Maurice O’Callaghan evokes very well the hardship faced by student nurses (Irish Examiner Letters, ‘Who wouldn’t pay student nurses?’, December 8).
Like Mr O’Callaghan, I also read with dismay that the Government has decided against payment to the student nurses working in hospitals in the front line of the current pandemic, at considerable cost to their own health, well-being and future.
The fact that a mere €14 per hour is denied to these students, 31 of whom have contracted the virus, raises serious ethical questions, especially since this Government has established new super junior ministers who have been awarded an increase of €16,000 per annum.
The fact that the students are doing the work of permanent staff compounds the injustice. This is a time for the heads of their institutions to speak up and defend them.
We have a nation of Super Student Nurses and Super Nurses at all levels. We have long taken them for granted and continue to do so. When we say we are all in this together, we must begin to believe it and act accordingly.
Sarah Alyn Stacey
French Department, Trinity College Dublin
Allowances? Only for chosen few
At a time when the Government refused to pay student nurses who have worked in the frontline during the Covid crisis, we now hear additional allowances will be paid to party whips and deputies in addition to junior ministers. There are already so many allowances paid to members of the Oireachtas. This is, in my opinion, ridiculous.
Michael A Moriarty
Rochestown, Cork
Michael Clifford: More balance please
Having read Mick Clifford’s piece on the IRA (Irish Examiner, December 5), I concluded that it sadly lacked any real balance, with its sole purpose to have another attack on Sinn Féin.
Rather conveniently, Mr Clifford forgot to mention that the IRA was very quiet in 1969, but because entire streets of houses were burned down in Belfast, when 3,500, mainly Catholics were forced to flee their homes, the IRA understandably began to gain support.
He also refused to recall as well, that in late July 1970, the British army imposed a curfew on the Catholic Falls Road in Belfast and began storming homes while searching for arms.
However, the searches only recovered arms in 5% of the houses searched, much fewer than had been expected.
These searches were so violent that the net effect was to increase support for the IRA and speed up their recruitment.
So Mr Clifford let’s have some balance, and tell the story as it really was.
Liam Burke
Dunmore, Co Kilkenny
My pitch is to amalgamate
Having been involved as a player with the GAA at all levels for over 20 years and in the past decade working in a management capacity with camogie and LGFA at club level, the difference in treatment of brothers and sisters from the same family by the different associations is like night and day.
Ladies Football and camogie is regularly treated with disdain, as was proven once again last Sunday in the All-Ireland senior football semi-final.
The reality everyone involved in ladies sport with the LGFA and the Camogie Association at all levels accept is that until those two organisations join up with the GAA at a national level, nothing will change. How can it when the GAA owns all the assets — and the ladies teams have to go cap in hand every time they need to organise a game or a training session?
You are either inside the boardroom making and taking decisions that matter, or looking in at those who are.
Heads of Agreement were drawn up for the amalgamation to happen in the recent past, however it did not get over the end line.
Why? Were the senior powerbrokers in the LGFA and the Camogie Association not prepared to accede some of their influence and status in order to bring their players under the umbrella of the GAA, despite the massive benefits that would accrue to them?
After last Sunday’s debacle, the time for holding onto power in individual organisations which have no pitches or stadium for games for the sake of having it, should be over.
Dialogue and compromise is required and then amalgamation. It is the only way forward.
Ray Silke
Moycullen, Co Galway
Ireland must wean itself off landbridge
Boris Johnson once said that a no-deal Brexit would represent “a failure of statecraft for which we would all be responsible”. This week, over dinner in Brussels, that statecraft was being put to the ultimate test.
Agreement in principle has been reached on the Ireland Protocol but this just gives the illusion that ground has been ceded on the British side rather than confirming what was agreed already in the Withdrawal Agreement.
It is also a nod to the incoming Biden administration in the hopes that this virtue signalling to Joe Biden’s Irish roots would be enough to curry favour and secure a trade deal with the US.
There has been so many twists and turns in the Brexit saga. One thing that is certain however is that Ireland needs to wean itself off the British landbridge. It took the arrival of Independent TD Verona Murphy of Wexford with haulier operations experience to bring about a new ferry service from Rosslare to Dunkirk. Such services should have been secured by the government a long time ago.
The Opposition have been consistently calling for this planning. There is a failure here.
Now we are on the brink of possible disaster, as there is no way to absolutely predict what will be on the menu at dinner, how it will be served and whether it can be digested by both sides. It might be a failure of statecraft but Mr Johnson will surely paint that as a moral defence of British sovereignty which would enable him to dine out at home for many years to come.
Killian Brennan
Malahide Road, Dublin 17
Boris’ genius there for all to see
Boris Johnson is such a masterful politician.
To have weathered all the Brexit storms and to have steered the British people away from that bloc through their trust and faith in him as a great leader, is a new and refreshing political direction all of Europe can learn from.
The go-it-alone bounce in the fortunes of Britain brings a welcome confidence across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, going forward.
The envy among EU nations is already catching on, now that Britain is seen to exercise real freedom.
To think that Boris almost died from Covid-19 and now is first to roll out the vaccine, before the whole world gets organised to follow suit, is a stunning achievement.
His political genius cannot be denied in the short two year period he’s been in control.
Robert Sullivan
Bantry, Co Cork
Pfizer must have done its homework
While l do recognise the phenomenon of ‘Long Covid’, I don’t buy the HSE’s “We dont know if the vaccine will block transmission of the virus”.
Pfizer must have done tests for this in the last several months and have sufficient data to know this with some certainty. In any case if 95%-98% of people are largely unaffected by more than a mild flu, why vaccinate the healthy population, it is hugely detrimental to the population’s long-term health. And financial madness.
Kevin T Finn
Mitchelstown, Co Cork
Shakespere’s choice: To V or not to V
The first Covid-19 vaccine in England was given to a 90-year-old retired nurse. The first choice was supposed to be a man named William Shakespere. He declined to be first because he didn’t know if he wanted, “to V or not to V”.
Kevin Devitte
Westport, Co Mayo
China: Nothing to hide, why blinds?
China has not always been a supporter of open information sharing, although this has taken a weird turn now that they have blocked Tripadvisor as it considers it ‘illegal’. Nearly every person travelling would look at that site to get some idea of accommodation and local attractions, however it does also include a ‘travellers’ forum’ and that may be the problem, as a cursory glance shows that not all feedback is positive. Having visited China twice and enjoyed these visits I am aware that there is a range of accommodation levels, as in all countries, and not all match up to the photos in their brochures or on their websites.
In reality people will still be able to find out about China and its activities when this site is blocked but it is only one of many attempts to stop people criticising the country and its leadership. If they are blocking comments about hotels what else are they blocking? Also hasn’t China heard of VPNs and many other ways of accessing the internet.
If there is nothing to hide, then why pull down the blinds?
Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne, Australia
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