Letters: Shambolic is not strong enough a word for this latest ‘tent city’ demolition
Multi-agency operatives cleared the Grand Canal of up to 100 tents that had been pitched over the past week by people who have chosen to seek asylum in Ireland.
Last week, the Government removed tents from the streets around the International Protection Office in Dublin and erected barriers to prevent their return.
Ireland is one of two EU countries that have an “opt out” clause under the Lisbon Treaty in relation to immigration and asylum policy. The other, Denmark, chose to invoke this arrangement in 2021.
Surely, in light of the numbers choosing to seek asylum in Ireland, serious consideration should be given to triggering this clause due to the lack of housing and support services available to cater for this increase in population.
The government response appears to be to refer these people to agencies that will provide them with tents, while then moving into the encampments and clearing the site.
“Shambolic” is not a strong enough word to describe the Government’s response.
Eamonn O’Hara, Manorcunningham, Co Donegal
It appears the ‘Poor Laws’ are still being used – on people seeking asylum
As your report illustrates, the way authority sees the poorer among us has changed little over time (‘Dublin’s ‘tent city’: Early-morning operation to remove 100 tents from Grand Canal completed, all asylum-seekers now relocated from area’, Irish Independent, May 9).
The tent-dwellers along the canal were awoken and handed a note informing them they were “committing an offence”. If they refuse to move or “return to stay in this area”, they face being “arrested and prosecuted”.
The original Poor Laws were introduced to deal specifically with the homeless. The Vagabonds and Beggars Act stated: “Suspected persons will be placed in the stocks and then shall be put out of town.”
Despite the passing of 400 years, any difference in the treatment of the unfortunate by the blessed is purely superficial.
Jim O’Sullivan, Rathedmond, Co Sligo
Government must enact the Occupied Territories Bill as a matter of urgency
The dismay of some about the Trinity protest is overridden by what the protesters and their supporting academics have unearthed.
Trinity College Dublin, an erudite body supported by the Government, has investments that support illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. Now, more than ever, this is truly shocking.
With its renowned Department of Middle East Studies, ascertaining where profits from such illegality can go was accessible.
Doubtless, TCD is not alone. There may be numerous other threads of co-operation with a regime that mercilessly oppresses Palestinians, involving innocent Israelis in the process.
The Irish Government also needs to review the headline it is setting.
In 2020, at its commencement, it dropped the Occupied Territories Bill (OTB), which covered the closely related issue of importing from illegal settlements.
It would have introduced the concept of identification of such illegal goods and enacted legislation for penalties to be paid here in Ireland.
The OTB gained majority support in the Seanad and Dáil. In the 2020 general election, a large majority of voters supported parties and TDs committed to enact the bill. Its vetoing during negotiations for government formation was an astounding deficit in our democratic process.
The OTB is still on the order paper of the Dáil and has passed seven of the 10 stages before enactment
Amid the catastrophe in the Middle East, the bill (2018) needs enactment in this Dáil as a matter of urgency.
David Clinch, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin
Trinity students are not ‘self-indulgent’ – they are helping to save lives
Christy Galligan describes the TCD students who recently set up a protest camp as “self-righteous, over-indulgent, self-serving spoilt brats” (Letters, May 9).
I beg to differ. Leaving aside Mr Galligan’s puerile anti-student prejudice, it is ridiculous to describe such an action as “self-serving”.
On the contrary, the students blocked access to a tourist site – temporarily – in protest against a continuing massacre of fellow human beings in Gaza. It was an act of empathy, a positive attribute that should be encouraged, not cynically sneered at.
More than 34,800 people have now been slaughtered by Israeli forces in Gaza, including over 14,500 children, and 78,000 people have been wounded and maimed.
Universities and other educational facilities in Gaza have been levelled, with large numbers of students and lecturers killed.
Whether or not people agree with their particular direct action, it cannot be denied that the Trinity students were acting to protect human life. It was an admirable gesture of solidarity as part of a global protest to end a nightmare.
Moreover, it was a very practical action that succeeded in forcing TCD to review its investments in Israeli firms with connections to the occupied Palestinian territories.
The world needs more people with the sincerity, empathy and awareness of those students in TCD. They should be commended for their action.
Fintan Lane, Lucan, Co Dublin
Let’s hope Bambie Thug gives a final performance that shows Gaza solidarity
What a joke that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) uses the pretence that the Eurovision Song Contest is non-political in order to ban all expressions of solidarity with the suffering people of Gaza (‘Eurovision 2024: Organisers asked Bambie Thug to change secret ogham body markings before performance’, Irish Independent, May 8).
Israel, which isn’t even in Europe, is allowed to take part at a time when that country has invaded Gaza, killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians, yet no one is allowed to mention this.
What a pity, too, that Ireland’s Bambie Thug agreed to the EBU’s injunction to remove their secret ogham body markings expressing solidarity with the Palestinians.
Fair play, though, to Swedish performer Eric Saade, who refused to bow to any such restriction and wore the pro-Palestinian keffiyeh during the opening act in the first semi-final.
Hopefully, in the final, Bambie will find a way of expressing Irish solidarity with the suffering people of Gaza, even if it means being barred from the contest by the discredited EBU.
John Glennon, address with the editor
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