12 | June 16, 2018 The Irish Post Write to: Letters page, The Irish Post, 88 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 4BY. E-mail us on: [email protected] The forum of The Editor reserves the right to edit all letters as applicable. Please keep your letters as brief COMMENT/LETTERS as possible. The opinions expressed do not necessarily refl ect those of The Irish Post. the Irish in Britain The voice of the Irish in Britain since 1970 Irish must speak up on Brexit BREXIT presents one of the perception of their use in Irish greyhound and the greatest challenges ever to live hare coursing and the iconic Irish Hare. If so, it Failed by Ireland the specifi c identity and feeding of live bait to them will be living proof of the Need for RTÉ radio on LW252 SURVIVORS of Ireland’s brutal livelihoods of the Irish to enhance performance. old adage that God never 16 | June 2, 2018 Magdalene Laundries have community in Britain. Eighty-fi ve percent of closes one door but he opens The Irish Post Join the conversation online - www.irishpost.com In the event of a hard greyhounds used on UK remains strong COMMENT @theirishpost received a formal apology for another. ‘To close down an accessible and the State’s failure of them from Brexit, they will suffer a tracks come from Ireland, John Fitzgerald proven LW channel, is the President of Ireland, double whammy, in that the and bitches are routinely Campaign for the Abolition Re To close down an acces- dangerously short-sighted’ With a year to go until RTÉ ‘s planned closure of its LW 252 radio service, Enda O’Kane is continuing the Michael D Higgins. old industrial areas where sent to Ireland from Britain sible and proven LW campaign to save the service. He explains why an alternative solution is a must for the Irish in Britain.... N June of 2019, RTÉ plans to close its Radio listeners, many stating that LW provided “a of Cruel Sports 1 free to air service, available in the UK on lifeline to Ireland” to keep up to date with ILW 252. news and current affairs back home. Now on reduced power, this service has the RTÉ announcements advised listeners potential to reach from Sweden to the Alps. how to participate. many Irish live, are set to channel is dangerously Originally on MW, it has served exiles, land- Section 27 of the survey states “Of impor- for breeding purposes. bridge ferry motorists, fi shermen, etc. since tance, Luton had not received RTÉ Some 200 survivors were at Radio 1 1932. Longwave for more than a year”. A commercially-funded digital replace- The survey also states that an unexpected ment with a news studio in London, is volume of calls from listeners, namely 3,282, planned for certain cities. and the available time was a limiting factor. Does this mean that editorial control will in Should RTÉ have restored the service at future be under the rules of the UK regulator least during the survey period to engage with short-sighted’, Irish Post, Ofcom and could this impact on an Irish be the hardest hit in terms all listeners? But the free movement of perspective on sensitive issues such as Brexit ? the President’s Dublin RTÉ has described their analogue A proposed digital replacement (DAB+) LW service as an expense of will not work on existing DAB radios that €50,000 per annum and claimed have become the UK standard. it wasn’t fi t for purpose. CAMPAIGNERS: Supporters of the campaign RTÉ’s initial haste to close LW 252 led to Yet RTÉ hid the fact that public outcry, supported by Fr. Brian D’arcy, their LW mast had been to save LW 252 in Britain Senator Michael McDowell and Andy future proofed to a new digital and, inset, leading June 2 campaigner Myra Butler of livelihood damage, Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester. greyhounds between our standard (DRM), with near residence for a special two-day An Oireachtas hearing in 2014 heard that FM sound quality and lower RTÉ’ wished to move to digital platforms. running costs. on RTÉ Liveline used LW been questioned on BBC Radio - Feedback 252 as a link Letters to Senator Pascal Mooney described This system is being rolled out to stranded and in The Guardian newspaper, empha- passengers. Lack of coverage for the threat as “a slap in the face to our diaspora” in India and other countries. sising the need for an independent Irish while others vented their anger. RTÉs digital replacement is a editorial into Britain on all platforms. RTÉ has stated that LW252 was subject to new standard that has recently been intro- Yorkshire GAA’s Secretary Jason Rooney interference from R. Algiers and that no solu- To date DAB has not been commercially campaigned. duced (SSDAB+). Existing DAB radios won’t adopted in Ireland. compounded by doubts tion existed. work on the system and will have to be two countries could be Manchester’s Myra Butler, Margaret Yet a simple technical solution does exist - Now, in the autumn of their years, is our reception held in their honour replaced. Golden and Mary Collins collected senior diaspora’s “lifeline to Ireland” with a little diplomacy an overnight zero cost Digital radios are very power hungry and 1037 signatures, technical adjustment is possible by moving to be left to the vagaries of resulting in a are oy plugged into the mains but batteries the advertising market? the station to LW 261kHz, an adjacent space only last hours, whereas analogue radios last deputation to on the dial now vacant. Readers should respond Dublin by the Irish for weeks before the batteries need changing. by lobbying Irish represent- In a U-turn this March, the BBC stated that A UK-based service would have to conform in Britain. LW would continue into the future - a ative organisations or THANK YOU for high- An internet peti- to Ofcom editorial rules. friends back in Ireland. surrounding the security welcome statement for listeners and motor- subject to severe restric- In these uncertain times, isn’t it important last week, when the apology tion with more ists on both sides of the Irish Sea. If you are interested in than 2,000 that Ireland’s viewpoint on issues such as reading more about this Should RTÉ scrap this former €6million Brexit be broadcast directly from Ireland? supporters led LW network as an increasingly unstable please visit http:// to a Govern- Worryingly, RTÉ’s plans propose just this, savertelongwaveradio. McGuinness tome climate disrupts communications? i.e. UK-based radio listeners, who might be ment com/. Surely our needs have increased as hurri- following Brexit discussions on BBC Radio -funded canes lash our coastline and disrupt survey 4’s LW service, will no longer be able to of residence for families lighting the LW252 issue. communications. simply switch over to the Irish viewpoint on involving was made. tions once Brexit kicks in. To close down a more accessible, and LW 252 on the same band. 3,200 proven LW channel is dangerously This would be particularly important for short-sighted. journalists, decision makers and friends of The internet pioneer Danny Hillis has Ireland etc., travelling by car. called for a plan B in the event of the Would these listeners bother with mobile internet crashing as has happened in phones, paying for data on networks subject to THE first printing of 4,000 the past. congestion, gaps in coverage who have lived here for I recently changed my Following Iceland’s volcanic ash erup- etc.? Many more will have by now Export markets beyond tion and aircradt The BBC’s editorial groundings, Joe Duffy received the message in the decades. the British one are practi- copies of the book Martin car and now have a mod decisions on Brexit have towns and countries across There is need for the Irish cally non-existent, apart McGuinness -The Man I con radio which does not Ireland, and further afi eld, community to become more from the shady movements Knew, published by Mercier receive longwave. It has which they call home. vocal and proactive in of dogs to rogue jurisdic- Press, has sold out less than brought home to me how A large number of these campaigning for a soft tions where they meet an two months after its launch, disappointing it must be, I AM writing with refer- women are based here in Brexit or no Brexit, and to even worse end…such as and a further edition is in especially for elderly Irish ence to the proposed Britain, where they created new have a clearly identifi able being boiled alive for the preparation. radio listeners, who closure of RTÉ services lives for themselves away from forum to defend the rights South Chinese meat It is a compilation of would be without only for on the LW252 channel. the horrors of their time spent of Irish citizens. markets or hanged with comments by twenty seven the long wave. There are a great many under the rule of the religious There is a need to analyse barbed wire at the end of statesmen/stateswomen, Thankfully I can still Irish people in Britain orders which operated the the pressure points in the their brief careers in Spain. legislators, diplomats, civil listen to RTÉ radio on my who still listen on this Magdalene Laundries – where British political system Those markets are so servants and others from both computer but this is not channel. Many do not which is most amenable to have computers so it is they were forced to carry out notorious that even the most sides of the Atlantic, of the an option for many.