Last Sunday was a sad day for the remnants of a once thriving Cork Jewish community that at its peak numbered nearly 500 souls (‘Jewish worship in Cork ends as synagogue shuts’, Irish Examiner, February 8).

After a meeting of Trinity College Dublin’s Heads of Schools on December 9, a request was sent to college departments seeking “your help on the best way to collect data on existing formal and informal arrangements that your school and colleges may have with universities, research institutions, NGOs and government bodies in Israel and Palestine.

The increasingly violent assaults by Israeli Arabs on Israeli Jews has been portrayed in the global media as a consequence of Muslim fears that Israel plans to sieze Al-Haram al-Sharif (more commonly known as Temple Mount or the Dome of the Rock) the third holiest site of Islamic pilgramidge.

On October 1, Rabbi Eiran and his Naama, who were in their 30s, were travelling between the West Bank Jewish settlements of Itamar and Elon Moreh with their four children when they were murdered by Palestinian terrorists.

It is difficult to understand the hostility of the US and its allies to President Assad.

The Gift Houses now for sale in Kinsale were built in 1682, over 333 years ago by Sir Robert Southwell to house the widows of tradespeople and craftsmen. 

The use by developer Johnny Ronan of the term ‘arbeit macht frei’ (work sets you free), in his submission to the banking inquiry, is not merely crass, but culturally offensive to Ireland’s small Jewish community (Irish Examiner, 25, September).

Although Germany is leading the European reaction to the refugee tragedy by welcoming hundreds of thousands to its cities; the reaction of the rest of the world, most especially the United States, has been one of offering advice and criticism from afar. 

When John McGrath presses the panic button and suggests European cultures will be swept aside by Muslims “who embrace a doctrine that denies freedom of conscience and freedom of speech” (Irish Examiner, Letters, September 10), he not alone underestimates the resilience of host nations, but also denigrates the principal of refuge.

In recent days, Daniel Teegan, Charlie Murphy and Charles Hayes, in the letters page of the Irish Examiner, have articulated their hatred and disdain for the Israeli state and its citizens.

All loving relationships are life-enhancing and although they may lead us on unfamiliar paths, they are paths of beauty that always lead us home. I believe, however they voted in this marriage referendum, all fair-minded people would be in favour of acknowledging and respecting gay and lesbian unions.

Recently (Letters, May 11), Fergus O’Leary defended his Conservative (with a big C) values and charged me with being one of those “self styled liberals who perpetuate the myth that conservatives (note the small c) are all unreconstructed misogynistic xenophobes”. 

If anyone is tempted to follow Jean-Marie Le Pen’s recent attempt to minimise the awful reality of the Holocaust, by accepting his hateful claim “that the Nazi gas chambers were a [mere] detail of history”, perhaps they should listen to the chilling testimony of Oskar Groening, the Auschwitz official now on trial for complicity in the murder of 300,000 Jewish men, women and children.

Although the captain of the ‘coffin ship’, in which more than 700 refugees perished, has been arrested, this will mean nothing if the source of the problem is not addressed.

I find Micháel Martin’s comments against our party [Sinn Féin] and president disgusting.

If Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu forms a new hard-right government, it will be a triumph for the politics of fear over socio-economics. 

It appears from his recent letter to your newspaper that Charlie Murphy’s feelings have been hurt by challenges to his arguments about a resurgent anti-Semitism. 

The recent arrest of two men who were planning an Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack in Sydney (Irish Examiner, February 11), shows the importance of a constant vigilance by a state’s intelligence apparatus.

Like many of the more reasoned broadsheets, the Irish Examiner has struggled to come to terms with the horrific attacks in Paris. 

Daniel Teegan’s account of his conversation with an ex-Israeli soldier (Letters, December 17), depicts the IDF as a rogue force operating outside the norms of international law. 

Israel prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu will come under intense pressure to react with force to the deaths in the attack on the Agassi Street synagogue.

Zoe Lawlor criticises Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh for not showing ‘one shred of empathy or sympathy for the more than 2,200 people killed’ (Letters, November 13) in this summer’s tragic conflict in Gaza. 

Claire Fitzgerald’s poignant letter about the sad closure of UCC’S bookstore evoked so many memories for me, and I’m sure for thousands of former students.

Irish Water’s booklet dropped into my letterbox this week. While I accept that water charges are necessary, I, like many others, have serious misgivings about certain important aspects of Irish Water’s plans. Because it is a State-owned company, this letter is also addressed to our public representatives.

I was delighted to read the letter by Dr Elizabeth Cullen, Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association in the Irish Medical News on January 27, 2014, outlining "The precautionary principle", with regard to the pylons.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, on his trip to the USA, has promised to take up the cause of “the undocumented Irish” living and working in America. These are illegal immigrants.

As a blow-in from the States, living half the time or more in Kinsale for the past 14 years, I have enjoyed living elbow-to-elbow on a daily basis with neighbours of vastly different economic resources, education, and ages.

Eamon Ó Cuív has shaken off the straightjacket of his party’s political whip and shown much-needed leadership by his refusal to endorse the European fiscal compact before there has been any real public debate on it, and the fundamental flaws in a deeply fraudulent international banking and monetary system remain unadressed and often unrecognised.

THE last few days have been dominated by the budget. Fresh from all that Enda Kenny and team are attending the EU summit in Brussels and what might be their last chance to salvage what is left of Ireland’s fiscal and political independence.

THERE has been much comment in recent days regarding the importance of closer European integration, but European fiscal union is about as likely as Elvis and Lady Gaga appearing at the Kinsale Arts Week next year.

BEFORE the Ireland v Russia rugby world cup match over the weekend, it was announced that the national anthem of Ireland was about to be played.

BARACK Obama’s and Queen Elizabeth’s visits are a badly-needed boost for financially ailing Ireland and should be welcomed by all.

I AM writing this letter to complain about the overcrowding that is taking place in schools around the country.

I AM writing to you to express my opinion on the way I feel Irish should be taught in schools.

AS 30,000 objectors in Cork, along with their democratically elected county council, near the tenth anniversary of their struggle against toxic incineration in Cork Harbour, we are alarmed to find no mention of incineration in the Fine Gael manifesto.

THERE is no doubt in anyone’s mind that our system of Government needs to be reformed. The only way to do that properly is to agree that there are no “sacred cows” from vouched expenses to the existence of the Seanad, from ministerial cars to whether we need five seat constituencies or not.

SINCE it is, now, apparent that neither the Government, the county councils nor the NRA have any idea how to deal with the recent weather conditions, a fact-finding trip to one of the Scandinavian countries would be an idea, just to see how it should be done.

YOU report (October 23) that the president of Cork Chamber of Commerce, Ger O’Mahoney, has called for a business leaders council to act as a consultative body to the Government.

YOUR editorial relating to the incredible cost of mobility aids within the HSE (August 17) highlights yet another example of gross mismanagement, at best, or the system being milked barefaced at worst.