Letters to the Editor: Johnson far from playing a blinder
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been a disaster in many areas.
Johnson far from playing a blinder in Downing St Robert Sullivan writes â âMr Finlay, Boris is playing a blinderâ (Irish Examiner, Letters, May 1) â that Boris Johnson the British PM is a âcurrent outstanding successâ.
He ignores the fact that Boris Johnsonâs pursuit of the Brexit agenda as being a disaster for the UK, Europe, and international cooperation.
He also ignores the fact that the UK has one of the highest death rates from Covid in the world.
Brexit is a declaration of contempt for fellow Europeans and especially for the citizens of this democratic republic and former colony and the people of Northern Ireland.
We on this island know all about that appalling behaviour having put up with it for centuries.
The grabbing of the Covid vaccines by Johnson mirrors the grabbing of the food when a million Irish were starving to death during the Famine.
When the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the visit of Queen Elizabeth drew a conciliatory line under centuries of colonial rule, Johnson and his colleagues supported Brexit, which attempts to, and may yet succeed, in tearing up this international conciliatory agreement.
The worst-case scenario is that the patience and conciliatory efforts of the Irish government, with the full backing of the EU, may not be able to save the day for the peace agreement.
We do not yet know whether Johnson and the Brexiteers are going to keep the agreement he signed in relation to Northern Ireland. All we can say is that the present situation is not an outstanding success and that Boris Johnson is not playing a blinder.
When we are all vaccinated, with the virus under control and society opened up, we canât go back to our old habits. We need to listen to the wake-up call weâve just received. We must, change our eating habits and our relationship with the planet or weâll kill Mother Earth sooner than we think.
We are eating unhealthy food, we are killing the air we breathe, and destroying nature in the pursuit of greed. Will you be able to eat cash and drink oil when the planet stops living, producing food and air?
There are too many of us here, we need to cut the population on this planet by at least 50%.
Start your new normal, by changing your ways and putting the planet first. You would not be here, if it were not for Mother Earth and she is crying out now.
 If ever there was a cast-iron case for the theory of evolution, surely Edwin Poots is it; although obviously most of us have progressed further along that path than others.
Dublinâs rush to push through dangerous shared space cycle lanes continues.
A shared space is where pedestrians and vehicles mix in an uncontrolled way. Endangering both but particularly vulnerable pedestrians.
Cyclists are vehicle users and as such there should be a physically segregated space between them and pedestrians. Without this, pedestrians will be deterred from using the space.
This has happened in the UK on the canals turned into Greenways and in Dublin on the Dargle Greenway. I myself no longer fish on the canals or walk them for the abuse you take if you do not get out of the way of a speeding cyclist. Not so easy when youâre fishing.
Iâm from Killarney, but living in New Mexico and am very saddened by the fires in Killarney. I am saddened even more, but unsurprised, that the country was unprepared. Will this still be so if there is a next time? One appropriate aircraft stationed at Farranfore would sort it. What was the last ecocide event? If memory serves, deer starving to death on Inisfallen. Frantz Fanon, I imagine, would say it is a consequence of history and a self-hatred phase of a colonised people.
 Intelligent self-driving cars have been a part of our culture since the 1980s starting with the Knight Riderâs âKittâ, a car probably far more intelligent than its driver. The Batmobile is always on call for Batman and with a push of a button, it would locate him and drive there. Of course, having an automatic car with heavy weaponry may not be the best option for the average suburban driver.
A question may be what happens when the person using a self-driving car is drunk, are they drink driving or drink self-driving? A drunken slur may cause confusion as to which Cambridge to go to, the one in Massachusetts, America, or the university town in England.
Should the self-driving cars share the locations of police alcohol testing stations so that their drunk passengers wonât get a fine?
Self-driving cars can be programmed to do many things including to kill, well actually, to selectively kill. If an accident is going to hurt the passengers or someone outside, then being inside the car is the best option.
Hackers could lead to more worrying possibilities. Anarchists could create havoc by simply sending all of the self-driving cars onto the major roads and then have them stop in the middle of every intersection.
The end wonât come with the terminators shooting us down but rather it will be the self-driving cars running us down. Maybe itâs time to saddle up the horses again.
In light of the continuing controversy regarding ownership of our National Maternity Hospital, I propose that a new, publicly-owned hospital would make a very fine memorial to those who suffered and died in Magdalene laundries and mother and baby homes.
With the amount of litter dropped on our streets on the increase as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, I read with interest the appeals of the Mayor of the County of Cork Cllr Mary Linehan Foley calling on the public, where there was a lack of public bins, to be responsible and bring the litter home. The above civic leader should acknowledge it was, for generations, the primary statutory function of Cork County Council to collect all domestic and commercial waste from the doorsteps, a responsibility it has abdicated in recent years.
Now, are we experiencing the beginning of the end of another local authority function namely the provision of public litter bins with the call on people to take home litter, where the local authority has failed to exercise their statutory responsibility?
Iâm one of those lay Catholics who happens to be âpart of other types of Irish communitiesâ too that Sean OâBrien refers to â âLay Catholics and Catholicism chatsâ (Irish Examiner, Letters, May 1).
Some overlap my faith, some donât. I canât discuss my faith with everyone because some will be either uninterested or actively hostile, but if people genuinely ask Iâm happy to tell. So I can appreciate Mr OâBrienâs quandary in finding like-minded people to share his faith with. He wants the Church to establish Zoom groups; as it happens I have also been taking part in Zoom prayer and contemplation meetings over the last year, one of many. Itâs a digital extension of the community that already exists on the ground.
Mr OâBrien could start with the parish office, newsletter or notice board as prayer and study groups are often listed there. If his parish is very isolated or quiet, he could tune in to Radio Maria; for example, I recently took part in a panel to discuss the Gospel of Mark and listeners could phone or text in. The issue appears to be less about the Churchâs efforts to make the Gospel and catechesis known than the uptake among the nominal Catholic laity. I concur with Mr OâBrien that re-evangelisation of lay Catholics can only be a positive thing. Ultimately he neednât worry â Catholics who are truly involved in their faith are always eager and joyful to share it with anyone whoâs interested (Luke 8:16).
