Letters to the Editor: LÉ Eithne could get a new lease of life as a bed for Irish coral reef
Corals in the Whittard Submarine Canyon in Irish waters as featured in the 'Atlas of the Deep Water Seabed, Ireland'.
John Jordan, an ex-CO of the flagship of the Irish navy the LÉ Eithne, regrets the sad decision to scrap this unique ship which was equipped with modern technology (‘LÉ Eithne is too valuable to scrap’ — Irish Examiner Letters, December 20).
But there is an option which I believe is better than just scrapping her that, strangely, no-one has mentioned thus far, and that is to sink the LÉ Eithne somewhere deep enough in the ocean in an upright position so that she may encourage new coral reef growth and accompanying marine life down there.
But very importantly to do this submergence of her after she has been completely cleaned of all materials and substances that are potentially harmful to any marine life.
If she could be sunk somewhere within our own Irish territorial waters, so much the better all round, because this could be a benefit to our local Irish tourism industry with the likelihood of the prospect of future tourists putting on appropriate underwater gear and going down to visit the LÉ Eithne as she lies elegantly among the beautiful corals and fishes which exist reasonably close to our Irish shores.
The full moon shines o’er Santy’s sleigh
And gave them precisely for what they’d written!
Celebrity chefs are popping up everywhere with advice on how to cook the definitive Christmas dinner. In my opinion, it’s best to wear the green jersey by using Irish ingredients, by keeping the menu simple, by sharing the preparatory tasks, and by preparing only what’s needed. A starter of freshly cooked prawns, lettuce, tomato slices, a lemon wedge, and a dab of tomato or prawn cocktail sauce is a perfect appetiser.
The main course, where roast turkey and boiled ham dominate, is the ideal platform for home grown vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and turnip.
The versatile potato comes into its own on Christmas Day. Potato turkey stuffing, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, and baked potatoes are traditional mainstays of our table. Make your own gravy from the turkey dripping or, as I like to do, chop an onion into small parts and boil in water. Add two tablespoons of gravy powder and stir well. Allow 10 minutes or so for the gravy to thicken and pour it into a serving jug.
Our dessert is Christmas pudding doused in piping hot custard. Finally, tea, coffee, or a beverage of choice is served with mince pies capped with whipped cream.
Christmas dinner is important but the celebration of Christ’s birth is far more important. Our Christmas Day celebration begins with midnight Mass on Christmas Eve followed by freshly cooked ham sandwiches. Unwrapping presents from under the tree on Christmas morning is great fun. Once dinner preparations are finalised, we whet our appetites with an invigorating midday swim in Feint. Bon appetit.
Updated statistics by the Swiss-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor on day 74 for killed and wounded in Gaza put the toll of killed and injured as 26,612 and 52,390 respectively. These figures represent 1.21% and 2.4% of a total Gazan population of 2.2m.
If applied to the Republic of Ireland, this equates to 61,373 killed and 120,717 wounded, many horribly so with life-changing injuries. This is 18 times more Gazans killed in 74 days than in 30 years of war in Northern Ireland. The 86% of the ethnically cleansed Gazan population, many displaced multiple times, would equate in Ireland to 4.4m traumatised Irish citizens all squeezed into
a few southern counties, many sleeping in tents, with limited or no sanitary facilities or medical help while being forced to queue for hours for meagre daily rations of porridge and water. Seventy-one per cent of the total Irish population, i.e., 3.6m people would suffer from extreme hunger.
The Irish Government must do much more than meekly call for a humanitarian ceasefire. It should assert all possible diplomatic influence on the US government to stop it politically and militarily supporting Israel’s genocidal war on the people of Gaza. It can start by purging its complicity in this genocide by removing the facility to the US military at Shannon Airport.
Bertie Ahern gave the GAA many more millions of taxpayers’ money than JP McManus just did, and Bertie didn’t even ask our permission to take it out of our pockets, beforehand.
It’s easy for him to look good giving money to an institution which does not a need bailout. Give to the poor, anonymously, instead.
Jeffrey Donaldson and his crew of naysayers in the DUP have not enveloped themselves in the spirit of Christmas, instead they have adopted the chronicle of Ebenezer Scrooge as the way forward.
Christmas is a time of goodwill and sharing, but for the DUP sharing has never been their forte when it comes to equality and parity of esteem with your nationalist/republican neighbours. First minister (in waiting) Michelle O’Neill has bent over backwards trying to create a soft landing for unionists in a shared space, who cannot fathom the fact that they can no longer dictate or talk down to republicans in the way that they were accustomed to doing.
Charles Dickens described Scrooge as “a squeezing, wrenching, gasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!”
What a fitting and apt description that is for the DUP. They have been kicking the ball down the road since the Stormont Assembly elections in May, when Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill pipped poor old Jeffrey at the post for the position of first minister. The problem for the DUP now is that instead of gracing the hallowed halls of Stormont in their Crockett & Jones finest English made leather shoes, they are trundling around half demented wearing
DuBarry Galway-made, hob-nailed boots, hoping that when they wake up, the Irish sea border will have vanished?
Keep on dreaming, and celebrate Christmas by singing along to Shane MacGowan and The Popes’ ‘Christmas Lullaby’.
Any potential candidate for the presidency of Ireland has to firstly have a mandate in the republic before extending it to Irish citizens in Northern Ireland or globally. They have to be nominated by at least 20 members of the Oirachtas or four county councils, so will have some popularity in the jurisdiction.
In a modern age full electoral Irish citizenship cannot be limited to geographical boundaries of rivers and ditches on part of the island. Only people with a genuine interest in Irish affairs would bother to register to vote.
The referendum to extend the vote was agreed by the Constitutional Convention back in 2011, why the delay the dragging of feet?
