Letters: Students demonstrate the gut instinct Joe Biden needs over Gaza
Sir — Ellis O’Hanlon’s intriguing article (‘Why it’s better to lead with the head, not heart’, Sunday Independent, April 28) delves into the political heart and mind of what makes a leader, asking if a taoiseach needs empathy.
I would suggest a taoiseach or any great political leader needs empathy, perhaps buckets of it in this day and age. The head won’t cut it on its own, but neither will the heart. You also need the gut — the feeling that tells you something isn’t quite right.
From time to time, I would hope our leaders reach for all these qualities when needs must, some of which will come naturally. The gut may also help when conflicted between the head and the heart.
I have no doubt John F Kennedy used his gut feeling to avert war with the Soviet Union during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
US president Joe Biden oozes empathy when he talks of family and his Irish heritage, but his gut should tell him that what Israel is doing in Gaza is horribly wrong.
Your columnist suggests US campuses collapsing into anarchy over what is happening in Gaza shows how empathy can become toxic.
On the contrary, what is happening in Gaza and on US campuses shows how detached the US leadership has become from the educated student generation.
Empathy has not led to toxicity — the lack thereof has. It is unchecked revenge of the heart that is toxic.
We should be hopeful that a new generation of American students knows right from wrong, as was the case in the 1960s. When hope and empathy travel the same path, peace can flourish. Hopefully, our leaders will always find their measure of heart, head and no less gut.
Aidan Roddy, Cabinteely, Dublin 18
Why Ireland’s migrant policy is for the birds
Sir — The story of the return of the Irish cuckoo named Cuach KP, as announced last week by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, is truly heartwarming.
This migrant bird completed a 9,000km round trip, arriving back to Killarney National Park from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Even more extraordinary was the long sea crossing completed by Cuach KP, flying directly to Ireland from northern Spain, avoiding France and Britain, arriving in Ireland to a warm welcome.
In the course of my work, I, too, encountered a migrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He fled a tortuous regime. He, too, completed a big sea crossing, avoiding going to France or Britain. Is he not worthy of a warm welcome?
James Harnett, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick
Not racism but fear of being swamped
Sir — All over Ireland, cities, towns and villages are living in fear of being swamped by immigrants. This is not racism but a practical fear, motivated by a rising threat to our culture, our welfare and our Exchequer.
What better example than University Hospital Limerick? The hospital received plenty of taxpayer money for beds, staff and operating costs — but still its statistics regarding overcrowding are the worst in the country.
Recently, I contacted a local optician for an eye test and could only be offered an appointment at the end of next month.
It would be better, in the interests of truth and transparency, that our Government “came clean” and acknowledged our finances are stretched and this will have major implications for future generations, despite having made a reduction in our national debt recently.
James Maher, Mullingar, Co Westmeath
Migration is here to stay, so deal with it
Sir — Immigration is a problem that many countries are now having to face. I don’t believe this issue is going away.
One of the great lies that politicians tell is that immigration is a problem to be solved. It isn’t. It’s a problem that can only be managed. The decisions that governments make will determine whether this imbroglio ends well or badly.
John O’Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary
EU is part of the problem
Sir — Simon Harris is a brave man. Who in their right mind would want to be captain of the Titanic? No one else, it seems.
I get the feeling that history is repeating itself. Some years ago, just before the Troika moved into town, ministers and TDs took their five-figure pensions and six-figure lump sums and headed for the hills, leaving a skeleton crew behind to keep the country afloat.
Too many politicians today seem to be cosying up to the EU — so what the EU wants, the EU is getting. Who cares what the Irish want?
Perhaps these politicians are thinking about what happens them after the next election. So if they ram through everything the EU wants, perhaps they might have a future there?
Is it time to think the unthinkable and reconsider our membership of the EU. They seem to be part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Michael Wilson, Laytown, Co Meath
Family Law courts article was unfair
Sir — I am writing as a father in shock at the imbalanced content of last week’s article on the Family Law courts. The piece repeated the same lazy tropes that men are responsible for all relationship troubles, and that women are hard done by in the Family Law court system.
As a father who has spent 12 years in that system, I strongly disagree. My experience of it is that the father is actively discriminated against — and no matter how outrageous the behaviour of the other parent, they are allowed to go uncorrected and unpunished, while the father is threatened with fines or imprisonment.
As to the weaponising of children? Please quote the data before blaming one sex or the other. To write on this subject when all the authors are female and the case studies are from the mothers’ point of view, tars all fathers with the one brutish brush.
Any article dealing with this complex and difficult subject and its effect on the children of these relationships must be more balanced to carry any objectivity in its analysis.
Name and address with editor
Sepsis and the tragic Aoife Johnston case
Sir — Picture a crowded room or hall or theatre. Somebody yells “Fire!” and what happens? Everybody downs tools and deals appropriately with what must be done.
Many years ago, when I was a junior hospital doctor, two simple words would result in a similar reaction. Those words were cardiac arrest. On hearing them, doctors and nurses would rush to the bedside of a stricken patient to save a life, or at least use all their medical knowledge in trying to save a life.
Now picture a busy, crazy A&E department in Limerick, and a 16-year-old girl is brought in by her parents. They approach a triage nurse, feeling they are in a place of safety and everything will be all right. Or will everything be all right?
Already the dreaded word sepsis has been used twice. First by her referring GP and now by the triage nurse.
Now, as in the word “fire” or “cardiac arrest”, alarm bells must start ringing. Doctors and nurses must stop what they are doing and rush to this young girl and take all measures to treat this very treatable condition.
Once the possibility of sepsis exists, all action must be taken to treat it as such until proven otherwise.
Dr Frank Davey (retired GP), Laytown, Co Meath
Adults with autism and Ciara Kelly
Sir — I found Ciara Kelly’s piece in Life magazine last Sunday to be offensive. She seems to assume that no supports can be put in place for adults with autism. This is untrue.
We haven’t bothered to allocate an autism expert to our mental health services. Her comments are not helpful at all in this regard.
She is obviously unaware of the loneliness and isolation people experience, as she says that more people seem to want to “be seen”.
Liam Doran, via email
Come out to support Darkness into Light
Sir — The annual Darkness into Light event can be a morning of mixed emotions. Yes, there’s grief and sadness, but the people who turn out in their tens of thousands not only show support for those who need it, but they also highlight the massive problem that suicide still is in our country.
Sometimes something as small as a kind word, a handshake or a smile can make a big difference to vulnerable people. It can give them hope. Help those who suffer in silence by taking part in a Darkness into Light walk at a venue near you at 4.15am next Saturday morning, May 11.
John Higgins, Ballina, Co Mayo
Does sport really build up character?
Sir — We are often told that sport has many benefits. But do some of the proclaimed benefits stand up to scrutiny? For example, participation in a team sport is good for character development. Or is it?
Last Sunday, in the Galway v Kilkenny hurling game, a player clearly drove a ball wide — but the umpires deemed it a point. The player was in the best position to know it was wide. Did he seek to have the incorrect decision reversed?
Later I watched highlights of another game where a player’s hurley made “contact” with an opposition player.
A yellow card to the offender and a free to the opposition would have seemed appropriate. But the “offended against” player reacted as though he had been seriously wounded, with the offending player getting a straight red.
Maybe he would have anyway, but the player exaggerating his injury didn’t help.
These are not isolated occurrences. Currently, the GAA is emphasising the importance of showing respect. Respect is built on honesty. Politicians, also, please take note.
Joseph Mackey, Glasson, Athlone
Landscape is scarred by illegal dumping
Sir — As we all know, illegal dumping is a persistent scourge in our beautiful country. Part of the solution is so blatantly obvious, I cannot understand why local government haven’t yet implemented it.
The answer is to provide bin collection to every house, funded by a top-up of the property tax. It doesn’t and shouldn’t have to cost any more than people are currently paying to private collectors.
The beauty of this solution is that local government can negotiate a competitive rate with the bin companies — and the illegal dumpers are caught in the net.
John Power, Limerick
No outrage about La Mon blaze, Mary Lou?
Sir — Colin Murphy’s article, “How SF populism over Stardust held ‘elites’ to account”, on April 28 is a little too kind to the tasteless bandwagon-jumping by Mary Lou McDonald in the wake of the state apology to the families of the victims.
We could take McDonald’s indignation as having some substance if she had managed at some point to remember another group of victims of a nightmare fire from the same era. Twelve innocent people were massacred in the La Mon restaurant in Belfast just three years before the Stardust.
Unlike the Stardust, there was never any doubt about the cause of the La Mon blaze — it was a deliberate firebombing attack by the paramilitary wing of her own organisation.
The best thing McDonald could have done would have been to add her organisation’s apology for that fire to the apology made by our Taoiseach in respect of the way our government dealt with the Stardust fire and its aftermath.
Failing that, the next best thing she could have done would have been to keep her mouth shut.
John Mulligan, Boyle, Co Roscommon
Populism does not a good politician make
Sir — Colin Murphy talks about Sinn Féin and its expertise in the art of populism. He said Mary Lou McDonald’s speech about the Stardust tragedy was a masterclass in the art of rhetoric and he is absolutely right.
Populism is a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups. Sinn Féin has been increasing its support over the last few years on a wave of populism.
We are going to have local and European elections in six weeks’ time and it is important that we do not pander to populism. We need to send people to Europe that are able-minded and capable. We need people that will deliver for us; not those who tell people every man is a king.
I am aware of the insecurity out there but people need to hold their nerve. I would warn people about the candidates who are like the boy in the bar who says I’ll have whatever you are having.
Thomas Garvey, Claremorris, Co Mayo
Apology for Dublin and Monaghan families
Sir — The Dublin and Monaghan car bombings were the biggest atrocity of the Troubles committed in one day. In all, 34 innocents were murdered in the explosions. The attacks came on a sunny May evening and the lives of many were changed forever.
The O’Brien family — John (24), Anna (22), children Jacqueline (22 months) and baby Anne Marie (four-and-a-half months) were murdered on Parnell Street. The common family name added a personal connection for me to the killings. Slowly I began to learn the names of the other victims.
I wrote my book The Great Deception (jaobrien.ie) to fully investigate the circumstances of the killings and the reasons behind them, drawing on my professional experience as a member of An Garda Síochána and as an ordinary citizen.
The title The Great Deception was chosen for many reasons but particularly because of the many false narratives that have been promulgated over the years. It is a fact that these attacks achieved a political purpose. The then recently introduced power-sharing administration in Belfast, which had resulted from the Sunningdale Agreement, collapsed.
Judge Barron found in 2003 that there was incredible neglect by both Dublin and London governments in their failure to pursue the killers.
This was despite the fact London had informed Dublin on two occasions that they knew who carried them out. Despite this, no action was taken until the Hidden Hand documentary of 1993 which forced the forgotten tragedy into public consciousness.
Ultimately the relatives are the ones who’ve carried the burden for many years and at the very least both governments owe them a sincere and fulsome apology for their failure to actively pursue the killers.
John O’Brien, Co Dublin
Excellent reviewers of superb new films
Sir — When it comes to film correspondents, Hilary White is one of the best cinema reviewers out there. And Chris Wasser is not far behind.
That between them they would deservedly award five stars to three exceptional films currently being shown in cinemas must surely be a first. That They May Face the Rising Sun, Challengers and Kidnapped (Rapito) are three mesmerising films.
I was lucky to see Rapito at the Cork International Film Festival last year and Pat Collins’s new movie is pure indulgent, Irish countryside bliss.
The internet is going crazy over Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor in Luca Guadagnino’s sensual tennis menage a trois. And well they might. The last 10 minutes of this sensational movie are the best, edge-of-the-seat entertainment I have ever experienced.
And special mention for running the obituary of Eleanor Coppola, wife of one of the greatest film directors of all time.
Tom McElligott, Listowel, Co Kerry
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