Northern Ireland can learn from south on religious labels, south can learn from Northern Ireland on NHS

It might benefit us all no end on this island if we took a leaf out of each other’s book on a cross border basis on two key issues.

Northern Ireland has the NHS whose foundation stone is a people before profit system, unlike we have down in our Republic which is the other way around and prioritises people with private medical insurance, even within our public hospital system.

However, the one thing we do get right down here that Northern Ireland gets so wrong, is the absence of flagrant use of ‘Catholic’ and ‘Protestant’ citations and references in all walks of life.

No one is referred to by their religious or cultural heritage down here. Almost every day in Northern Ireland’s media it’s the same divisive headlines and stories of Catholic this, and Protestant that.

Though factually true, every time the words are used, they divide. It would be hard to find the words Catholic or Protestant in any newsprint, broadcast media, or graffiti in the Republic and perhaps that is why we do not have high walls separating the community and not split communities.

The people of Northern Ireland collectively and the media need to cut out the use of these words altogether.

And we need to end our divisive health system which believes that commercial concerns should be the driving force of the medical care system, and not patients which the good old NHS is known the world over for.

We can learn from each other.

Maurice Fitzgerald, Shanbally, Co Cork

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