Letters to the Editor: Media blind to efficiency of vaccine programme

If we listened uncritically to the media, we might be tempted to believe there is a parallel Ireland, where chaos and anger rule, writes David Sprott.

My wife and I, who are both in our 70s, were delighted to receive a call from the HSE, some nights ago, and asked to attend the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) vaccination centre nearby. We did, at the end of a long day in which hundreds of people had already been processed by the doctors, nurses, and administrators, yet the atmosphere was efficient, calm, professional, supportive, and friendly.

This was the real Ireland, calmly and resolutely working to end this crisis.

If we listened uncritically to the media, we might be tempted to believe there is a parallel Ireland, where chaos and anger rule; that the Irish have given up and must be granted more freedom to beat this virus.

We need to give voice to the majority. Instead of constantly undermining the national effort, looking for mistakes, and giving equal voice to naysayers, we should be reflecting the majority view. Most people are willing to stay the course. We understand the strategy and are not calling for clarity. This is relevant to the national broadcaster, RTÉ, and to all media channels. They would do well to re-examine their role in the national effort.

David Sprott

Ballincollig

Cork City

Now it’s ‘jabs’, not ‘jobs’, for the boys

It’s time to change that oft-used phrase ‘jobs for the boys’ to the more contemporaneous ‘jabs for the boys’.

Aileen Hooper

Norseman Place

Stoneybatter

Dublin 7

School did not set a good example

The fact that the staff at a private school — St Gerard’s, Bray, which received 20 leftover doses from the private Beacon Hospital — took the Covid-19 vaccine before others begs the question: What is the underlying ethos of this avowedly Catholic school?

Liam Power

Blackrock

Dundalk

Co Louth

Shakespeare also a spiritual ‘master’

Playwright William Shakespeare said, “The quality of mercy is twice blessed.”

The study of many such great quotes from Shakespeare could form the basis of a new, much-needed school subject on human spirituality.

Shakespeare also said “There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves”, and, also “Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul, there I see such black and grainèd spots as will not leave their tinct.”

The study of many such great quotes from Shakespeare could form the basis of a new, much-needed school subject on human spirituality.

This new school subject, on the vital, if fragile, spiritual connections between people, would be suitable for pupils and students of all religions and of no religion. It would be spiritual, not religious, instruction.

It could be a beautiful and fun way to bring pupils/students together in an open-minded, good-mannered discussion about the spiritual issues and dilemmas of their lives.

Issues like whether or not young people should always keep within the same circle of friends, or whether it could be a good thing to sometimes spend time on their own, like Hamlet did?

The school pupils/students who choose to study Shakespeare from a new, spiritual perspective might find themselves also asking another important question, connected with another quote from Shakespeare: Can the desire to make lots of money turn out to be a form of selfish, “bestial oblivion”, with limited benefit to other, poorer people in society?

Sean O’Brien

Kilrush

Co Clare

English is Irish people’s best asset

It’s exciting to see how many Irish presenters there are on Sky, CNN, France 24, Euronews, and Al Jazeera, presumably because, as well as being very clever, they speak excellent English, our greatest asset.

Watching a British movie about the SAS and another UK police series, I struggled to follow the dialogue, despite having worked in Yorkshire for years.

Michael Foley

Rathmines

Dublin 6

Media hard on fishing industry

Yet another unfounded media attack on the Irish fishing industry. The article ( Irish Examiner, 27/03) is a repeat of the same story that keeps being regurgitated by the media: It is anti-fishing industry, has little research, and no comment from fishermen or their representatives.

And, coincidentally, this same story pops up in one of the national news outlets every time the Department of Marine is being criticised by the fishing industry.

Is this an attempt to silence the growing voice of anger of the people at how Ireland’s fishing industry is being mismanaged while other EU nations benefit? Is it an attempt to convince the public that the fishing industry is crooked?

Despite the big headline, the Irish Examiner story was ‘smoke and mirrors’: No one was quoted; instead, lots of things were ‘reportedly stated’. The article’s conclusion that fishery controls were unsatisfactory is that, according to an official report, the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority was incapable of carrying out standard control and monitoring, because of “inefficiencies” within that organisation.

This article doesn’t report anything that hasn’t already been said in previous, under-researched, articles, in other newspapers, or something similar reported by other forms of media.

It’s about time that Ireland’s mainstream media were made accountable for what they report and, at the very least, gave fishing industry representatives the right to reply.

Cormac Burke

Irish Fishing & Seafood Alliance

Killybegs

Co Donegal

Never wrong to give water, food

The UN statement on the ‘human right to water and sanitation’ says that water should be ‘physically accessible’ and although the statement doesn’t mention ‘voters in line’, it is implied that water should be available anywhere, but, it appears, not so in Georgia, in the US.

The new law in Georgia makes it a misdemeanour crime to give food or drinks to voters waiting in long lines and, again, although not mentioned, it is apparent that this will affect black voters the most.

What reasonable legislator could think it wrong for people to hand out free water and food to anyone?

Georgia has made it a misdemeanour crime to give food or drinks to voters waiting in long lines.

What reasonable legislator could think that a bottle of water and a roll could make someone change their voting intention? What reasonable legislator still thinks the US election was stolen? What reasonable legislator would try to make it more difficult for anyone to vote?

Apparently, a few in Georgia think this way and maybe it would be best to vote them out as soon as possible and celebrate their departure, not with a glass of champagne, but with a bottle of water.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Vic Melbourne

Australia

Apply farm ban to hunt dogs as well

As expected, hunters are crying foul over a nationwide campaign to ban dog walkers from farmland. They are demanding a special exemption from the ban to pursue their “traditional country pastimes.”

The “No dogs allowed campaign” was launched by farmers’ groups this year in response to what one representative described as “reckless and irresponsible” behavior by dog walkers who let animals run free on farmland.

Under no circumstances should hunters be exempted from the ban. Every year, foxhunts wreak havoc in rural Ireland. In the course of day’s ‘sport’, a hunt will cross a dozen or more farm boundaries, in the process knocking fences, churning up fields of winter crops, and scattering flocks of sheep and herds of cattle in all directions.

Hunt incursions result in injuries to livestock and consequent financial losses to the farmer. Animals become entangled in brambles or barbed wire and the hyped-up dogs give chase to terrified poultry.

Hunt hounds are notorious killers of farm family pets. Mangled carcasses of cats and domestic rabbits are routinely sighted in the wake of the packs crossing the countryside.

Hare hunters, whether on foot or horseback, should also be banned from farmland. The hounds are trained to kill or disable other animals, so it’s no surprise when they take a shine to a sheep or chicken, or that they cause abortions in ewes when they arrive
announced on a farm in a frenzy of bloodlust.

So if dog walkers are to be banned from farmland, it should be unthinkable to allow this organised rural vandalism. As far as the impact on farm livelihoods is concerned, taking Fido for his daily stroll is just a walk in the park compared to the threat posed by what Oscar Wilde famously called “the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable”.

John Fitzgerald

Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports