A chara, – Senator Rónán Mullen was fully correct to criticise President Michael D Higgins’s “fawning tribute” to the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. When the President speaks in a public capacity, his statements are made on behalf of the Irish people. As such, those privileged to this position are expected to leave party loyalties behind, and represent the entire Irish nation.
Unfortunately, since his inauguration, Mr Higgins has continually used our country’s highest office to promote very politicised and polarising left-wing views. Mr Higgins’s latest statement, which doted over the meagre achievements of Cuban communism while glossing over the criminality, brutality, and inhumanity of Fidel Castro’s regime, is his most offensive to date.
The office of President must not be abused to romanticise a dark era in Cuban history, or to promote personal political views. If Mr Higgins finds these restrictions intolerable, I would remind him that they do not apply to private citizens. – Is mise,
RORY CROTTY,
Douglas,
Cork.
Sir, – Any Irish person who has visited Cuba will support the brave words of President Michael D Higgins on the death of Fidel Castro.
Warts and all, Fidel personified the expression that “dreams can be greater than mountains”. He transformed Cuban society into a model from which we could all learn in terms of cherishing communities and bringing dignity to the most vulnerable. One of Havana’s longest streets, Calle O’Reilly, bears a tribute in limestone from Cuba to Ireland that goes “Two island peoples in the same sea of struggle and hope – Cuba and Ireland”. Michael D, take a bow. – Yours, etc,
EMER O’SHEA,
Ballyshannon,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – Your editorial ("Death of a revolutionary", November 28th) on the death of Fidel Castro seeks to place him in proportion; a man who did create world-class educational and medical facilities in a very poor country but who failed to transform the economy, not least because of US embargoes while he was subsidised by the USSR.
But that is only part of the story. Had he remained only a domestic player your portrayal of him as oversized might be justified, though his resistance to US intimidation would always have marked him out; whatever else he has taught a generation of Cubans that if they stick to their principles and their guns they can determine their history; and given the history of Cuba, that is a remarkable thing.
But he also turned Cuba into a major international player. When South Africa was the region’s US and British policeman, it was Cuban foreign policy, working through East Germany, and Cuban soldiers, who fought them to a standstill; a very strong argument can be made that it was Cuban action that precipitated the end of apartheid. The downside of this was his support for Russian policy in Ethiopia under Haile Mariam Mengistu, with its appalling consequences. That, to my mind, is his lasting shame.
Castro really was a remarkable and ruthless man: inside the revolution everything, outside the revolution nothing. That you bought the Don Quixote line shows that he could also do a very good line in guile. He was one of the greats. – Yours, etc,
EOIN DILLON,
Mount Brown,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – Your editorial on the “Death of a Revolutionary” was a balanced and rightfully nuanced account of Fidel Castro’s life. However, you mentioned the “tiny threat he really posed to the US”. In military or economic terms, that is very correct, but it was the threat of the example of a successful revolution on an island just 93 miles from the US mainland that caused consternation in the US administration, which feared a domino effect of revolutions in its backyard. US-backed dictatorships throughout Latin America feared for their survival. The corrupt Somoza regime in Nicaragua was swept aside in 1979 in another popular revolution. Then El Salvador and Guatemala followed the path of revolutionary struggle. In Chile, Salvador Allende was elected. While the CIA successfully stifled these revolutions, it failed to destroy the Cuban revolution, which remains demonised by the US elites to this day. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – I, for one, am entirely happy with the expression of sympathy issued by President Higgins on the passing of the brave and iconic Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Having visited both the little island of Cuba and its near-neighbour, the powerful and wealthy United States of America, on several occasions I have no doubt in my mind as to which of those two countries I would prefer to live in.
The hostile and vindictive blockade of Cuba by America has done untold damage to the economy of Cuba and to the welfare of its people for close on half a century.
Furthermore, the illegal occupation of Guantánamo Bay by the US and its inhuman internment of prisoners held there is both a violation of the sovereignty of Cuba and a blatant contravention of international human rights laws.
In many respects, Ireland and Cuba have much in common historically, and it is entirely right and fitting that our President should speak well of a deceased president of Cuba in the way that he did. – Yours, etc,
GEAROID KILGALLEN,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – There has been a backlash against President Michael D Higgins. People believe that his statement on one of the most prominent political personalities of the 20th century has brought shame to not only the office he holds but the country in which he holds it. This flat-out dismissal of him and his sentiment is by extension a rejection of complexity itself in everyday life. That is what I truly find bananas. – Yours, etc,
PAUL McCARRICK,
Athlone,
Co Westmeath.
Sir, – Clearly, President Michael D Higgins is seeking a version of historical nostalgia not available to those who thought differently to Fidel Castro, be they members of the LGBT community, Christians, liberals, or even poets and writers. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN Ó BROIN,
Florence.
Sir, – In his gushing tribute to the late Fidel Castro, President Michael D Higgins follows the usual left-wing practice of ignoring or playing down atrocities or abuses perpetrated by hard-left regimes. He is writing in his capacity as President of Ireland and on behalf of the Irish people. However, I doubt that more than a small fraction of the Irish people agree with what he said.
Obviously Michael D Higgins is entitled to his personal political opinions and ideological convictions. However , he is not entitled to promote these personal opinions and convictions in official presidential pronouncements. The Castro incident is only the latest example of President Higgins’s disregard of propriety in this area. If this continues it is surely only a matter of time before he commits a gaffe that will seriously embarrass or damage Ireland on the international stage. – Yours, etc,
WILLIAM REVILLE,
Waterfall,
Co Cork.
A chara, – It is with great pride that I read the tribute paid to the late Fidel Castro by our President, Michael D Higgins, himself a man of great integrity and culture. Given his support for him in the past, anything less would have been seen by his opponents, not least in the right-wing establishment and their media outlets, as rank hypocrisy.
Whereas it is not in dispute that Fidel Castro suppressed those who opposed his government, the net benefit to ordinary Cubans, in terms of social and medical and social care in particular, was vast. Only history will judge.
Contrasting the dignified, measured response of our President with the scenes of jubilation among Cubans in the US, I remain proud to stand with the sentiments expressed by our President. – Yours, etc,
DUNCAN NICHOLSON,
Leixlip,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – How ironic that my own elected President should praise an unelected dictator. At least I’ll have a chance to show my displeasure with Mr Higgins in 2018. Hopefully Cubans will be choosing their presidents by then too. – Yours, etc,
DOMINIC PHELAN,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.