Worldwide there are now nearly 60 million refugees and people displaced by conflict and violence fleeing for their lives – most of them towards Europe.

Families should be grateful to your paper for the article by Liz Dunphy (16 July) which highlighted the reported adverse reactions experienced by young Irish girls to the so-called “cervical cancer” vaccine.

It was good to read Victoria White’s article challenging us as a society to look again at the fallacy of Charlie McCreevy’s tax individualisation policy (Opinion, Aug 22).

I wasn’t going to vote in the forthcoming children’s referendum.

The Children’s Referendum is a misnomer.

On more careful reading of the wording of the children’s referendum, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe this referendum will succeed in preventing the recurrence of the horrors of the past.

Campaigners supporting constitutional change to protect children’s rights have warned that a broadcasting rule ensuring balanced coverage of the debate could leave voters without all the facts.

Should the Irish people approve the amendment to the Constitution on May 31 they will be giving their consent to a perpetual poverty trap for our children and generations to come, in which we: sign away the economic sovereignty and independence of Ireland in a hostile permanent takeover contract, accept a set of automatic punishments, for any failure to meet austerity (i.e. cuts) and taxation targets.

WHAT planet is Terry Prone living on? Does she really believe that in these days “it’s a given that a woman can be president, or anything else she wants to be, including stay-at-home mother”? (Opinion, Nov 14).

HAVING spent time in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital recently, including 24 hours in A&E, and having experienced first hand the atrocious conditions in which nurses and staff are forced to work, I wish to say that I fully support them in their efforts to have the recruitment embargo rescinded and beds freed up.

IS there anyone out there who can explain to the ordinary Irish taxpayer why we need so many agencies — “quangos” — to run our country when we elect politicians and pay them handsomely to do the job?

PLEASE permit me to attempt once more to put Andrew Doyle (Letters, November 1) straight about the aims and objectives of Mothers Alliance Ireland in relation to vaccines.

MOTHERS Alliance Ireland has learned that, to date, 34 adverse reactions to the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine have been reported to the Irish Medicines Board (IMB).

MOTHERS Alliance Ireland believes Lynda Finneran is right when she claims (Letters, October 30) that “the power and duty of the state to act to protect children in such situations (as in the Roscommon case) is recognised by the constitution”.

IN her letter (October 19), Nora Bennis claims I unfairly accuse Mothers Alliance Ireland of having a hidden agenda (Letters, September 24).

IN his letter (September 24), Andrew Doyle accuses Mothers Alliance Ireland (MAI) of having some hidden agenda about vaccines.

MOTHERS Alliance Ireland (MAI) respects Barry Walsh’s freedom to espouse ‘facts’ about the HPV vaccine that are contrary to those held by us (Letters, September 14).

I WISH to respond to the series of utterly scandalous letters which you have published recently in respect of the cervical cancer vaccination, all of which have emanated from people with links to various conservative Christian organisations (Kathy Sinnott, Nora Bennis, Fr Eamon McCarthy, et al).

ANDREW Doyle (Letters, August 30) criticises your for publishing a letter from Mothers Alliance Ireland (MAI) which, he says, tried to use “scare tactics against the HPV vaccine”.

IN view of the recent revelations about the four-in-one vaccine scandal, all parents who are considering having their daughters vaccinated with the HPV (cervical cancer) vaccine next month would be wise to check out all the facts about this vaccine before they give their consent.

NORA Bennis (Letters, July 14) wonders why senators such as the gay Protestant David Norris refuse to listen to Catholic bishops on matters of personal morality.

WATCHING the debate in the Seanad on the Civil Partnership Bill was a real eye-opener for me (and for many others, I believe) and I now understand why there is such a drive to abolish that institution.

I FIND it extraordinary that John Gormley and now Eamon Gilmore (Irish Examiner, June 28) want Catholic voters to keep quiet and not become involved in parliamentary matters.

I AGREE with Nora Bennis (Letters May 11) that the co-operative model may well be the way forward during the present unemployment crisis.

BANKING commentator Bill Hobbs is absolutely right when he says that yesterday’s solutions will not solve today’s crisis (May 3).

THE double-speak of the ISPCC (Letters, March 9), and the organisation’s apparent ignorance of our constitution, concerning the protection of children is breathtaking.

YOUR report headlined ‘Cervical cancer vaccine delay a betrayal of 30,000 girls’ (February 17) contained a number of incorrect statements which need to be put right in the interest of those 30,000 young girls and their parents.

DICK BARTON (Letters, September 2) is certainly not the only person to question the stupidity of the Government’s decision to indemnify the manufacturers of the insufficiently tested swine flu vaccine against legal action that may be taken due to its side-effects.

IN his letter (January 2), Barry Walsh got a lot wrong when he criticised me and my “fellow-travellers” who voted no to the Lisbon Treaty because of what he describes as “bizarre claims” about the risks in that treaty to Irish children.

YOU can tell right-wing religious groups are scraping the bottom of the barrel when they have to resort to praising themselves in letters to the Irish Examiner.

WE in Mothers At Home agree fully with the sentiments expressed by Maireád Scannell (Letters, January 16) concerning the tunnel-visioned approach to child abuse by children’s rights organisations like One in Four and Barnardos.

EOIN RYAN MEP (Letters, May 5), while desperately trying to convince voters to support the Lisbon Treaty, effectively gave them the most compelling reason for voting against it.

DR MARTIN MANSERGH (Letters, February 2) rubbished the claims of Eurosceptics, but made no attempt to prove these claims wrong — the reason of course being he couldn’t do so simply because they are not wrong.

A DIGITALLY generated newspaper advert with Pope Benedict and two bishops wining and dining at a Limerick pub is to be checked out by the Advertising Standards Authority.

I WOULD take issue with the letter from Nora Bennis headlined “Irrational opposition to religion in schools” (November 30).

NORA BENNIS (Letters, November 30) suggests that Catholic domination and segregation of schools is required as the apparent only alternative is “theophobic indoctrination”, which would be no better.

IN his letter calling on the Minister for Education not to support faith-based schools (November 26), Maurice Fitzgerald got one thing right — he says that “schools are places of learning”.

A CONVICTED murderer who, through a strange quirk of fate, became a staunch Limerick hurling fan for nearly 20 years has died of cancer on death row in the state penitentiary in the US state of Georgia.

ELLEN PURCELL (Irish Examiner letters, June 4) asked if family issues had a bearing on the outcome of the general election.

YOUR columnist Hermann Kelly (Irish Examiner, March 23 is absolutely correct when he says low corporation tax was one of the linchpins of our economic success in recent years.

I WAS a bit taken aback at the extent of the outrage following the recent offensive and insulting claims by Mary Robinson concerning stay-at-home mothers.

I AGREE with teacher and author Julian Cohen on one thing: Ireland’s school drug programmes do not work.

SO we have yet another survey (Irish Examiner, June 14) exposing the plight of mothers who work in paid employment outside the home. When are our politicians going to get the message?

ANTI-SOCIAL behaviour in Ireland has become a major problem, but is the new Criminal Justice Bill the answer? I say no, not really.