The new children’s hospital is to be in Dublin. What a surprise! This hospital is a surrender to the voters of Dublin and has very little to do with the comfort or convenience of sick children.

The humanity shown by the naval branch of our Defence Forces on the high seas in such difficult circumstances brings great credit to our country and will no doubt be officially recognised by government in due course.

I am puzzled that there will be no public marking of VJ Day 70 in the Republic on the weekend of August 15. 

We were saddened to read about Gill Pharaoh, a 75-year-old, retired palliative care nurse from West London, who travelled to Lifecare, the assisted dying clinic in Switzerland, to end her own life. Ms Pharaoh was healthy and active, despite some of the restrictions of getting older.

Does the prime minister of Britain perhaps protest a bit too much? His stance is as if to stand on a shore repelling an invasion. Really?

Some commentators suggest that illegal migration is “a class issue’ that doesn’t impact on any other than the poorer classes in host countries. Surely this persiflage grossly distorts reality and the consequences of what is unfolding and threatened.

I agree with Richard Barton (Irish Examiner letters, August 10) when he says “any normal person anywhere would be happy winning €2m and only the insane would want to decrease their chances of winning anything”.

When England was being blitzed during World War 2, one of the main factors in maintaining the morale of the population was the strong, confident and decisive leadership of Winston Churchill.

Fr McVerry’s work with homeless youth in Dublin’s inner city is highly valued and rightly so. However, he has become blinded by his righteous anger at the injustice of neglect to vulnerable and homeless people there.

While women constitute half of our population, they are seriously under-represented in national politics. Out of the 4,452 Dáil seats between 1918 and 2009, only 219 were filled by women (4.9%). At present, only 26 TDs out of 166 are women (16%).