I read the article When a Town Shuts up Shop.

It seems that everybody involved in the process of childbirth, with the notable exception of the mother, will decide the fate of an unviable unborn child in any planned legislation.

Regardless of the cause of Savita Halappanavar’s tragic death, the powerful international ‘pro–choice’ lobby is demanding that abortion become a right in Ireland.

My blood ran cold as I read in a letter in an Irish paper a derisive reference to a “17-week-old foetus”.

It has been said many times that the Oireachtas and governments have shirked an obligation placed on them by the Supreme Court in 1992 to legislate for the X case.

Barry Walsh, (Letters, Nov 19), reminds us that, “During the 1970s and 1980s, all councillors worked for free and received no salary.

It would appear that your columnist, Colette Browne, does not read the paper that pays her. If she had read the letter from Dr Clair, published on Tuesday, it is unlikely she would have written the column published on Wednesday.

A local initiative to celebrate and honour Liam O’Flaherty, one of Ireland’s greatest polemical short story writers, will stage an informal event in Galway’s City Library on Thursday, Nov 29, between 6 – 8pm.

I don’t suppose it occurred to Barry Walsh (Nov 22) that the very least we should expect from an elected representative is the ability to say ‘no’ if offered inducements from developers wanting to influence planning decisions, and to make their efforts to do so public.

If the fall-out from the tragic circumstances of Savita Halappanavar’s death at Galway University Hospital proves anything at this point in time it is that to comment (or worse still, make up one’s mind fully) definitively on any subject without having the full facts from both sides of any subject is both very unwise not to say foolish.