Madam, - Niall Ginty (September 15th) has somewhat answered Charles Spillane ( September 13th ) but has not referred to an important feature of Mr Spillane's letter. That is his reference to "Israeli lobby groups" in the US.
He means, of course, the Jewish lobby, and should not be afraid to say so.
In all democratic societies where there are sizeable cultural and ethnic groups, there are lobbies. In the largely immigrant population of the US there are, of course, many such groups. Probably the largest, wealthiest and most powerful of those groups are the Irish Catholics. That group has undoubtedly had great influence on the US government's approach to Irish affairs, including its softly-softly approach to the IRA, and was probably the largest financial supporter of that organisation. Next are probably the Italians, and so on down the line.
In Ireland we have always had a very large lobby group called the Catholic Church which had a major influence on government policy - and rightly, so because that is how most the population wanted it. We also had the farmers' lobby, which influenced our deals with the EU, and so on.
Today we have a very powerful lobby group called Ictu, which also exercise great influence on government policy because of its ability to wreck anything the government proposes. You may have noticed that many government proposals are shelved because David Begg makes it publicly clear that such proposals are not acceptable to his organisation.
We have also acquired other lobby groups such the "developers", otherwise known as "Brown Envelope Society". We now have a sizeable Muslim population and I have no doubt that it will produce a lobby group in the future. And how about the parish pump lobby? How can you be sure to be re-elected if you do not get a lump of Lottery money or a government department or a bit of an industry into your area.
On the subject of boycotting, many of our largest stores sell clothing at incredibly cheap prices. This is possible only because in the societies where these goods are produced, workers are paid starvation wages for very long hours,reported to be as little as €1 a day. Do members of the Ictu and their families buy such goods? And why no boycott?
As for the proposed boycott of Israeli produce, I imagine that a society that can clear swamps, eradicate malaria and make the desert bloom will overcome the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and even the Ictu. - Yours, etc,
MONTY ROSS,
Templeogue Road,
Dublin 6W.