Letters to the Editor: Failure of housing policy only hurts some of us

Vulnerable people allowed to become homeless while local authority stock remains boarded up

The headline ( Irish Examiner, May 29) came as no surprise to those with any understanding of what is happening Rise in homelessness sparks fresh fears.

What is even more infuriating is the fact that the housing policy failure is not hurting everyone.

On the contrary, earlier in the week, following the go-ahead for the controversial arrangement between Dublin’s Fingal County Council and Glenveagh Properties to build housing on public lands, the company’s shares jumped by 2.5%.

The Government’s housing policy is working fine for some.

Jim O’Sullivan

Rathedmond

Sligo

Pensioner’s plea for a place to call home

An elderly woman on a WhatsApp group I belong to sent out a plea to anyone who had info on any type of place to stay to contact her.

For several years after a tricky divorce, she’d been minding a house for a friend who lives in Dubai but had to suddenly return to get treatment for a serious illness. As the decent person she is, she vacated the premises immediately.

The Dun Loaghaire-Rathdown council has happily allowed this woman become homeless while local authority housing stock remains boarded up on their watch. 

Local politicians proffered much hand wringing and little else. Not even a hotel room was offered to her, a more suitable solution for a pensioner.

Like ‘An Old Woman of the Roads’ by Pádraic Colum, more than ever, relevant poem she too tells me:

'I am praying to God on high/ And I am praying Him night and day/ For a little house — house of my own/ Out of the wind’s and the rain’s way.’

Eileen O’Sullivan

Kilmacanogue

Co Wicklow

Public funds going to private charities

After all the discussion, all the debate, all the announcements, this hugely important question remains unanswered: Why should a private charity own the new publicly-funded National Maternity Hospital?

Why should hundreds of millions of euro of our money be spent on a hospital we will not own?

Bernie Linnane

Old Church

Dromahair

Co Leitrim

Navy: sell ships and buy a submarine

The navy should reduce the number of ships while ordering a submarine. They should hold talks with sailors about pay and working hours on ships.

The police and sailors should rotate roles. This would relieve sailors and stop them leaving.

Finally, I think the navy should set up an offshore island training base, this would ensure they are committed to the navy mentally and physically by doing various exercises.

Andrew Kelly

Castletown

Isle of Man

Legacy of colonial experience lingers

What is it about golf clubs in Ireland? Portmarnock Golf Club votes to drop men-only rule and accept female members (Irish Examiner, May26).

It took 127 years for the misogynist members of Portmarnock Golf Club to amend the club’s constitution to allow for the admission of women members. 

In 2013, another bizarre amendment to a golf club’s rules was endorsed when the constitution of the Curragh Golf Club restored the “royal” prefix to their title which had been conferred on the club in September 1910 by then English king George V.

After the Irish Free State was established in 1922 the club dropped the royal prefix and reverted to its original name of the Curragh Golf Club.

The Curragh Golf Club is adjacent to the Curragh military barracks and as a reflection of the unique bond between the golf club and the Defence Forces, the captaincy of the club has been shared bi-annually between civilian and Irish military members since 1922.

The fact that members of the Irish Defence Forces were party to the re-establishment of this royal prefix in 2013 undermines and diminishes the republican and egalitarian ethos of the State, which repudiated monarchism with the establishment of a republic in 1949.

I am shamed once again by the obsequious antics of the membership of the Curragh Golf Club. This inferiority complex should have exited the gene pool long ago.

It appears that we as a nation continue to be so racked by self-doubt and self-loathing that we feel obligated to seek the approval of others for what we do. 

The legacy of our colonial experience seems to have left some of us with a warped sense of nationhood. 

There is a view that Britain does not engage very seriously with or about Ireland. Unfortunately, our behaviour at times gives substance to this view.

Tom Cooper

Templeville Road

Templeogue

Dublin 6W

Murderers and their mental state

Could somebody in our government’s legal morass please explain to me how anybody can decide that some murderers are mentally disturbed and should be allowed to mingle with nice people while others are completely sane and should therefore be locked up for a while.

Richard Barton

Maynooth

Co Kildare

Double points tally to invigorate games

As one who grew up playing Mid-Tipperary hurling, my view is radically the opposite of that recently offered by Kilkenny man Jackie Tyrrell.

Bringing forwards out to score points from far out is part of what has changed hurling into basketball on three-acre pitches.

Goals are too difficult for the big six-foot-plus fellows. Points are much easier, especially as the one-handed big hurlers can’t stop their free hands from pulling and pushing and handing scoreable points from frees to the opposition.

The pathetic way in which broadcaster commentators praise points-scoring from distances is like golf commentators praising long drives. In line with the well-known golf adage, it can be said that “point-scoring is for show, goal-scoring is for dough”.

Fewer and fewer are attending and watching point-scoring hurling and Gaelic football matches. As in tries in rugby, the excitement for spectators is in goal-scoring attempts and foiling.

One single change would alter both Gaelic codes for the better. It would recognise that with modern livelier balls and pitches, making a goal worth only three points is outdated. A six-points goal would transform both games. A lead of 10 points, say, could then be wiped out by two scores. Early six-point goals would galvanise things.

Six-point goals during training would show that.

Training could then focus on inter-passing during breakaways to score goals.

Hurling would be riveting for spectators once again.

Joe Foyle

Ranelagh

Dublin 6

Decline of Cork City FC is disgraceful

As an exiled Corkonian I am appalled by the gradual decline in the fortunes of Cork City FC. Does anybody care anymore? It is apparent that the side is lacking creativity and a proven goal scorer, why were these signings not made at the start of the season?

It is nothing short of a disgrace to see a huge club like City in this situation and I hope that the club gets its act together ASAP.

Harry Hannon

Bristol

England