I am an LCA student in Youthreach Knocknaheeny and I am writing about homelessness in Cork. My class and I are concerned about people living rough: this year, 500 families have become homeless in Ireland. Many more have to stay with friends, family, and in squats, due to the housing crisis and rising rents. People deserve better.

The UK government has so far agreed to accept 20,000 refugees with many pressing for the number to be increased to 50,000. 

Halloween is fast approaching and my 80- year-old father will have to go into B&B. I live and work in London, and try to support him as best I can. He is too terrified to stay in his own home, because adults pelted a dozen eggs off his front door on Halloween night, and fire bangers are fired in the direction of his home. 

Letter writer Marie Hanna says that “I’d much rather be poor and Irish” than “slowly losing my land, my people, my laws, to another country, another agenda” [Irish Examiner Letters, October 21]. 

Dr Kevin McCarthy, referring to the killing of Jewish settlers, Eiran and Naama Henkin, in the occupied West Bank on October 1, rightly states that there is nothing heroic about murdering parents in front of their children.