Our hearts should go out to Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who disrupted a TV news broadcast with her hard-hitting anti-war message.
Her protest was a triumph of truth over propaganda and contrasted brilliantly with the official line of a State-controlled media that has sought to whitewash the actions of a cruel regime. It reminded me of another brave woman, Sophie Scholl, the German dissident who in February 1943 was arrested by the Gestapo for distributing hundreds of leaflets in Munich University, exposing Nazi atrocities.
She paid a heavy price for that protest, but a coin was minted in Germany to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her birth. Perhaps a post-oligarchic
Russia will confer a similar honour on Marina, who managed to break through a high wall of censorship to reach a worldwide audience with her simple but life-enhancing message of peace and truth.
Journalism is under siege globally, not just in war zones and dictatorships. Social media all too often turns the truth on its head and we don’t know what to believe.
So-called journalists who allow themselves to be manipulated into distorting reality are an insult to the brave ones, the Marinas of this world who go out on a limb to “tell it like it is”.
John Fitzgerald
Lower Coyne St
Callan
Co Kilkenny
Armchair generals rule Londongrad
‘Londongrad’ — the city of London is where the real armchair generals reside, not seated in the House of Commons or at Downing St. They are enthroned in murmurous wood-
panelled rooms moving money around on a zephyr of solicitude and securitisation.
They say money talks. Sometimes it whispers, sometimes it roars. When it roars, children die in the streets in
Ukraine. The city of London. Limber pedestrian bridges designed by Santiago Calatrava convey its denizens to work. Elegant and agile. But “accountable” all the same. Boris Johnson has “moved against Russia’s oligarchs” disappointingly slowly. Meanwhile, P&O Ferries can terminate 800 jobs in the blink of an eye.
Michael Deasy
Bandon
Co Cork
Cowardly wars are a modern trend
This modern trend of blatant cowardly wars is reprehensible. It began with the Russian indiscriminate air and missile attacks on Syria, continued with the merciless air onslaught by the Saudis in Yemen, and now is seen for all its inhumanity in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
At least in times past, wars were fought by soldiers and the large-scale destruction of infrastructure, with its inevitable loss of human life, was unthinkable.
The international community must demand that any nation involved in these cowardly wars be brought to justice and no longer live with impunity.
Brendan Butler
Malahide
Co Dublin
Hope for peace springs eternal
Today’s spring equinox heralds in a season of rebirth, fertility, and brightness. It marks the sun crossing the equator from south to north.
At equinox, the sun shines directly on the equator as daylight and darkness are almost equal at 12 hours each.
The anticipation of outdoor living puts a spring in my step. Summertime begins at 1am next Sunday, March 27, when the clocks go forward by one hour — ‘spring forward and fall back’.
The days are noticeably longer. Animals are mating and producing offspring. Birds are singing and building nests. None sings louder than the nightingale which dominates the Ukrainian sky with its powerful and beautiful song of defiance.
The trees are sweetly blooming. Warmth, growth, and greenery are returning. The sunflower, Ukraine’s national flower, is growing worldwide as a symbol of solidarity with the country and its people.
The spring equinox restores my energy levels after the cold, dark winter. It makes me appreciate how good it is to be alive and living in a beautiful country. It whets my appetite for exercise, sport, and outdoor living. My thoughts turn to sea swimming in Fenit, walking at Banna Strand, days at the races, and the expectation of a successful season for Austin Stacks and Kerry football teams.
Above all, the resilient people of Ukraine dominate my thoughts this springtime. I pray that Russia will heed the impassioned plea from Pope Francis to “in the name of God, end this unacceptable armed aggression and massacre”.
Billy Ryle
Spa
Tralee
Co Kerry
Small-plant nuclear energy an option
As a result of the “no-mention of nuclear” policy there is little public understanding of the low-carbon, small plant nuclear energy option for providing basic supply when the wind is not blowing, nor the sun shining.
We need wide public discussion of our deplorable energy situation around the country. While we depend on high-carbon natural gas we will never achieve our emissions target.
We should not be talking about a comparison between renewables and nuclear; they have different parts to play in an efficient low-carbon electricity system. Even if legal barriers to nuclear were removed it is unlikely that a working small modular reactor could be in place before the mid-2030s. It would be worth the wait if the national policy then included a proportion of nuclear energy, gradually replacing high-carbon natural gas and significantly lowering our carbon emissions.
Incidentally, when there is plenty of renewable energy provided by wind turbines in the Shannon estuary, small modular nuclear reactors, say at Moneypoint, could be providing green hydrogen.
Anne Baily
Carrick-on-Suir
Co Tipperary
Celebrating spirit of St Patrick’s Day
Kellie Harrington and Ellen Keane were deserving grand marshals of the Dublin St Patrick’s Day parade after their Olympic glory last summer and the proud Irish-American John C Reilly could not contain his glee at getting here for the big day.
They were all great on the Late Late Show, a great song, ‘Grace’, sung by Kellie Harrington. But poignantly, as we enjoyed all that is good about Ireland, the land of saints and scholars, the people of Ukraine were at the forefront of our minds, with Russia killing innocent men, women, and children in its ruthless invasion and images of the suffering flashed across our TV screens.
We also saw the president of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, meeting the president of America, Joe Biden. Long live the spirit of St Patrick’s Day and Amen to world peace.
Noel Harrington
Kinsale
Co Cork
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