A chara, – The man who made it to uncomfortable for us all to turn a “blind eye” to the happenings in his world. – Is mise,
COLUM FORDE,
Highland Avenue,
Cabinteely, Dublin 18.
Sir, – In light of his legacy to human rights and peace, shouldn’t one of Dublin’s streets be renamed Nelson Mandela Street?
Perhaps the members of Dublin City Council might examine this proposal and make a fitting tribute to one of the greatest champions of justice? – Yours, etc,
IAN O’MARA,
Haddington Road, Dublin 4.
Sir, – If the Government is serious about honouring Nelson Mandela’s memory, perhaps the former Dunnes Stores workers could be sent to represent the Irish people at his funeral. – Yours, etc,
NOEL MURPHY,
Balkill Park,
Howth, Co Dublin.
Sir, – Enda steals Obama’s words. Obama steals Edwin M Stanton’s. Where’s all this plagiarism going to end? – Yours, etc,
PJ MALONEY,
Clonyhague, Co Westmeath.
A chara, – “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela, RIP.
If every person could aspire to live a life as inspiringly impactful as the colossal, prisoner-to-president, leader Madiba achieved, what a wonderful world we would live in. – Is mise,
JASON POWER,
Maxwell Road,
Rathgar, Dublin 6.
Sir, – It is difficult to listen to the garbage coming out of the world leaders on the death of Nelson Mandela. When that great man spoke of the nobility of the human spirit, the world leaders listened. When he spoke of the injustices against the third world, the illegal military interventions and the Palestinians, they were deaf.
Perhaps they might honour his memory now by simply remaining silent. – Yours, etc,
JOHN HANAMY,
Charleston Road,
Ranelagh, Dublin 6.
Sir, – He was a credit to his race, the human race. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN McMAHON,
Elmwood,
Naas, Co Kildare.
A chara, – A great man has died. Mandela stood up to an oppressive and tyrannical government in search of equal rights and liberties for his people, and succeeded.
The fact that, over three decades ago, he used the gun and the bomb to pursue these goals should not besmirch the man who was a beacon of hope for so many.
I look forward to a similar level of national and international outpouring of grief when Martin McGuinness passes into the abyss. – Is mise,
SAM QUIRKE,
Church Street,
Killaloe, Co Clare.
Sir, – The sad passing on Thursday evening of Madiba is all part of life; and he will be remembered by everyone who seeks justice and fair play. Nelson Mandela was first and foremost a revolutionary, despised for a long time by many – especially our close neighbour, the British government.
I think of two things in relation to Nelson Mandela. One is a young lady called Mary Manning who stood outside her comfort zone and refused with others to take South African products during the horrible apartheid era; and the other is a young boy of 16 who got his first letter published in a newspaper in Belfast. I wrote about the apartheid regime and waited for my father to come home from work to show him the fruits of my labour. I have not stopped writing since.
We salute you Madiba. – Yours, etc,
PAUL DORAN,
Monastery Walk,
Clondalkin, Dublin 22.
Sir, – Mandela was inspirational and eternal; he insisted on the sovereignty of his land, pride in his race, culture and heritage. He resisted invasion, sell-outs, dissolution and disaster. It is a pity these traits, lionised today by all, no longer seems to apply to us, white Irish. – Yours, etc,
SEAN MacGREINE,
Achaill Road,
Dromcondra, Dublin 9.
A chara, – It is with great sadness that I read of the death of one of the 20th century’s great statesmen. Given the problems in Northern Ireland, not entirely unlike the issues facing the black South Africans, one wonders how unfortunate we were not to have a leader like Mandela. It is relevant to note that both Thatcher and Reagan considered him a terrorist and were against sanctions. All good people will mourn his passing. – Is mise,
MACK LENNON,
Windgate Road,
Howth, Co Dublin.
Sir, – At the precise moment I heard of the death of the great Nelson Mandela, I was transported back to my school days and reminded of my former English teacher, Gerry Murtagh, of St Laurence College, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin.
I can recall vividly a fundraising event organised by him on behalf of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement at our school in 1988, long before it was fashionable to do so.
I wish to acknowledge Mr Murtagh’s contribution in enlightening my class to the injustices that prevailed in South Africa at that time and for decades before, and to the sacrifices made by the remarkable Nelson Mandela, who had, after years of isolation, effected a sea-change in South Africa. It enabled my fellow students and I to appreciate the difference one man can make in a society that treats people differently mainly because of the colour of their skin. – Yours, etc,
AISLING DELAHUNTY,
Claregate Street, Kildare.
Sir, – Nelson Mandela stood for what he believed in. He was faced with many obstacles which seemed impossible to overcome, and made many sacrifices. But he continued to tell himself that “it always seems impossible until it’s done”. – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’BYRNE,
Mount Argus Court,
Harold’s Cross,
Dublin 6W.
Sir, – A charismatic advocate for the rights of man, Mandela proved to be a towering influence over a very long period, whether in or out of office and, indeed, whether in or out of jail.
When a major political figure is assassinated we tend to think of the loss in relation to the short-term politics of the time or we subsequently hark back to the event of the death itself (JFK is an obvious example). While President Kennedy is now seen as a figure from history, he was born only a year before Nelson Mandela. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were several years younger than Mandela.
On leaving South Africa in 1966 (after a visit which was much resisted by the apartheid government) the then Senator Robert Kennedy’s plane flew over Robben Island, where Mandela was incarcerated. Kennedy is reported to have asked the pilot to tip the wing in a gesture to Mandela and the other political prisoners whom he had not been allowed to visit. The pilot was stripped of his licence and did not fly again for years.
Imagine the impact Mandela, the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King might together have had on human rights across the globe if the three assassination victims had been spared the gunmen’s bullets. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN O’SULLIVAN,
Ballyraine Park,
Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
A chara, – I am thinking of Mandela and listening to the queen of South African singing, Miriam Makeba. I remember the day the Irish football team returned from Italia 90. I was 18 and came in to town. It was packed, sunny, euphoric and hundreds of thousands were there to cheer the team.
But on Dawson Street a much smaller crowd was there to greet Mandela. Olé Olé Olé was sung and chanted on every corner of town and when Mandela eventually addressed the crowd, some of his first words were to congratulate the Irish team and he too, the Prince of Robben Island, chanted Olé, Olé, Olé.Tears, as history and the beautiful game collided for a moment. It was a legendary summer, with Nessun Dorma, Chianti and pizza on special offer in every supermarket, Packie Bonner and Schillaci sending us home from Palermo, and Nelson Mandela walking tall on Dawson Street. Watching and listening to Mandela, my skin tingled and my eyes were stinging. He had grace in spades. RIP. – Is mise,
BILLY O hANLUAIN,
Cashel Road,
Kimmage, Dublin 12.
Sir, – I’m sure President Obama used the phrase “he belongs to the ages” about Mandela in the full knowledge that he was quoting Edwin Stanton on Lincoln, but your report of his remarks (Front page, December 6th) does not pick up his very apt allusion. No other press, radio or television report seems to have done so either. Stanton was US secretary of war under Lincoln, one of the so-called “team of rivals” which is the subject of the book of that name by Doris Kearns Goodwin which was much admired by Obama. – Yours, etc,
FELIX M LARKIN
Vale View Lawn,
Cabinteely,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – Nelson Mandela embodied humankind’s ability to struggle and overcome oppression. In remembering him and paying tribute, it is difficult to conceive that at the outset of his struggle, and throughout his incarceration, he was but one man, with one man’s resources and abilities to instigate change. In his own words, he was “an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances”.
The discrimination that he and fellow black South Africans experienced was institutionalised, recognised and legitimised by the acceptance of the apartheid regime, both internationally and within South Africa’s own borders for so long. Powerful economic and political forces engendered a culture that said to blacks “this is the way things are”.
But Mandela chose to challenge those underlying assumptions and query how it could be that society created, tolerated and fostered something as “unnatural” as apartheid. One man, yet he dared to try to change the way things were.
His struggle attracted support across the world and even here, in the recessionary times of Ireland in the 1980s , ordinary supermarket workers sacrificed their livelihoods to recognise and support him, ordinary women and men daring to change “the way things are”.
As we eulogise Mandela, he can inspire each of us individually to challenge injustice, poverty, inequality where we experience it, in the extraordinary circumstances in which we live. May he rest in peace and enjoy his sleep for eternity. – Yours, etc,
SUZANNE CARTHY,
Leinster Lawn,
Clonskeagh,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – Understandably, the media is replete with articles detailing the travails, courage, and heroics, of beloved Nelson Mandela, now sadly passed. One element of his personality which I think deserves particular attention is his sense of humour. In his infancy, Nelson was given a Xhosa tribal name, “Rohlihlahla”, the colloquial meaning of which is “troublemaker”.
The little troublemaker grew into a flamboyant lawyer. In one case he defended a domestic worker accused of stealing clothes belonging to her “madam” (employer). The said clothing was displayed on a table in court. As Mandela began his cross-examination of the employer, he approached the table of evidence, and with the tip of his pencil, picked up an item of ladies’ underwear. He slowly turned to the witness box, exhibited the underpants, and asked “Madam, are these. . . yours?”
The employer quickly replied no, too embarrassed to admit that they were. Because of her response and other inconsistencies in her evidence, the case was dismissed. – Yours etc.,
EMMA KEANE,
Nutley Road,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – To borrow the late Kenneth Tynan’s phrase: a voice “echoing across the valleys of the centuries”! – Yours, etc,
OLIVER McGRANE,
Marley Avenue,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.