People of West are being treated with contempt

Wednesday, August 31, 2005 People of West are being treated with contempt - Letter to editor, Western PeopleSIR – The crimes committed by the Government reveal a striking resemblance to the contempt with which Cromwell told the starving Irish to ‘Go to hell or to Connaught’. St. Thomas More - incidentally the patron of politicians! - says in the play, Ä Man for all Seasons”, “ Rich, What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul - but for Wales?”And our elected representatives - have betrayed and sold-out the people of Rossport and surrounding villages, for a handful of “Shell pottage”? But I see a deeper problem here. For example,for over 35 years I have been travelling on and off from Dublin to Ballina via CIE - now Iarnrod Eireann, and in these 35 years I have seen no improvement in the services. Very often you could not get a cup of tea and also the sandwiches “got finished” before we reached Athlone. Then come to Manulla, and you stand on the uncovered platform waiting for the train from Castlebar, shivering in the wind and rain. But take the train from Dublin to Cork and you can enjoy gourmet meals and a trolley service etc. Are the people of Mayo not citizens of Ireland also, with the same human and legal rights as the people of Dublin? There seems to be a double standard operating and a mentality that says - ‘Don’t put the untreated gas pipes in Dublin but you can take over the land of the people of North Mayo and go ahead’. Maybe this Cromwellian attitude needs to be recognised, admitted and PURGED. Maire Shine(Proud to be a sister of Micheal O Seighin) Apartado 1194, Acapulco 39301, Mexico.