The terrible destruction of property and the dreadful inconvenience caused to residents in flooded areas in Ireland and Britain could have been prevented if the following precautions had been provided after previous flooding.

Mallow Credit Union had its AGM for 2013. It is paying a dividend this year.

The recent visit of An Taoiseach to Saudi Arabia is an affront to anyone who has regard for basic human rights, for democracy, and for the independence of sovereign nations in conducting their own affairs.

Yet again we are dismayed at what appears to be another broken promise by the HSE via the Minister for Health, James Reilly and the management at Cork University Hospital.

The first time I saw my dad cry was as a patient in Cork University Hospital. He did not cry because he knew he was dying but because for the first time in his life he was unable to watch Cork play in an All-Ireland final.

Fergus Finlay (Opinion, Jan 7) is right that we should learn from history, but we must not rewrite it to suit a new political narrative.

Gerald Howlin (Opinion, Jan 1) contends that the failure of the Left was due to generations of the working class being assimilated into the middle class: “but that dilemma was since answered by the decision of generations of working class people. If you can’t beat them join them”.

As far as I am aware, most appointments to top public-service positions are without advertisement or competition.

Further to your headline quoting a Prof. Devoy, of Beaufort Research (Irish Examiner, Jan 4), claiming a causal connection between the recent storms and flooding and climate change — perhaps he is not aware that the causes were: unusually high spring tides; high water levels from last Thursday until Monday, Jan 6, which were the highest of any that occurred last year; unusually low atmospheric pressure, which causes a corresponding increase in the height of the full tide; and onshore gales and storms raising wave levels above normal (and even abnormal) in coastal areas.

Your correspondent Richard Cotter (Letters, Jan 4) is entitled to his opinions, as I am to mine.