As a past Féile an Phobail staff member and one of the festival’s greatest advocates I have absolutely no doubt that festival organisers, in their pursuit of a laugh, did not set out to cause offence or hurt with the recent Frankie Boyle booking.  As Féile’s press officer has pointed out: “It wasn’t the festival’s intention to upset anyone. But, it’s been the fastest selling comedy gig that they have ever put on and that’s the simple fact of the matter.”

Well done, that’s great news for the Féile bank balance and for the comedic hordes who relish in insult, satire and shock humour and that’s their right of course. And as Gerry Adams also pointed out in the same article “Féile an Phobail has a very, very, very good record of inclusivity. All well and good but another fact of the matter remains, by booking known controversial acts like Boyle, with or without doing your research (who, admitted his now infamous targeting of people with Down’s Syndrome was “the most excruciating moment of my career”) please don’t feel aggrieved, shocked or surprised when other members of the community you claim to represent exercise the same freedom of speech (as Boyle) and something tells me “they haven’t gone away you know”.

As a mother of a 14-month-old child with Down’s Syndrome who recently appeared in the widely lauded and hugely positive BBC documentary One Extra Chromosome it’s just disappointing to see such social stigma rearing its ugly head yet again, no-matter what camp you’re in, whether pro/anti-Boyle.
Like most I believe that censorship belongs in the past and ‘comedians’ like everyone else are entitled to say what they want, even when playing on the fears of the audience. I don’t have to be in the room and listening.

What concerns me more is the general trend of using disability insult humour which is largely unimaginative and does nothing to counteract stereotyping as part of comic practice and people actually thinking it’s funny. 

To be honest it makes me question more society than Frankie Boyle or other comedians of his ilk.
For if no-one laughed at a particular ‘joke’ it would soon disappear. 
So here’s to hoping that Boyle’s foray into mockery of the disabled is short-lived, that these ‘jokes’ will go the way of old racist ones (a subject apparently already off limits for Boyle) and people who seem to savour this type of controversial comedy will look back and ask themselves “Did we really laugh at that?”

GEMMA McCOURT
Portadown, Co, Armagh

Count to 10 Newton before pressing send button

I note that Newton Emerson (August 6) claims that anyone with an A-level in economics would understand why ‘Corbynomics’ is ridiculous.

I was not aware that Newton had attained an A-level in economics.

As a graduate in Commerce and Economics and a qualified accountant for nearly 30 years, I can attest that the essence of what Jeremy Corbyn is proposing makes complete economic sense.

If one is going to inject billions of pound into the economy by ‘printing’ money the way the Tories have being doing these last few years – then it makes far more sense to put these riches into a state-owned bank and invest the money in long-term infrastructure like railways, bridges, social housing, green housing conversions or making the investment needed to move the economy to 100 per cent renewable home-grown energy, thus boosting the economy, boosting tax revenue and ending the recession.

Instead Newton suggests that the Tories approach of giving these billions of ‘fake printed money’ to their chums in the city is the right approach. Giving the banksters lots of unearned bonuses, while slashing public investment and extending the recession.

While I am a huge fan of Newton Emerson’s Saturday column, I often wish he would count to 10 before pressing the ‘send’ button on his Thursday articles and give it a last minute ‘audit’ to ensure the myopia and reactionary nature of his unionist background does not ruin his reputation as the best, and only humorous unionist writer on the island.

Cllr CADOGAN ENRIGHT
Downpatrick, Co Down

Church gate collections

Bishop Doran of Elphin and Bishop Cullinan of Waterford are to be congratulated for tackling Irish political parties who do church gate collections.  These same parties have advocated policies and introduced legislation which undermines marriage and the right to life of the unborn child. I wonder will other bishops and parish priests have the courage to follow suit? When prolife people were outside churches in 2013, informing Massgoers of Enda Kenny’s impending abortion legislation for suicidal mothers, some priests got a bit hot under their collars and were unhelpful including some politicians. Genuine prolife charities do not get or apply for government funding as they cannot undermine God’s law in these areas.

The bishops and indeed Massgoers should now research charities who also do church gate collections which undermine Church teaching in these and other areas.

There are many charities overseas who covertly support population control policies ie abortion. 
It is up to all of us who are sincere in our faith to discern which charities to support.

ANN CAMPBELL
Scotstown, Co Monaghan

Two-party system

As both the statists on the right, led by David Cameron, and on the left, who view Jeremy Corbyn as the second coming, the media will continue focusing on appeasing its target audience, ie who will benefit from the policies of whoever is in charge. The financial elite benefit from a Tory government appeasing them at any given opportunity, while the student/cultural elite benefit from nihilist collectivism of the radical left.

This underlines the problem with the two-party system. It embodies the culture of entitlement in Britain which starts at the top – the monarchy – all the way down the underclass created by misrule from both parties. The monarchy’s exposed support for the ‘national socialists’ 80 years ago underlines how political treason is par for the course in England.

Freedom is now a distant memory because entitlement is as British as Finchley.

DESMOND DEVLIN
Magherafelt, Co Derry

Political persuasions

Patrick Murphy (July 25) in his interesting piece poses the question: what is a republican?

He leans heavily upon the history of one John Mitchel, a man cited as a republican.  Mitchel lived in the 19th century. He supported slavery – how could he be described as a republican in the 20/21st century?

But hold on a minute, George Washington was a republican.  Indeed he oversaw the American Declaration of Independence which starts of ‘all men are created equal’.  He kept slaves and supported slavery.
History is loaded with contradictions. The idea of asking what is a republican by some Oxford Dictionary definition is as silly as asking for a precise definition of any other political persuasion.

I suppose one could suggest that there are those who believe that a country should be allowed to create a society based on equality, comfortable in diversity without foreign interference.
Anything wrong with that Mr Murphy?

MANUS McDAID
Derry city