The People’s Letters Page

Here is this week’s People’s Letters Page…

Dear Sir,

The Association of Hunt Saboteurs letter of 15/9/21 paints a terrifying picture of rural slaughter.

However, they would do well to concentrate on actual issues instead of a broadbrush picture.

Yes, many of the bird species mentioned are indeed threatened but hunters, as a rule, do not shoot these.

As an example of their conservation attitude for many years past no gun club member shoots a female pheasant.

Deer are also mentioned in the letter.

It is generally accepted that the national deer population is totally out of control.

Why worry about deer when 13,000 deer were shot in east Wicklow alone last year.
Deer do an immense amount of damage, and their numbers absolutely have to be kept down.

I am regularly in Co. Galway and, whilst RH2D is indeed a worry I and others regularly see up to 15 hares in different fields.

By the way, I am not myself a shooter.

Sincerely,

Anthony Hanrahan
68 Drimnagh Road
Dublin 12

Dear Editor,

I was intrigued by Jane Seymour’s interview with Joe Duffy in the first episode of RTE’s new Meaning of Life series.

Regardless of whether one believes in an afterlife, it’s interesting that most people who have a Near Death Experience (NDE) say their lives have been changed for the better by what happened to them during that mysterious time period during which they were declared clinically “dead.”

Even a hard core atheist or materialist who flatly refuses to even contemplate survival of bodily death might be impressed by the largely positive after-effects of an NDE.

They might of course scoff at people like Jane Seymour whose spiritual beliefs have been strengthened by the experience, but it’s worth bearing in mind that there’s evidence pointing to something other than hallucination, or confusion caused by medication, going on when people undergo these encounters.

For example, there are the cases of people hovering over their temporarily “dead” physical bodies and hearing what the doctors and nurses are saying, and observing other activity in the vicinity of their mortal selves…all this at a time they were “dead”, or at least unable to perceive via their audio or visual senses in the normal way.

And there the cases where a person’s brain had “shut down” for the duration of the NDE, so that one can’t argue that they were dreaming or hallucinating, as one might when it is heart that has stopped.

Could it be that NDEs show that human consciousness can exist independently of the brain and that it can survive the death of the body?

We’ll all find out some day what happens at the point of death, but in the meantime I think it does no harm to look at the evidence that there COULD be a afterlife, and that therefore life here on earth does take on a new meaning.

Jane Seymour spoke of her feeling that making a difference means everything in life and that, in her view, it’s the only thing we take with us to that other place when we depart.
We can certainly make a difference right now by helping to save the planet from the cocktail of man-made evils that threaten to destroy it.

Even if there’s an afterlife elsewhere (fingers crossed), we still need to preserve this little part of the universe for those who come after us, and for the many plant, animal and marine species that share it with us.

Not including the ones already pushed to extinction by human greed, indifference, and a cynical deduction that life has no meaning beyond profit and personal enrichment.

Thanking you,

John Fitzgerald,
Callan,
Kilkenny

Dear Editor,

RTÉ and the Rotunda Hospital deserve every bit of criticism they have received over the last couple of weeks for the documentary series, ‘The Rotunda.’

How on earth did the hospital think that making this series was a good idea during a pandemic?

How ethical was it to allow this to happen on hospital grounds?

How could they allow a camera crew move around the hospital during the time when restrictions were at their harshest.

I am shocked and disgusted at the behaviour of both the Rotunda and our national broadcaster.

I got even angrier when I read that a spokesperson for the hospital said it was all ok because only a few TV crew were on site and filming of deliveries took place through cameras operated remotely.

They also said the management at the Rotunda wanted to go ahead with filming because it is an important platform that allows patients and their families to share their pregnancy and birth stories with dignity and respect.

That statement was published on Twitter, and how did they show they genuinely wanted to share patients stories?

By turning off responses to the statement on Twitter, that’s how.

They didn’t want to hear any negative stories.

I’d love to know how much money the Rotunda made/will make from this series.

Why did the Rotunda have to go about it in such a sneaky way, couldn’t they have been upfront with patients about what was happening?

Yours sincerely,
Sarah Brady,
Dun Laoghaire

Dear Editor,

I was delighted to hear the news that Garth Brooks is coming back for another attempt at playing five nights in Croke Park.

Hopefully this time round Garth has plenty of friends in low places and he gets the full five, no more no less.

He is a great artist and humanitarian, and his concerts are always unforgettable.

If he’s going to travel all the way to Ireland then he must do as many concerts as possible to make it worth his while.

Yours sincerely,

Jack Sweeney,
Clonee.