The People’s Letters Page

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

Sir,

Will some concerned councillor on Dublin City Council now propose to rename Fitzwilliam Square East as ‘Independent Yemen Square East’ given that it is the home of the Saudi Arabian Embassy whose Government has waged a brutal war on the people of Yemen for the last seven years that has caused the deaths of 377,000 people including tens of thousands of women and children and has displaced and created famine conditions for millions of Yemenis.

Will a councillor call for Pembroke Road to be renamed ‘Independent Palestine Road’ or will some Independent TD propose, the next time that Gaza is being bombarded by the Israeli Military, that we send arms from the Curragh to the besieged Palestinians so they can defend their homeland? An eleven-year-old child in Gaza has witnessed four devastating wars in its short life.

The double standards being shown by political leaders, including here in Ireland, and so much of the Western Media in relation to Ukraine and other ongoing wars is truly galling.

The best way to help the people of Ukraine and Yemen is to demand an immediate ceasefire, diplomatic engagement and peaceful negotiations between the belligerents while ensuring massive humanitarian aid to help the refugees.

Meanwhile western leaders arm and train the Saudi military to drop bombs on Yemeni civilians, show disdain for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia while openly warmongering with Putin, all while starving the people of Afghanistan.

Why is the Irish Government not demanding ceasefires and peace talks at the UNSC? The desperate people of Ukraine and Yemen equally deserve peace, security and freedom from what are ultimately proxy wars between major imperial power blocks.

Yours etc,

Jim Roche,

PRO Irish Anti-War Movement, PO Box 9260, Dublin 1.

Dear Editor.

Amid the cataclysmic return of war to Europe I am struck by the dazzlingly sharp contrasts in human behaviour exhibited in the past fortnight: A power hungry dictator with his generals and advisers gathered around him in a sumptuous government building, planning his next eagerly anticipated move; a comedian-turned politician with his advisers in a city under siege, his own life at severe risk even as his beloved country is pummelled by missiles, bombs, and bullets.

Aggressors rolling into a land that isn’t theirs; and defenders willing to give their lives to safeguard the futures of loved ones and people they’ve never met.

War brings out the very worst and the very best in people. We hear of atrocities, of hospitals being bombed; of heartbreak beyond measure as the invasion takes its mind-boggling toll… but then we see the life-savers; non-combatants who rescue wounded soldiers from the battlefield and drive them away in their own cars to get them medical attention, the volunteers helping to ease the plight of the refuges from this war who, like those of previous conflicts, have been cast adrift from what had been normal lives into a world of fear and uncertainty, cut off from families and friends because a narcissistic politician wants to make an audacious land grab without giving a thought for the human cost of war.

Something else struck me too. I think we in Ireland can learn from the way Ukrainians treat their pets. I was just listening to a woman recount how she prioritised her cat over her laptop. She said she could always get another laptop, but her cat meant the world to her. The presence of all those frightened little cats and dogs gazing bewilderedly from under the arms of so many innocent war victims contrasts starkly with how animals are casually discarded in this country, abandoned for the flimsiest of reasons.

I hope the Ukrainians, against all the seeming odds, can prevail in their life and death struggle. I also hope that, maybe, when this living nightmare for that proud and heroic nation is over, war will be consigned forever to the history books.

On past experience, though, I suspect that this won’t happen. It’s now, I fear, only a question of what the planet’s ultimate cause of death will be: war sparked by hateful, greedy humans…or human-generated climate change.

Like the Ukrainian cats, we are a species in immediate need of rescuing.

Thanking you,

John Fitzgerald

Dear Editor,

I read with interest the article in Northside People 16th March edition, “Paid drop off and pick up zone at Dublin Airport gets green light.”

It has always been my belief that Dublin Airport is probably one of the world’s most customer unfriendly airports.

So the news that Dublin Airport Authority want to start charging motorists for dropping off or picking up people outside Terminals 1 and 2 came as no great surprise to me.

How the DAA are trying to justify this disgusting charge is really taking the mickey though.

They say that they want to encourage more people to take public transport to and from the airport.

To quote the article: “As part of our ‘sustainability’ agenda, the new system aims to reduce car journeys to and from the airport and to encourage passengers to make greater use of public transport.

“Commercial funds raised by the new system will be ringfenced for sustainability initiatives at the airport, including a proposed solar farm, the conversion of our car park and staff shuttle bus fleet from diesel to low emission vehicles and the installation of more electric vehicle charging points.”

This is coming from a crowd that can’t even organise a half decent bus service at their airport!

Yours sincerely,

James Carney,

Cabra.