One of our contributors from Co Dublin, commenting on the work of a columnist, has observed that ageism is the last remaining prejudice in Ireland, and the most stubborn.
It should, she argues, be designated a hate crime.
Her comments conclude a week in which the subject of old age has been high on the public agenda, and which was marked by a landmark vote in the parliament of our next-door neighbours to establish a legal right to assisted dying in England and Wales, an option which is predominantly, although not exclusively, exercised by more senior people.
Much of the criticism of the negative portrayal of older people has been laid at the door of the advertising industry, which is accused of simultaneously using unflattering stereotypes and over-promoting services such as death insurance, care homes, funeral parlours, and mobility aids.
One company, a manufacturer of ready meals, was criticised for its “offensive” presentation of older people — depicting them as grumpy and intolerant, and implying many are lonely and isolated.
A survey of 4,000 adults of all ages found that more than a third thought people over the age of 55 were negatively projected in ads.
Almost half said ads that showed older people as unable to understand or use technology were potentially offensive.
More than a fifth of those surveyed believed that depicting ageing as something to be “fought”, especially in beauty advertising, had the potential to cause harm by influencing how an older person saw themselves, or how society might view and treat them.
One industry which won’t have to worry about its advertising position — because it won’t be permitted to actively promote itself — will be the assisted-dying service, whose introduction has taken a step forward after a free third vote in Britain’s House of Commons delivered a majority of 23, down from 55 last November.
Although it faces further opposition in Britain’s House of Lords, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill opens the way for such services to be introduced before the end of this decade.
It will allow terminally-ill adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure, and psychiatrist.
Northern Ireland may have its own opportunity to consider such legislation.
This is a profound and controversial legal change, with strong, emotional, and sometimes fanciful arguments being put on all sides.
Evangelists are pitched against humanists. Lawyers and doctors are divided.
But what is clear is that it is as radical as the reforming legislation on capital punishment, abortion, and homosexuality introduced by the 1960s Labour government.
Catholic bishops in Britain this week were warning of the impact on the role of care homes and hospices.
Scotland, Jersey, the Isle of Man, and France have already recognised the right to die.
England and Wales will most likely be next.
We may find, however, that it won’t be long before that debate gathers any pace in Ireland.
Unsettling news raises temperature
That old quip about summer consisting of three sunny days followed by a thunderstorm may have a certain contemporary resonance, but it is clear that we must become much more familiar with the sight of the mercury rising, or whatever has replaced mercury in the health-and-safety-conscious thermometers of 2025.
Although we have all been enjoying the seasonal sunny weather, Met Éireann has warned that an “unsettled” period is on the way. While that might mark a setback for the picnic and barbecue plans, there is rather more unsettling information for us to consider.
It’s not so much that climate change is going to change the flavour of gin and tonic by altering the composition of juniper berries, its key botanical, although that will certainly be an attention- grabber for some. But what should concern us all is that the planet’s carbon budget to meet the internationally-agreed rate of 1.5C has just two years left at the current rate of emissions.
The carbon budget measures how much carbon dioxide can still be emitted by humanity while offering a fighting chance of meeting temperature targets.
Currently, the world is on track for a catastrophic temperature rise of 2.7C. The latest prediction comes less than a fortnight after the Environmental Protection Agency identified more than 100 key risks to Ireland, with extreme wind, coastal erosion, and flooding among the biggest threats.
Rock star David Bowie was not a particularly cheerful soothsayer (depending on which of his multiple personalities was addressing you), but even his apocalyptic 1971 classic gave us Five Years notice of impending disaster. Whatever metric is used, the latest news provides more evidence that time has nearly run out.
Ireland may be judged by the friends we keep
Spain is one of Ireland’s closest allies in Europe. We are in lock step with it over the future of Palestine and opposition to trading with the occupied territories. We are collaborators in the International Court of Justice genocide case against Israel.
Where we part company is on matters relating to Nato, the mutual defence organisation comprising 32 countries. Spain has been a member since 1982, following two unsuccessful coups within a country emerging from the bleak three-decade dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
We, like Austria and Switzerland, have a constitutional commitment to neutrality.
For that reason, we will be highly interested bystanders when Nato meets on Tuesday for a summit at the Hague, which has every appearance of being highly problematical —not least because the US has run out of patience with European countries taking what it regards, with some justification, as a free ride in matters of their own defence.
Washington and the Pentagon are principally concerned right now with what is happening between Iran and Israel, and attempting to discern China’s plans for the future.
Increasingly, the White House perceives Ukraine as a European problem which must be resolved within Europe.
Part of the solution, Donald Trump believes, is a meaningful increase in military expenditure.
There are good arguments for challenging this. One of them is that the US is simultaneously saddling Europe with tariffs. Another is that the US military-industrial complex expects to be significant beneficiaries of any additional spending.
Just how helpful it is for Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to release his views on the eve of a difficult conference, we will be able to judge next week. He has made a pre-emptive strike by declaring that any increase to 5% of GDP would be incompatible with Spain’s welfare state and its vision of the world.
Sánchez, who is struggling with political divisions in Madrid and a raucous argument over corruption in the awarding of government contracts, says he wants a “more flexible formula” that would either make the target optional or allow Spain to opt out.
“It is the legitimate right of every government to decide whether or not they are willing to make those sacrifices. As a sovereign ally, we choose not to,” he wrote in a letter to Nato secretary general, the Dutchman Mark Rutte.
Spain is a back marker among western nations allocating only about 1.3% of its GDP to defence spending. Next week’s meeting has been choreographed to persuade Trump to continue to support Europe’s defence. It has been cut back to a single working session and its shortening should prevent Trump from leaving early, as he did from this week’s G7 meeting in Canada.
For Ireland, what happens here is of significance even though we are not in Nato. We have our own unresolved issues with Trump and a recent report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies placed us at the bottom of the European table of 38 countries for defence spend.
In this dangerous world, that is not a tenable position. In this case, it is worth creating some perceptual distance between Dublin and the Palace of Moncloa.
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