Letters to the Editor: The natural process of death being thwarted

The need to use the time when living to address dying offers a precise concision on this matter for all.

Seamus O’Mahony’s incisive commentary (“The time to talk...” Irish Examiner, November 27) on the need to use the time when living to address the holistic essentials of dying offers a worthy and precise concision in this inevitable, inescapable matter for all.

He laments the latter day over-medicalisation of the final-furlong journey and proposes that “the time to talk is now”, to ensure that regret doesn’t fester over missed opportunity for candid exchange across the full range of personal, familial, communal and spiritual issues.

Of course, Dr O’Mahony has frequently written very candidly elsewhere about the over-indulgent urges of the clinical medical ‘omnibus’ to dominate the human condition by insisting on something of an over-treatment bonanza ever-burgeoning, especially at end-of-life. Forlorn surgical, pharmaceutical and radiation treatments are regularly being foisted on people when those options’ actual
efficacy is dubious and the remaining time available to the person made even more miserable. Home deaths are rare these days, and the clinicalisation of the ‘dwindle-time’ dominates. “Dying has become increasingly medicalised, the role of families and communities has diminished”
observes O’Mahony, and a strange sanitisation of the natural process of fading from this world is thwarted.

Historically, there have been many and varied cultural rituals associated with the ‘end-game’ routine. In Newgrange times, the people had an average life expectancy of around 45 years, but apparently spent most of that time in preparation for the dying part of their lives. It is reckoned that their adult lives were almost exclusively committed to the construction of elaborate burial chambers and their ‘tribal’ observances to the ‘afterlife’, be it planetary or otherwise. The modern ‘feelgood/can-do/will-thrive’ triad of impairments, which disproportionately afflicts current society, bodes bleak for us all in terms of living out an authentically rich experience of the personal life each of us is afforded. The absolute certainty that death will visit us all sooner or later, must be borne realistically within a balanced ‘joie de vivre’ dispensation. We’re all born to die, so let’s try to make that death, when it’s due, as worthy of our lives as we can.

Jim Cosgrove

Lismore

Co Waterford

Britain cannot opt for subservience

It is interesting to see how Ursula
von der Leyen has changed tack and almost pleaded for Britain to make an agreement. It has finally dawned on the EU that the ‘level playing field’ they want is more like ownership of the field and anyone who plays on it is forced to abide by EU rules.

They should know, as should anyone trying to negotiate an agreement, that what they offer must be at least acceptable to the opposition.

Agreeing to a ‘level playing field’ as offered would make the whole exercise null and void and leave Britain more subservient to EU law and regulation than it was before Brexit ever began. They appear to learn nothing. Britain cannot and will not concede to subservience.

The EU is therefore very worried and so it should be. Despite what all the pundits say, the EU will suffer a greater loss of export than Britain; an almost €100bn trade surplus favours the EU rather than Britain.

The greatest worry, however, is of Britain not failing economically; or, horror of horrors, matching or even surpassing EU success. Success or even survival would become a beacon for disquiet in the EU — leading to a surge in demand to leave the Union.

The great tragedy is that if handled positively and in a friendly manner, a wavering Britain could have been
persuaded to abandon Brexit altogether.

Pádraic Neary

Tubbercurry

Co Sligo

Britain’s difficulty is Ireland’s also

The late great Albie Murphy of Sunnyside Boxing Club once said “never put a mouse in against a cat”.

Boris Johnson is being counted out. Staggering out of the ring, gumshield in the bucket stars in his eyes and ringing in his ears. “Coach, didn’t I show them? Didn’t I?” Yes, Boris, you showed them. Have a nice lie down for yourself now. Britain must have better, less deluded leaders than this.

In 1939, Britain stood alone. That was its finest hour. In 2020, Britain stands alone. This is not its finest hour. Lions led by donkeys.

Despite our shared and troubled history, when it comes to Boris’s Brexit, schadenfreude is a cheap thrill. This
is a time when Britain’s difficulty is
Ireland’s difficulty too.

We hate to say it, but Britain often boxed for Ireland in Europe. Let’s hope that cooler, less deluded British heads prevail.

Michael Deasy

Carrigart

Co Donegal

Get real SF on an island of two nations

There are more than a million Loyalists/Protestants who will never agree to the “border poll” disaster proposal of Sinn Féin.

All of those who cannot recognise that the existing border is the real guarantee of peace into the future are equally deluded. The whole of Ireland was getting on fine with this, until a couple of hundred gunmen, primarily from the North, decided to “fight for our freedom” without anyone putting in a request for this. The status quo is not for changing. Get real, Mary Lou and spiritual leader Mr Adams, this is an
island of two nations.

Robert Sullivan

Bantry

Co Cork

They say breaking up is hard to do...

It now seems very likely that Scotland will have another referendum and this time vote to leave the UK to their own devices. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that Wales and even Northern Ireland would follow suit?

It was Brendan Behan many years ago who said: “The only people to get the Brits out of Northern Ireland would be the Protestant working class.”

Mike Mahon

Laragh

Co Wicklow

Pain threshold that’s hard to take

News that housing organisation Threshold had to intervene in more than 100 illegal evictions this year is hard to stomach.

We have come to the end of the year like no other during which a pandemic has altered the way we live, work, and play, as well as decimating our economy. It was Sinn Féin who fought tooth and nail for a rent freeze to protect the most vulnerable people in our society, and rightly so.

But it seems some opportunistic landlords care little about breaking the law or the wellbeing of their tenants. What is worrying is that the number of people forced out of their homes could be much higher and should be reported straight away to Threshold or to Father Peter McVerry who does great work for the homeless.

Noel Harrington

Kinsale

Co Cork

Musicians: Time to take back control

My first purchase of music was a vinyl LP, The Best of the Stylistics. I played it thousand times over. I can go back on memories of my childhood years and tell you what LPs I listened to.

My first memory of cassette tapes was Boy by U2. I remember that tape being eaten by the machine and having to pick it out and straighten it.

But the ultimate change in music was the introduction of the compact disc. You built up a collection of all different types of music and then played what suited your mood.

When you heard a new song on the radio you looked forward to heading to the shops to buy the artist’s CD.

I spent many hours in different countries picking out CDs of their local music and learning new cultural music and then spoke to people about the different music you had discovered.

Then, out of the blue, you are told by the corporate world that CDs are old fashioned.

Firstly, what I don’t understand is why musicians allowed this to happen. You speak to musicians nowadays and they tell you that the revenue they made from sales of CDs is gone,
and with downloaded music, the vast majority of the revenue goes to the corporate world.

Secondly, vinyl is back but it will only bring up sales by up to 10% of what CDs created.

Thirdly, there is something very enjoyable about spending an hour in a record shop and purchasing a CD and saying to yourself I look forward to playing that on the way home.

Musicians please get your act together and take back control of what is yours.

David Hennessy

Dawson St

Dublin 2

Pathetic omission

Tom Cooper’s letter “Deconstructing our State’s narrative” (Irish Examiner, December 11) is spot on when he asserts: “What a pathetic nation we have allowed ourselves to become.” Indeed British nationals who lost their lives on Irish-registered vessels during ‘The Emergency’ (1939-1945) have also been airbrushed out of the official narrative of the Irish state.

Their omission from mention during the annual national commemoration exemplifies what a pathetic nation we really are.

Peter Mulvany

Clontarf

Dublin