Letters to the Editor: EU may have to find a more warlike anthem than ‘Ode to Joy’
Beethoven's Ode to joy was performed in Berlin on Christmas Day, 1989, to mark the recent fall of the Berlin Wall. It had been adopted as the official EU anthem in 1985. File picture: AP
These are words that Beethoven added to Schiller’s poem for the triumphant choral climax of his Ninth Symphony. The work has become known as an anthem of both protest and peace.
On Christmas Day 1989, it was performed to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall that was hoped would bring extended peace and prosperity to the whole of Europe and beyond.
Beethoven was not only the greatest musician of all but was also a great humanitarian. His life story is littered with episodes of him giving of his time and much else to help those in need of it.
Having first welcomed the arrival of Napoleon, believing he was a “man of the people” who would finally bring basic justice to Europe by ending rule by absolute monarchy, he raged when Napoleon crowned himself an emperor and wept openly when the Grande Armée rained down cannon fire on the civilian population of Vienna.
If alive today, Beethoven would most certainly be bewildered to read that the European Commission, led by his compatriot European Ursula von der Leyen, plans to borrow €150bn to buy weapons of destruction.
He would surely be further perplexed by the fact that, across Europe, deprivation and poverty is still prevalent and was never was addressed with anything remotely like the urgency that is being employed in the push to buy arms.
As it happens, Beethoven’s was adopted as the anthem of the European Union given that it symbolises hope, unity, and fellowship — cherished values at the time.
But clearly things have changed, “jaw, jaw” is being replaced with “war, war”. In light of this, Ms von der Leyen should move as swiftly as she has to spend money on weaponry, to change the EU anthem.
Failure to do so would be an unforgivable affront to all Beethoven achieved and stood for. May I suggest she give consideration as a replacement to by Gustav Holst?
We continue to confuse, at a national level, the implications of neutrality and how to achieve such a status. Believing that peace is a consequence of neutrality is not true given that there are only four neutral states, and many countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Africa are in the throes of long wars and the world continues to edge towards more severe conflict.
The question is: Do we want to defend and protect neutrality by being militarily strong enough to prevent infringements on our land and seas? We must accept that other actors could decide we are doing a poor job leading to our endangerment and to a loss of peace.
It is a poor choice to ignore defence and spend monies only on schools, children, and hospitals, while there is no reason why we cannot do both. Countries such as Pakistan and Japan are the leaders in medical care for their people and are also very defence conscious. Choices have to be made.
As a former Cobh resident and a frequent visitor back to the island, it’s very frustrating to hear of the length of time it would take to add another crossing from the mainland over to Cobh.
With the amount of housing developments going on in the town over the years and more following on, no local politician has recognised or spoken out that Belvelly Bridge either needs to be improved and/or replaced before any more building takes place.
The same with any other infrastructure, ie schools, roads, medical centres, etc, not even considered before ground is broken for more houses — which are needed, but not at the pace that it’s happening at.
The town can’t cope with the amount of traffic that flows in and out of Cobh without adding more to the problem. No wonder the bridge is worn out; look after it first before anything else.
Regarding the article — ‘Cork leisure centre so run down it is ‘nearly an embarrassment’, councillors told’ (Irish Examiner, online, March 6) — it may seem obvious, at least to me, that renovating and repairing the existing facilities in Cobh will save enormous amounts of money in the long run.
There seems to be a common theme in a range of facilities to close properties down instead of repairing them, leaving the properties empty and paying development companies a fortune to build a new facility ... which takes years (if ever) to get done and results in spiralling development costs year on year.
I’m not exactly sure who profits the most from this needless waste of public funds, but it is definitely not the public. A modicum of “cop on” should be introduced.
Considerably more worrying than US president Donald Trump’s bombastic threat to Hamas on social media last week was his heinous message to the civilian population of Gaza: “Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!”
It is not possible to read this as anything other than a threat of collective punishment.
Moreover, the “beautiful future” offered is mass displacement — also illegal under international humanitarian law — involving the removal of millions of Palestinian civilians to the deserts of Egypt and Jordan.
Many commentators have remarked that Donald Trump should be assessed on his actions and not his words, but this is facile: Words often have significant consequences. In this instance, the hardline rhetoric from the US and its belligerent president is enabling those in Israel who are eager to displace or annihilate the Palestinians of Gaza.
A shift is under way in the so-called “world order” and international law and the Geneva Conventions are clearly in danger of becoming relics of a different time.
They must be defended robustly by those states that understand their necessity.
When Taoiseach Micheál Martin met Donald Trump in the White House on Wednesday, he commended Trump on his efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, adding that Ireland is ready to work with the US to bring peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Mr Martin should also have raised Mr Trump’s impermissible threats against Palestinian civilians and his repeated calls for the mass displacement of the population of Gaza.
The recent collision involving a fuel tanker in the North Sea is not the first such incident and will not be the last. It should serve as a wake-up call to all who love the environment.
Shipping oil half way around the world will always involve the risk of accidents and oil spillages, not to mention the burning of low-grade fuels that power these ships with their resultant harmful emissions.
Surely it would be better for the environment to harness the oil lying off-shore rather than transporting it from halfway round the world?
The need to seriously spend, in order to at least approach guaranteeing its security, seems to have finally dawned on the leadership of the EU.
Be that as it may, there is, I would argue, an even more serious obligation on the EU and that pertains to “reading the tea leaves” and acting accordingly in a resolute manner.
Russia annexed Crimea on March 18, 2014, with no significant reaction from the EU.
The growing possibility, over the past two years, of Donald Trump regaining the White House and what that could potentially mean to the EU seems to have been left to the gamble that “his bark is worse than his bite”.
These two instances alone have left the EU bobbing around like a cork in water. There is a lot of “getting real” to be done besides spending on tanks and guns.
We have a new total sum of €23bn for the long-awaited Metrolink project to link Dublin city centre to the airport. I have heard some commentators suggest we should stop throwing good money after bad and scrap this whole project.
It’s incredulous to think that we have been waiting on this for decades. I think we need more public transport and we do require a link to Dublin Airport because it will not only be an added bonus to tourism but also to Irish people going to and from the airport.
This project has been on the table for 25 years and I would find it somewhat irresponsible to abandon this undertaking because the citizens of this country are expecting it to be delivered.
However, we do have to be fiscally prudent and responsible. It’s incumbent on the Government to ensure we don’t have another scandal, like the Children’s Hospital, the bike shed, and stuff like that.
The citizens of this country are now more aware of where their taxes are going, I believe the country will benefit in having the Metrolink but the state must ensure there isn’t profligate spending in realising this goal.
