Woman” or “First Lady” role (despite there being no real tradition in Ireland for this), expressions she makes could be seen as being an extension of the Presidency and therein lies the problem with her foreign policy-related utterance on a sensitive topic.
The Taoiseach should arrange to meet the President this week to reiterate that the official remit for such remarks lies with the Government and most particularly with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. — Yours, etc,
Cllr JOHN KENNEDY, (Fine Gael)
Goatstown, Dublin 14.
Sir, — In her letter Sabina Coyne Higgins asserts that Gustav Holst was a great German composer. Holst was in fact English, born to an English mother in Cheltenham and a father who, though on his paternal side of part Swedish, Latvian and German descent, was himself English, with an English mother. — Yours, etc,
WALTER ELLIS,
Plusquellec, France.
Sir — I support the call for a ceasefire and a negotiated solution which has been articulated by Sabina Coyne Higgins. It is an assertion of the moral imperative of the primacy of peace.
I reject the simplistic representation of the alternatives in terms of being pro Ukraine or pro Russia. The real choice is between war or peace.
We must never give up on diplomacy. A ceasefire and negotiations would not predetermine an outcome entailing territorial concessions to Russia. Any number of possibilities could emerge. The only certainty is that thousands of lives would be spared and further suffering would be avoided.
Moreover, it would avert the increasing danger of further descent into a geopolitical conflict and the threat of nuclear war, as well as facilitating a global refocus on the rapidly approaching challenge of climate change. — Yours, etc,
JACK O’CONNOR,
Naas, Co Kildare.
Sir, — Donal Denham says “support for Irish neutrality is not so easily diminished by those who would have us taking sides in this senseless conflict” (Letters, August 2nd). Desmond Tutu once said: “If an Elephant has his foot on the mouse’s tail and you say you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” If Mr Denham, or anyone else, thinks our neutrality means not taking sides in the face of blatant aggression, then our neutrality is cowardly and immoral. — Yours, etc,
PAUL WILLIAMS,
Kilkee, Co Clare.
Sir, — The intent of Sabina Coyne Higgins’s letter calling for peace negotiations in the Russia-Ukraine war should be supported.
There is one vital aspect to this horrific war not aired enough but suggested in one line from the anti-war poem from which Ms Coyne Higgins quotes — “Age after age, their tragic empires rise”. Since the unjustified Russian invasion of Ukraine almost everything that western imperial powers have done has served only to escalate the conflict.
The pitiful attempts by the leaders of Germany, Italy and France to broker some kind of negotiations were undermined immediately by the US and Britain, with the utterly discredited Boris Johnson trotting off to Ukraine as much to shore up his failing premiership as to show any sincere solidarity. US president Joe Biden and his team, the main players in Nato, have made clear that their aim is to use the war to weaken Russia. As well as being a war of aggression by a large imperialist power, the war on Ukraine has long since become an inter-imperialist proxy conflict between two large powers, that of Russia and Nato, and more particularly between those two nuclear powers.
Irish political leaders rightly condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine but what else have they done? Where is the expression of Ireland’s cherished tradition of neutrality and support for diplomatic efforts to end conflicts? Instead they cavort with Nato leaders in Madrid and elsewhere, are largely silent at the UN Security Council, openly threaten Ireland’s neutrality all while supporting the rush to EU militarisation. Instead of kowtowing to this escalation of conflict by two major imperial powers, Irish political leaders should take a lead from Ms Coyne Higgins’s courage and use the moral authority of Ireland’s credible neutral status to call for an immediate ceasefire and diplomatic efforts to end this horrible war. — Yours etc,
JIM ROCHE,
PRO, Irish Anti-War Movement, Dublin 1.