The vintage Hawker Hunter fighter jet that crashed on to a busy roadway during an air show in Shoreham, Sussex, England, last weekend had also performed at recent air shows in Ireland — at Shannon, Bray and Foynes — which were attended by up to 150,000 people. It might just as easily have crashed at one of these shows causing many deaths, including that of children.

Our deepest sympathy must go the families and friends of the three Irish citizens, Laurence and Martina Hayes, and Lorna Carty, who were murdered in Sousse, Tunisia, last week. Nothing ever justifies murder, and nothing ever justifies mass-murder.

So far, the Irish navy has rescued 1,700 men, women and children in the Mediterranean and deposited them in Italy.

Yesterday I attended the commemoration in Dublin of the Armenian genocide. An Taoiseach Enda Kenny declined an invitation to attend. 

In 2014 the European Union and its member state Governments including Ireland decided to halt the Italian led rescue operation in the Mediterranean called Mare Nostrum, which had successfully rescued about 140,000 refugees fleeing poverty, famine, conflicts and human rights abuses in the Middle East and Africa.

As of January 31, the Garda website reveals that there are 2,394 Garda officers at rank of sergeant or above, and 185 of these are superintendent level or above.

I agree with John Bellew ( Letters, February 5) that the actions of ISIS by their “vile and brutal murder of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh … have nothing to do with religion, but, rather, are about power, control and egotism”.

It’s been revealed (Amy Goodman, Democracy Now) that a secret CIA “Black Site” prison existed within Guantanamo in which prisoners may have been tortured and subjected to mind altering drugs. 

A culture of extreme and unjustified violence, combined with discrimination and racism, seems to be increasing in societies in the Middle East, the West, and in Eastern Europe. 

2015 is the centenary of the Armenian genocide that cost the lives of up to a millions Armenian men, women and children.

The Irish Defence Forces have 442 soldiers serving overseas in 14 missions with the UN, EU, OSCE and Nato. 

Irish politicians are belatedly addressing the homeless problem but why did it take the death of Jonathan Corrie on the Government’s doorstep to get action?

The latest Times Higher Education league table finds that most Irish universities have dropped down the league table. One of the causes for this downgrading is perhaps being overlooked.

Lest we forget, US-led Western military aggression in Afghanistan and the Middle East created chaos, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and human rights abuses.

I’m not a fan of Henry Kissinger, but I agree with most of his article of March 5, about Ukraine, in the Washington Post. He wrote: “if Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other — it should function as a bridge between them … Ukraine should not join NATO”.

The Irish Sea is one of the most nuclear polluted, because of the number of nuclear power stations and facilities on its English, Welsh and Scottish coastlines, and because its partial enclosure leads to a build-up of pollutants.

Jim Cosgrove’s excellent letter “US security machine runs rampant” (Aug 12), hits the propaganda nail on the head.

The Independent Child Death Review Group’s report indicates systemic failures at various levels in the Irish health and social services systems.

A 4.0-magnitude earthquake, the biggest earthquake in Ireland since 1984, occurred 60km west of the Mullet Peninsula off the coast of the west of Mayo last week, according to the British Geological Survey.

Minister Leo Varadkar has announced (Morning Ireland, May 15) that new security measures are being implemented at Dublin airport as a result of a European audit of airport security.

The appalling killing of at least 16 Afghan civilians, including 9 children, by a 38-year-old US Army Staff Sergeant in Panjwai, Kandahar, Afghanistan, will have inevitable repercussions.

I HAVE been critical of the gardaí in the past, especially in matters relating to the human rights abuses associated with US and CIA misuse of Shannon airport.

THE visits by Queen Elizabeth II and President Barack Obama as respective heads of state of Britain and the United States pose a challenge for peace activists to distinguish between genuine efforts to promote peace and justice.

THE term Kangaroo Court takes on a new meaning at Guantanamo.

FORMER US First Lady Barbara Bush sums up the New Orleans disaster in a few well-chosen words at the Astrodome in Houston: