There are at least two major wars at present, in Ukraine and in Yemen. One is being beamed into our homes around the clock. The other doesn’t usually merit a reference.
To talk of peace, or even a ceasefire, in Ukraine is to invite mockery. It runs counter to the all-prevailing narrative in the West that the ‘Ukrainians’ are winning and the ‘Russians’ are being taught a lesson they richly deserve. Some, however, are beginning to ask who is really winning the war in Ukraine.
However, there is little danger of calls for peace spoiling the party in Yemen, once that war is kept off the airwaves.
There are, in fact, many losers in both conflicts and only very few winners.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees calculated that
civilian deaths from the war in Ukraine came to 6,114 by October 2 — a shocking figure. However, the same body estimated that, by the close of last year, as many as 377,000 people had lost their lives in the Nato-fuelled war in Yemen.
Of these, 227,000 died from war-induced famine and the destruction of civilian and medical infrastructure. The other 150,000 innocent civilians were mainly killed in the relentless bombardments.
The only sure winner in the prolongation of these two wars is the arms industry, the so-called military industrial complex.
Billy Fitzpatrick
Terenure
Dublin 6W
Two alternatives to BusConnects plan
It is little wonder that the majority of the 2,230 or so submissions to the Dublin based NTA’s BusConnects proposals for Cork City are entirely negative.
Remarkably, it has taken the NTA over five years to come up with a scheme totally lacking in credibility, empathy, and coherence.
The proposals lack a smidgeon of realism and have managed to upset and alienate almost the entire city population, as well as senior politicians, councillors, communities, environmentalists, and the business community at large.
Apparently the NTA strategy is that the combined intelligence and common sense of the people of Cork will impose radical changes to facilitate a reasoned outcome.
A viable alternative not considered was congestion charging, a system that is in vogue in many enlightened cities in the UK, the EU, and far beyond.
London pioneered this method to great advantage, reducing congestion, pollution with health, safety and wellbeing benefits for all.
Together with park and ride facilities throughout the city, congestion charges would, at hugely reduced cost, obviate the need to desecrate the environment, and to impact negatively on communities and businesses.
In the meantime, it is imperative that the business case for refusing to consider these alternatives be published immediately.
John Leahy
Wilton Rd
Cork
Much of Sunak’s plans still unknown
Rishi Sunak’s coronation as Tory leader caps a rapid political comeback by the former chancellor after he lost out to Ms Truss in the last leadership contest.
The former chancellor failed to make any policy pledges during the truncated four-day contest or deliver any speeches or media interviews.
After Liz Truss’s tumultuous 44-day premiership, questions still remain over Sunak’s plans for office.
Gerry Coughlan
Kilnamanagh
Dublin 24
Britain was asked the wrong question
If Rishi Sunak is the answer, Britain is asking itself all the wrong questions.
Shame on the Tories for avoiding a general election.
Michael Deasy
Bandon
Co Cork
Critique of ‘Banshees of Inisherin’
I had been somewhat of an admirer of Martin McDonagh since his darkly comic plays — The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lonesome West among others.
These inverted the usual romantic perspective of the west of Ireland and gave an outsider’s caustic appraisal of life in modern-day Connemara.
However, 20 years later, McDonagh is still attempting to subvert the Gaelicised language of Synge by introducing a host of clichés to the Ireland of 100 years ago, with a film set in the spectacular landscape of a fictionalised island called Inisherin during the Irish Civil War.
The result [The Banshees of Inisherin] is a gallimaufry of half-baked theme, a mixum-gatherum of tedium that, by the end of its 114 minutes, has long outlived its right to life.
There is no superbly burlesque hint of a Playboy Of The Western World; just an outdated flogging of a dead horse by McDonagh whose condescending opinion of a great and vanishing culture has long since run its moderate course.
Maurice O’Callaghan
Stillorgan
Co Dublin
Visit to Cork reveals planning problems
On my first visit home post-Covid, I was shocked at the number of vacant stores on St Patrick’s St.
The council’s decision to shut the street to cars in afternoons is not helping, nor is the high cost of car parking. Why could not a flat parking rate of say €4 be introduced from 4pm to 7pm as a trial?
There is also a need to introduce more park and ride sites and get the events centre open as soon as possible.
Henry Hannon
Warmley
Bristol
Pubs are prioritised ahead of our future
Across the water today important decisions were being made which will affect the future of Europe and Ireland economically and politically. The first items on the news this evening on both Virgin Media and RTÉ were about opening hours in pubs and nightclubs which will be introduced next year. This is what interests us, apparently.
Pat O’Mahony
Westport
Co Mayo
Murky past of other parties overlooked
While being critical of Sinn Féin once again, saying that they “consistently refuse to confront the past”, Fergus Finlay was biased in the extreme [‘Irish Examiner’, October 25].
I say that because he rather conveniently forgot to mention that both the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil parties have also had murky pasts.
Liam Burke
Dunmore
Co Kilkenny
Role of ‘the market’ in British politics
‘The market’ in essence means the City of London, Wall Street, and a handful big players of international finance, such as the Vanguard Group and Blackrock, that dominate global markets and are interconnected with a cabal of business elites who shape the agendas of national governments.
Liz Truss was probably undermined in this way.
I noticed the day before she resigned she claimed she was “a fighter and not a quitter”.
Certainly, leading up to her resignation, senior executives from a couple of major companies which dominate the British stock market decided to sabotage her government in the hope of replacing her with someone more amenable to their interests. It was a market coup d’état in other words. It had nothing to do with democracy.
Louis Shawcross
Hillsborough
Co Down
A timely reminder of a welcome bonus
I welcome the clocks going back. At my age, every extra hour is a bonus
Tom Gilsenan
Beaumont
Dublin 9
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