Here is this week’s People’s Letters Page…
Dear Editor,
The recent decision by Dublin City councilors to add the terrace of houses at 10 to 25 Moore Street to the list of protected structures is the most progressive development in the decades old campaign to save the heart of our capital city from the developers wrecking ball.
It is the perfect response by our public representatives to the three part planning application submitted by Hammersons that would have seen the historic terrace dissected for no reason other than to benefit their commercial interest and this historic area, described by The National Museum as ‘the most important historic site in modern Irish history,’ lost to future generations.
The Moore Street terrace was the location of the last meeting of the 1916 Provisional Government and where five signatories to the Proclamation spent their last hours of freedom before execution by firing squad. For 1916 relatives this is sacred ground.
Once again we call on Minister Darragh O Brien TD to intervene and act to ensure that the uncertainty surrounding the future of Moore Street for years past will now end and in time be transformed into a 1916 historic cultural quarter in honour and fitting tribute to the men and women of the Rising – our golden generation.
The elected representatives of the people have spoken. It is now time for action.
James Connolly Heron.
The 1916 Relatives Alliance.
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6
Dear Editor,
The seas are rising and so are the temperatures. The icecaps are melting, and that spells trouble for more than just the polar bears that are staring into an Arctic abyss.
Greenhouse gasses are out of control. Drought is rampant. The Ozone Layer is wasting away; exposing us to lethal rays that make the worst excesses of aliens in Hollywood B movies look comical by comparison.
The countdown is well underway to the possible extinction of human life. And Ireland’s rural TDs are kicking up a fuss about livestock prices, the plight of beef production, the “woeful prospect” of herd reduction, and the “right” to extract turf from overexploited bogs. The Climate Action Bill will destroy rural Ireland, they shriek.
Surely a fall in agricultural profits and reducing herd sizes are small prices to pay for saving us all from annihilation. And bogs, I suggest, are a great deal more valuable to the environment and our general wellbeing in their natural state than if abandoned to industrial scale turf cutting.
The Independent rural TDs and the backwoods elements in Fine Gael and Fianna Fail that are in denial about the Climate Change threat are the same politicians who in the past have loudly proclaimed their support for the cruel practice of hare coursing and the caging of mink on fur farms.
They blocked attempts to protect our iconic Irish Hare even when outbreaks of the deadly RHD2 virus that is fatal to hares were confirmed and scientists warned that it could potentially wipe our the entire species in Ireland.
The highly contagious disease can be spread by coursing activities, but this didn’t bother those self-appointed Guardians of the Countryside whose own temperatures rose to boiling point at the prospect of a coursing ban. God forbid that hares might win protection from a “traditional country pastime.”
They tried too, but failed, to save fur farming. The evidence of atrocious cruelty in the farming of aquatic animals confined in small cages and then gassed to death thankfully won out, though even last week a rural TD was pleading to the Agriculture Minister to row back on the government’s decision to ban the practise.
The are real issues facing rural Ireland, like the closure of pubs and post offices, lack of public services including transport, the mica building scandal, poor broadband, increasing isolation; and these are the ones those politicians should be addressing…instead of clinging on to barbaric practices or refusing to accept that some behaviours need to change for all our sakes. Time is running out fast for humanity. If Earth is destroyed as a result of errant human conduct there will be NO rural Ireland, or indeed any habitable place left on this ravaged planet.
It would be ironic if political dinosaurs, in Ireland and elsewhere, helped to hasten our progression as a species to the point where we’ll become as extinct as Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Thanking you,
John Fitzgerald
Dear Editor,
A lot of the recent talk of the changing culture towards working from home tends to focus on the enormous savings companies will make.
These savings will come from paying less rent, less building maintenance costs and lower business rates.
But what of the people working from home full time?
Will they be expected to contribute towards the deficit in business rates that local authorities will lose when businesses close their offices?
How is someone who works from home insured?
What happens if an employee injures themselves while working from home?
Which insurance policy will agree to pay?
We must ensure that the move from office to home working does not come at the expense of employees’ health and safety.
Yours sincerely,
Brendan Coughlan,
Howth
Dear Editor,
From phial to arm the rush is on get a Covid-19 vaccine into the arms of Irish people.
Trampled under this medically induced vaccine stampede is the noun/adjective ‘choice’.
Choice as a noun is an act of choosing between two or more possibilities.
People will have questions about vaccine safety based around their own personal concerns.
A person has a choice to engage with a State sponsored vaccination programme or not.
What they do not need is a medical wag of the finger saying you are getting the vaccine because if you don’t you will be a deemed a social pariah.
As for vaccine safety advice it appears it is been moulded into a political diktat at the behest of the Government.
A case in point is the initial NIAC advice that the AstraZeneca vaccine, despite its inherent blood clot link, should be given to those 60 years and above.
Now the age barrier is being pushed back to 50 as the vaccine fridges are overflowing with AstraZeneca vaccines with no arm to go to.
The fact that a person cannot chose what vaccine enters their system is an erosion of personal choice.
A person may be willing to engage with the vaccination programme but only with their expressed wish to receive a particular vaccine.
Choice as an adjective (of words or language) can mean rude and abusive words.
There indeed should be a few choice words about Ireland’s vaccination programme as run by an unelected medical iatrarchy.
Yours,
John Tierney
Ashtown,
Waterford