Sir, – Every adult living on this island should contact a relative or friend in the UK urging them to consider our fate and vote accordingly on Thursday, June 23rd.
A politician or national figure should make a public appeal to this effect. Immediately. – Yours, etc,
MARIE O’BRIEN,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
Sir, – For months, the airwaves and the print media have been full of programmes and articles on the Rising.
Whether one considers that event to be a piece of ill-considered folly with a predictable outcome or as an admirable action in pursuit of freedom, one cannot question the courage of those involved and their passion for an independent Ireland.
Fast-forward 100 years and here we are pleading with our neighbours (and former overlords) in the UK that they continue to surrender their sovereignty to the EU so that we too can remain subservient to that undemocratic, dictatorial institution which pervades every corner of our lives and looks set to do so on an increasing scale.
So what happened to our hunger for independence and how would those who sacrificed their lives look upon our desire for continued membership of this faltering and ultimately self-destructive institution?
I think I know the answer. – Yours, etc,
ROBERT BATES,
Delgany, Co Wicklow.
Sir, – In common with many others commenting on the Brexit campaign, and with particular reference to the possibility of reinstating Border controls, Jim Watt, a former loyalist prisoner interviewed by Harry McGee, states, "Before we even went into Europe we used to travel freely down to Dublin and back" ("Anti-EU feeling widespread in loyalist areas of Belfast", June 16th).
Maybe Jim Watt was too young at the time to remember, but as someone who travelled that same route on a number of occasions in the 1950s and 1960s, I recall only too well the quite complicated procedures involved in bringing one’s car across the Border to Northern Ireland. Before departing from Dublin, it was necessary to obtain and complete an exportation document, detailing vehicle’s chassis number, engine number, etc, part of which required verification by a garda. This lengthy procedure was required even in the case of a day trip, and necessitated visiting both Customs posts, twice, on a single return trip.
Depending on how busy they were, the Customs officers might decide to inspect and verify the vehicle’s serial numbers as entered on the form, thus ensuring lengthy delays en route.
For those travelling by train, Customs inspections were conducted at each terminal. Readers might remember the stories of butter “smugglers” ditching their contraband out train windows if officers arrived unexpectedly on board for spot checks.
Similarly, the then illegal importation of contraceptives by a brave band of women in 1971 received much publicity when Customs officers at Connolly Station attempted to confiscate the contraceptives.
Travelling freely between the two states? I don’t think so. – Yours, etc,
PETER McILWAINE,
Blessington, Co Wicklow.
Sir, – If the benefits of the EU are all about economics, then people are entitled to ask what exactly is the price of this growth. How sustainable is a growth model that, like a giant Ponzi scheme, seems to depend on massive migration and constant economic expansion simply to keep itself from slipping into recession?
The Remain side points out the “workers’ rights” enshrined in EU legislation; it all seems noble and progressive, but in effect these are little more than gestures and platitudes. Indeed, the working time directive is meaningless to the millions of workers in Ireland and the UK who are self-employed and have to work excessive hours simply to stay financially afloat.
Ireland was never a society that was strong on social mobility. The easiest route for those of little means to better themselves was to take the ferry to Holyhead. It was a journey I made. And I took the boat with very little in the way of education. I had no skills and no money. I worked at a succession of menial jobs but within five years in 1993, I was able to put down a £5,000 deposit on a two-bedroom flat in the centre of an Irish community in Islington. The flat cost £49,000. That route taken by many from Ireland is now firmly closed to young Irish men and women from a similar background to me. Migration, particularly of the levels seen in England, has pushed up property prices to levels that no working person can afford, and has at the same time exerted downward pressure on wages. I know people 10 years younger than me who are working simply to eat and pay exorbitant rents.
Does the political class really think it is feasible that we can continue to operate a harmonious society in the UK or Ireland with such restricted social mobility? A society where most young people of average ability will be unable to own a home of their own, unless they either inherit one, or are engaged in criminal activity?
The rich and the middle classes are by and large firmly in the Remain camp. The EU has been good to them. They praise the open borders as they dash off to their house in France, with their privately educated children. Borders have been abolished within the EU, but those with wealth and power create their own borders. We have an increasing number of gated communities, and we have our plush and posh areas where house prices are as effective as passports for keeping out anyone but the very rich. It often seems that the medicine our upper and governing classes prescribe for others is rarely the medicine they choose to take themselves. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN RYAN,
Richmond, London.