Letters: Villagers’ victory shows how rural Ireland can survive against the odds and thrive

Sir — The residents of Lahar­dane, a rural village at the foot of Nephin mountain in north Mayo, ­revolted when they had their GP practice taken from them last year. With a population of just 178 recorded in the 2016 census, they challenged the might of the HSE and won the battle to have a new doctor installed in their health centre.

In this David and Goliath battle, two local leaders emerged, and they were not in the mood to take “no” for an answer.

And the angry villagers fully supported their efforts to have this vital local service restored. From October 1 last year, the door of the surgery was opened every day by the local people, young and elderly, taking it in turns to occupy the facility.

They were also very determined to stay there — until a new GP was in place. No stone was left unturned. They lobbied politicians, government ministers, councillors and HSE officials in their heroic efforts to ensure that a GP service would be retained in their village and surrounding hinterland.

As they battled to overcome the dreaded red tape that threw obstacle after obstacle in their way in an attempt to block their path to success, they never gave up the fight.

They persevered and won. This is an example of the fighting spirit of the deprived people of rural Ireland, the absolute refusal of the villagers of Lahardane to accept defeat against mighty odds.

But none of this could be achieved without strong local leadership — and the tiny village had those leaders in spades.

They envisaged how the loss of a doctor would affect the area going forward: fewer people settling there, a less attractive place to come to raise a family, a smaller number of children attending the local national schools, difficulty in fielding teams and more services being removed by bureaucracy in the coming years.

These are the very real problems that reveal themselves in the countryside on a daily basis.

Perhaps the people of Lahardane have shown us all the way forward in this continuing battle for the survival of rural Ireland.

Tom Towey, Cloonacool, Co Sligo

Conor Skehan is flying high with housing strategy

Sir — Compliments to Conor Skehan for getting to the nub of what should be important in the context of our housing crisis (‘A no-frills, Ryanair approach to housing could really take off’, February 4).

The market should be driving affordability downwards, not the opposite. All ways and means of reducing the selling price of the housing product should be looked at. Conor ­advocates reducing floor space and more modest fittings and considers this could cut the cost of starter homes by a fifth.

While I wouldn’t advocate the shoebox build, a range of cheaper products should be available. Another initiative could be not-for-profit building developments with tax exemptions until such time as we have affordability in the market sorted.

Some state lands could be leased instead of sold, with long leasehold titles passing to the buyer. But we also need to address the imbalance in the rental supply market, with predominately “only for rent” apartments being made available.

As Conor rightly says, supply numbers will naturally follow the lower prices.

Aidan Roddy, Cabinteely, Dublin 18

​Motivation for a Yes vote is misguided

Sir — Rachel Morrogh, CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, links the articles of the Constitution to domestic violence and abuse and suggests a Yes vote in the upcoming referendums will somehow help this situation ­(Letters, February 4).

There is no evidence that the articles in question are respons­ible for domestic abuse and violence. There is no evidence their removal will improve the lives of domestic abuse victims.

The Rape Crisis Centre joins the list of taxpayer-funded NGOs tying themselves in knots, sacrificing their integrity and losing public confidence in their efforts to keep Minister Roderic O’Gorman and the ­Government happy.

Julia Anderson, Greystones, Co Wicklow

​Carers left out in the cold in referendums

Sir — Regarding Ivana Bacik’s article (‘Let’s make International Women’s Day really count by voting Yes-Yes’, February 4), a far better use of the money being spent on these referendums would be to give carers a proper wage or allowance.

I am 83 years old and suffered from the marriage bar, which preceded the 1937 Constitution and has no connection with ­Article 41.

Mary Duggan, Thurles, Co Tipperary

Politicians throwing up a smokescreen

Sir — We are to have two referendums we don’t need and not the two we want.

We were promised a referendum on the ownership of the ­water infrastructure, but like many more politicians’ promises it appears to have evaporated.

We need a referendum to ­establish the right to a home for everyone to be inserted into our Constitution.

Give us the referendums we require, not the ones without substance or commitment.

These two referendums are but a smokescreen to divert ­attention from the present housing disaster as a result of government policy. Had the ­Kenny Report on the cost of building land, compiled in 1973 at the government’s request, been implemented, we would have a different housing regime and landscape in Ireland.

There is also the equally disastrous immigration policy — treating communities like mushrooms rather than having dialogue to encourage integration and acceptance. A policy of secrecy and imposition has left the door ajar to those who preach division and discrimination — and boy, have they kicked it open.

Paddy Murray, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath

Ulster woes show rugby plan a loser

Sir — With reference to Ray Walsh’s letter in last week’s paper (‘Ulster might try a rugby breakaway’), it is interesting to note that at the time when Ireland played their first ever international match, against England in 1875, there were two rugby unions in Ireland.

One was the Northern Football Union with its headquarters in Belfast; the other was the Irish Rugby Union based in Dublin. Both conferred in selecting the Irish international teams up until 1880, when they amalgamated to form the present-day Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU).

Mr Walsh’s assertion that a Northern Ireland rugby union team “would surely hold their own against the majority of international sides’’ would hardly hold up to scrutiny, having regard to Ulster’s two most recent matches in the Champions Cup, which were losses to ­Harlequins by 47-19 and to Toulouse by 48-24.

James Healy, Highfield Park, Galway

Irish jury is still out on Ian Bailey’s guilt

Sir — I was so pleased with the article by Maeve Sheehan (with Bridget Chappuis) in last week’s Sunday Independent about Ian Bailey (‘Was Sophie up and eating breakfast when her killer called?’).

It was a very fair article on the man and concludes that many people in Ireland do not know if he is guilty or not of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. He is dead now, and I certainly cannot judge him, or indeed anyone. Let God be his judge.

Terry Healy Riordan, Kill, Co Kildare

Introduction of AI a low point of hi-tech

Sir — As someone who regarded the first fax to appear at my workplace in the early 1980s as something of a miracle, I have been playing catch-up with technology ever since.

I am blessed to have been surrounded by youngsters and others who have guided me through this giant leap of learning with only occasional references (from my daughter, wouldn’t you know) to my being akin to a ­Neanderthal.

While previously it was hard to know who or what to believe in a world that seems to have turned itself upside down, the arrival of artificial intelligence makes it virtually impossible.

I am now beginning more and more to relate to the sentiments that were expressed in the ­Waylon Jennings cover song of the 1960s, Stop The World (And Let Me Off).

Carmel Kilcoyne, Cobh, Co Cork

Commonwealth on cards for Republic?

Sir — After reading your coverage on the restoration of Stormont, I would respectfully suggest that we here in the Republic can help both the nation­alist and the unionist in Northern Ireland by joining the Commonwealth. It is no longer called the “British Commonwealth”, and the Republic of India is a valued member thereof.

Seán O Ceallaigh, Phibsboro, Dublin 7

Cycle lanes have not kicked into top gear

Sir — South Dublin County Council is planning to follow Dublin City Council’s traffic plan by creating 1.2km of new cycle lanes in the Walkinstown and Tallaght areas. This initiative is well-meaning, but towns and cities that have created cycle lanes, leaving less space for motor traffic and removing parking spaces, are not seeing the desired results.

Cars still outnumber cyclists by over 100 to one on most streets. We should be doing more to encourage the use of cycle lanes, not just reducing space for cars.

Brian Lube, Co Meath

Economic realities versus green agenda

Sir — What kind of future do we want in terms of economic development? I ask in part because of the recent debate around the Dublin Airport Authority’s decision to seek an increase in the passenger cap.

The Climate Action Plan envisages a transition to an environmentally sustainable and climate-neutral economy. Yet Leo Varadkar is of the view that “if we don’t raise the cap, we will be turning away people, tourists, visitors and businesses”.

Isn’t Leo just stating hard economic realities? Economic growth creates employment, infrastructure and social benefits. However, it also causes such things as deforestation, biodiversity loss and urbanisation.

We are talking about building the equivalent number of houses as the city of Cork each year. More growth equals more people and development. The Netherlands has just over half our land mass and a population of 17 million.

How many people are too many? Will the name “Emerald Isle” become a misnomer?

Andy Hales, Kenmare, Co Kerry

The day Jimmy Deenihan took it on the nose for Páidí Ó Sé

Sir — Dermot Crowe writes that mass brawls on GAA pitches could be a thing of the past (Sport, February 4). They may well go the way of the faction fights of yore. Good riddance.

Incidentally, the spread and popularity of Gaelic football and hurling in the early days of the GAA was a factor in the ­demise of faction fights. However, brawling persisted.

Crowe supplies us with a summary of the more notorious skirmishes that sullied the GAA fields over the years. There is an addendum that could be attached to his account: a Bronx Tale. This relates to the fraught meeting of Kerry and Dublin in Gaelic Park, South Bronx, New York, in 1978.

The pitch was like a mud-wrestling ring and it was difficult to identify individual players. Therein hangs a tale.

Jimmy Deenihan left the pitch with a broken nose. After the match, his assailant contacted him “head low with many apologies”, like Paddy Kavanagh’s description of the swan in his poem on the Grand Canal.

In mitigation, the assailant explained it was a case of mistaken identity, as he thought he was punching Páidí Ó Sé.

Anyway, it’s goodbye to all that, we hope.

Jim O’Connell, Ashtown, Dublin 7

​Meet the new boss, same as the old one

Sir — It seems odd that Gerald Hanley, the author of Workers, Politics and Labour Relations in Independent Ireland 1922-46, is surprised and disappointed that workers and the unemployed were held in such contempt by the rulers of the new Irish Free State (People & Culture, ­February 4).

Surely he must know these rulers were the same people who not only ridiculed and scorned the men and women locked out of their employment in 1913, but also helped to starve them into submission.

Who was Arthur Griffith speaking for when he claimed Jim Larkin was a British agent sent to wreck Irish industry? And Patrick Pearse, along with his volunteer friends of the employers, thought they had nothing better to be doing than riding around Dublin on trams driven by scab labour for the ­duration of the lockout.

To them the Proclamation was nothing more than an election manifesto, and what James Connolly was doing in such company remains one of life’s mysteries. Maybe that should be Hanley’s next book.

Eddie Naughton, The Coombe, Dublin 8

​Battle of east versus west on the hillside

Sir — After reading the excellent article by Tom Rowley (‘Call it whin, furze or gorse, those yellow petals that charmed our poets quietly wait for the sun’, February 4), I would like to add that all the whin, furze or gorse beginning to display beautiful yellow flowers now is known as eastern gorse/ulex europaeus or aiteann gallda.

This plant was introduced to provide food for horses.

My grandfather planted it in Garfiney, Dingle, in the early 20th century for that very purpose.

Machines were widely used back then to mince the furze, ensuring horses found it easier to consume and digest.

The same machines chopped the top off fingers of some unfortunate men who were tasked with using them. Health and safety was unheard of back then. It is ironic that this type of gorse was planted in an area where western gorse/ulex gallii or aiteann gaelach grew on the same hillsides.

However, the latter does not grow as tall and it flowers only from late July to October. It is now not as widespread as eastern gorse, which seems to spread easily through the countryside.

Both gorse plants brighten my day as the year progresses. I often reflect on the old phrase, “Imeodsa is tusa as an áit seo, Is beidh an aiteann ag fás ‘nár ­ndiaidh” — “You and I will depart this place, but furze will continue to grow”.

Tom Lynch, Dingle, Co Kerry

Israel’s actions look like genocide to me

Sir — Apparently, Eilish O’Hanlon considers the following Israeli actions just “reckless” (‘Is reckless Israel really committing genocide?’, February 4):

Carpet bombing an area of five miles by 25 miles where 2.3 million people live, every day and every night for over four months.

Forcing over two million to move southwards under continuous bombardment until almost all of them are now living in makeshift tents in Rafah.

Destroying well over 50pc of the houses in northern Gaza and scattering leaflets telling any previous inhabitants not to return.

Destroying almost all the hospitals and health infrastructure in their scorched-earth policy; murdering more than 25,000 inhabitants (mostly women and children); injuring more than 50,000 of the inhabitants.

Preventing the supply of basic living requirements such as food, water, medicine and electricity and destroying the waste-water treatment facilities so that sewage is now running in the ‘streets’.

Forcing medics to carry out amputations without anaesthesia and forcing thousands of women to give birth in the most unsanitary conditions, with no ICUs available any longer for premature babies.

If this is just “reckless”, what, I wonder, could the word “genocide” actually mean in O’Hanlon’s lexicon?

Con Hayes, Tower, Blarney, Co Cork

Get ahead of the day with the morning headlines at 7.30am and Fionnán Sheahan’s exclusive take on the day’s news every afternoon, with our free daily newsletter.