Dear Sir... Readers' Views (19/10/16)
Budget aside, internet to the rescue for stammerers
Your article, “Budget 2017: Speech therapy for children with disabilities is part of €10 million package” (October 12), was a breath of fresh air in that over the last two years I have been agitated and a bit depressed after reading the numerous articles from Ireland about the countless thousands of children on waiting lists for speech therapy.
I am heartened to know that it seems this tragedy is finally being addressed.
Over the years here in the US many Americans I have met have praised the great healthcare system in the Republic of Ireland, holding it up as a model. How can Ireland claim to take care of its people’s health needs if thousands and thousands of children, are being turned away from speech therapy and put onto a waiting list?
I am a stammerer and I know that stammering is the most prevalent speech problem, especially among children. In light of the grim numbers in terms of people on the waiting list for speech therapy, I would like to reach out to my fellow stammerers who are on this hurtful waiting list and inform them that there are many free resources available from the website of The Stuttering Foundation (www.stammeringhelp.org) for children, adults and parents.
People all over the world have accessed these free resources from this non-profit charitable organisation.
The site offers streaming videos, downloadable brochures and books, and much more. I like the Stuttering Foundation because it is the only organisation for stammerers that has a world outreach, helping stammerers and speech-language pathologists in more than 130 countries each year, mostly in the third world, where speech resources are lacking.
This organisation has helped me in my years in the US and in this internet era of high-technology there is no reason why people who stammer in Ireland cannot be helped by these resources, too.
Also, the site has a “Celebrity Corner” section with biographical articles on famous stammerers like Rowan Atkinson, Bruce Willis, Marilyn Monroe, and Lewis Carroll.
“Celebrity Corner” reflects well upon the Irish diaspora of stammerers with articles on Irish-American writer Dominick Dunne, famous Irish-Cuban author Calvert Casey, and Mancunian Irishman and Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher.
History lessons for Fine Gael
During an interview with Áine Lawlor on RTÉ and reported in the print media, Dr Leo Varadkar has stated that it would not be ‘credible’ for Enda Kenny to step down as Leader of Fine Gael and remain as Taoiseach, suggesting that any such scenario would lead to “disagreement or a conflict”. The minister displays a wretched ignorance of the history and heritage of the party he apparently espouses to lead.
The longest serving of the 10 leaders of Fine Gael, General Richard Mulcahy (1886-1971), held this position for 15 years from 1944 to 1959. Mulcahy served as Leader of the Opposition until 1948, after which his parliamentary colleague, John A Costello (1891-1976) served as Taoiseach twice and Leader of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party until 1959, while Mulcahy served as minister in those governments under Costello.
Under this regime, the Fine Gael share of Dáil seats in four general elections was 21% in 1948; 27% in 1951; 34% in 1954 and 27% in 1957.
It is also noteworthy that the candidate Fine Gael fielded in the 1959 presidential election, Seán MacEoin (1893-1973) achieved 43.7% of the vote in that election - when he was 66 years old. There was no question in the Mulcahy era of Fine Gael selecting a candidate for a presidential election who would be rejected by 94% of the electorate, as was the case in 2011 and to imply that such a pathetic debacle could be followed with an insinuation that Fine Gael might avoid the subsequent presidential electoral contest altogether - because Varadkar claims he could secure cross-party support for the incumbent - is myopic and ludicrous.
Dr Varadkar needs to radically re-evaluate his claims on political leadership and ground these in the aspiration and ambition of those whose votes he will ultimately be dependent on for a licence to lead. Disagreement and conflict are perpetually at the heart of politics.
But vision, competence, courage and worthwhile accomplishments are the characteristics desired at the heart of stable political leadership.
Zappone zapped?
Have Zappone’s childcare plans been zapped?
New Garda top brass needed
“Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan gave assured answers to a number of questions (at the Oireachtas Justice Committee) but revealed precious little. She cited a whole slew of procedures and structures that had nothing to do with flesh and blood questions asked.”
Michael Clifford (Oct.13) fairly gives it to the Garda Commissioner in her ‘brass-neck’, as she contrived to evade all questions and any tossed her way in the Oireachtas sub-committee session. She was obviously mantra-trained by her ‘team’ and had the burly support of a cluster of top-flight ‘boys-in-blue’ to ensure a robust and challenging presence prevailed on her side of the fence.
Given her recent very supportive understudy role to the previous Commissioner, Ms O’Sullivan batted with the customary bleak and confident aplomb, having learned her lines primly and properly.
She was clearly not on for any deviating or disclosing, as Clifford comprehensively catalogues.
One supposes that the higher echelon officers of the ‘force’ had a serious stake in proceedings, so camouflage was of the essence at all counts. Given also the ingrained nature of promotional pathways and elevation frameworks within the hierarchy therein, the system is innately prone to sustaining the status-quo.
New raw recruits all have to embark on a professional career of ‘licking’ incumbency patterns so as to present a steady mutual dependency and tried trustworthiness on the flawed realities of ‘super-intending’ going forward. Why change a handy, if flawed, pyramidal network of career agrandisement, since blatant bullying and oppressively manipulative work-practices operate to selective personal advantage in many other ‘corporate’ spheres of activity?
But surely the ‘guardians-of-the-state’ might be expected to embrace a patently transparent ethical and moral compass of workplace ‘etiquette’. The omens aren’t great, however, given what we frequently hear from UK, USA and other national police-force experiences with regard to anti-corruption attitude, equitable fairness, true transparency and mature ethical behaviour. In many ways our local version simply follows on in replicated style, despite the obvious reality that so many (nay most) of the rank and file are honestly committed and ultra-decent servants of the state in every way.
A cocooned system of appraisal and promotion will only ever have one result i.e. same old, same old. The system requires new blood in from the sidelines, at all levels, especially high level. Graduate, consultant and associate appointments are crucial to authentic renewal. Anything less will flatter to deceive, fast-fade and rot, if the ‘usual-suspect’ incumbents are tasked with that self-same pseudo-transformation.
It must break the heart of all the many (so, so, many) decent and honest gardaí, to see what is continually played out in front of their eyes, day and daily, by the ‘Machiavellis’ atop their esteemed organisation.
No point raising one’s head above the parapet, it seems, if one cherishes a life of dependable hassle-free existence.
Sad or what? Ms O’Sullivan sounded grimly assured of her transformative brief, but as Michael Clifford concludes : “It sure sounds the business until you take a peek behind the circled wagons and detect an ancient and foul smell.”
As someone once astutely remarked re flatulent emissions, ‘It’s amazing how your own smell great, but everyone else’s smell awful’.
Brendan O’Connor ad: Not so sharp
I greatly object to the subtle violence used in recent tv ads for the forthcoming Brendan O’Connor talk show. A scalpel is used to send hate mail in the style of the Seven movie (1997). When I say ‘subtle violence,’ such violence is still violence.
O’Connor then says: ‘You have to be sharp to be on this show.’ In other words, are only scalpel-wielding people sharp enough for him? Dissecting social issues on a mere talk show don’t equate with the gravity of operating on a person.
What a loss
I think the whole nation went into a state of shock following the sad news of the death of Anthony Foley.
What an enormous loss to us all. He will be missed.
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