I couldn’t believe my ears listening to Pat Rabbitte on the radio recently.

In Richard Fitzpatrick’s article (Life/Style, Jan 13) he eulogises on the joys of a smartphone, and how when his toddler is bored she can use the Baby TV app.

Now that it has been confirmed that Fota Island will once more host the Irish Open golf tournament this year, can we expect this time that Cork County Council wont stop at the gates of Fota Hotel with its preparatory road resurfacing works, but will at least carry on and finish the rest of the Fota Road to Cobh and the Great Island.

The inclusion of records of 49,000 Irish WWI dead in a new digital archive online is important for remembering soldiers (Jan 11).

Seanad reform might not be the sexiest topic, but Seanad abolition would be short-sighted.

It is plainly obvious that the fluoride in the Irish water is indeed poisoning our brains, when we, as a nation, stand by and allow Minister Phil Hogan to spend €50m of taxpayers’ money on consultants’ fees, for this farce of a water meter system which is going to rob the already over-burdened people of Ireland.

The Vatican’s benevolence towards Mary McAleese has been truly magnanimous.

With such widespread and continuous exposure of the population, even small risks to health from the proposed pylons may have a large impact on the population. Children are particularly vulnerable.

The more that people cry foul at the excess — fraud, incompetence, golden circles — that passes for daily life in Ireland, the more the answer is obvious.

When former president Mary McAleese remarked in Scotland last month that ‘a very large number’ of Catholic priests are homosexual, the response of the Catholic Church in Ireland was that it was up to Mrs McAleese ‘to raise these matters’, but that the Church does not respond to reported comments of individuals.