As the author Naomi Klein once wrote: “The only thing rising faster than our emissions is the output of words pledging to lower them.”
My name is Saoirse and I am 15 years old, almost 16. As a young person, I have been told my entire childhood to aim high, and that I can be whatever I want in life. But this is a lie. Our Government is built on lies.
I was driven to write this out of total and utter hopelessness. I don’t know where else to turn.
I have sat at the core of our democracy, I have lobbied my representatives through both protesting and holding conversations. I have pounded on your door, and you have continued to plug your ears.
As a delegate at the RTÉ Youth Assembly, I sat in your seats, and walked across your floors. I debated in your committee rooms.
I felt a place teeming with the hopelessness of my generation and our eagerness to attempt to grasp even the most miniscule amount of hope to keep us going. To keep us alive.
It has been over a year since this event, and yet nothing has changed.
I am no scientist. Everything that I know you are already aware of and yet choose to ignore.
I am guided in my actions by science, your actions circulate around avoiding it where possible in favour of more money to line your coffers.
You put forward new bills and new declarations purely to placate the people who care.
But I am angry.
I am sick and tired and angry and yet I have barely lived. I am exhausted simply by caring.
My grief runs deep, it saps my strength when I am forced to continue to live in a society shaped by your hands that simply does not care.
This pandemic gave us an opportunity.
It paused life across the world, if only for a moment, and showed us that there were other ways of doing things, other than this sickening “normality” you adults have become so attached to. It is almost as if without it, you’ll perish.
You could have done so much. Instead, you ignored that the environment was affected positively by our removal from our “normal” routines.
You ignored that the way we treat our planet was the root of this crisis in the first place.
You disregarded the science yet again.
“The expansion of humans onto more of the planet’s land has increased the likelihood of disease outbreaks in two ways.
“First, as humans move into what were once animal habitats, we end up living closer to animals that might contain dangerous pathogens.
Secondly, as we destroy or alter animal habitats, we’re driving away or killing off animals that once served as a “firewall” between those pathogens and us.”
These are the words of science journalist Sonia Shah, echoed by scientists across the globe.
I know this letter will be answered with you waving the Climate Bill in my face and claiming this is the answer to all my problems. Yet you are not even held accountable in this bill.
When the youth put questions to your leaders, they skive around the answers. In fact, you avoid any contact with us.
I am young. I cannot vote. To some people, I am worthless, naive, little, and a brat.
These people are scared of people like me. They are scared of the power the youth movement has shown and the power we will show. Even if I cannot vote now, I will be able to in the future. And I will not forget.
Saoirse Exton, 15
Limerick
Listen to girls about reality of assault
What a relief to read Clíona Saidléar in your pages Changing signage won’t alter lived reality of why women go to toilets in groups, talking actual sense, about the actual reality of actually being a girl in Ireland in 2021.
The material reality of girls’ lives is adversely affected every single day by the misogynistic society in which they live, and they can’t “identify” out of it, although I can see why they would be tempted.
As Ms Saidléar’s article states, 25% of all sexual violence is committed by people under the age of 18, and 93% of all reported perpetrators are men and boys.
This means, whether we like it or not, hundreds of boys in Irish schools have perpetrated sexual assaults, and hundreds of their victims share those schools with their assailants.
Parents who object to the proposed implementation of unisex toilets are frequently accused of transphobia. This is absolute rubbish.
We aren’t concerned about the theoretical behaviour of putative trans-students, we are concerned about the very real and verifiable behaviour of predatory male students.
Stop lying about us, and start listening to us instead.
Orla McAlinden
Newbridge
Co Kildare
Correcting the myths about menopause
It was great to see the menopause conversation continue in your newspaper. The coverage on Liveline will also go down as a marker event in the history books both in Ireland and possibly globally.
How we as a country respond to the hundreds of women’s voices on air will be significant.
Having researched menopause since 2018, I believe there is a golden opportunity for the Irish Government to become a world leader in rolling out a national information and awareness campaign on menopause.
Earlier this year, Forbes estimated the global economic cost of “menopause” as $890bn. The narrative of fear, shame, denial and silence has followed this taboo subject for decades.
I was interested in my own research on where this negative degenerative rhetoric started.
Enter Dr Robert Wilson and his bestselling book Feminine Forever, published in the 1960s. In it, he referred to women who reached the end of their fertile years as withered crippled castrates who had lost their femininity and sexuality.
He became the darling of the airwaves and travelled across America peddling this story for almost 20 years.
There were no women’s voices recorded in this space until the 1980s when the feminist author and activist Germaine Greer and Dr Gail Sheedy both published books on menopause challenging Wilson.
After Wilson died in 1981 he was discredited when it was discovered that he had been paid huge amounts of money by the equine hormone pharmaceutical company who paid for his book and widespread speaking engagements. Wilson’s old misogynist story has haunted the psyche of menopausal women for decades.
In 2021, I believe menopause is in need of a new story.
Today, we have the largest cohort of women globally entering or moving through their 50s, these women are educated, economically independent, and are using their voice and agency to challenge many narratives that historically limited and disempowered women — menopause is one.
Having worked with hundreds of women in both the UK and Ireland over the last two years, the truth is that once women have information, understanding, and support about this significant life transition, the experience can be completely transformed from a negative to a positive and empowering life stage.
Midlife women are an invaluable asset in society. Will our Government become a world leader in the menopause space? Don’t we deserve to have the public information that will prevent much suffering and distress?
I believe menopause is a life transition in need of a new story. I am writing that story for a new generation of midlife women. The book will be published on October 1, 2021.
Breeda Bermingham
John’s Hill, Waterford
Home thoughts from abroad
I was born and bred in London with Irish parents and moved to Cork four years ago for a better lifestyle for our young son and us too.
I recall the Irish Examiner over the years spent here on holidays and thought it was such a good read, the writing was very different and eye-opening to me at times.
Now I’m here I have the pleasure of the paper on a daily basis. I like it all — from sport to news and views.
Pat Murphy
Mallow
Co Cork
Letters are taking the long way round
I wonder if any of your readers are experiencing problems with letters recently posted from the UK to Ireland.
I have received letters posted from various locations in England that have arrived two to three months late that have postmarks of Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Jersey, Isle of Man, and Switzerland. This has been happening since December 2020.
I am also aware of at least four letters posted in UK that have not arrived. I have queried this with Royal Mail, who show little interest other than to refer me to the claims procedure if any losses were incurred.
In the last two weeks I have received three letters from the UK with a Dublin stamp overlaid on the UK frank, all two to three weeks late.
What is going on? Brexit revenge?
Joe O’Hara
Waterford City
CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB
