Letters to the Editor: Dingle Hub is a lifeline for local workers
'The Dingle Hub has over 50 regular users, even more in the summer months. It supports a diverse range of businesses, remote workers and self-employed people by providing rentable space at an affordable rate for full-time, part-time, ad hoc and once-offs. We are a community; we would like to continue to be a community.' File picture
This week we heard the Dingle Hub is to close at the end of March due to some funding being withdrawn. For most individuals, âŹ50,000 is life-changing money; in a government body it is small change. This small change cut will be life-changing for me and my cohorts.
As a client of the Dingle Hub, I have availed of all its facilities at one time or another. Who are the people who will be impacted by the loss of the Hub? Well we are an eclectic group of people, working across a wide range of jobs with very diverse skillsets.
We work in e-commerce, travel education, bespoke printing, tech, casting, salt making, entrepreneurship, manufacturing & design, to name just a few, with rogue participants in tourism and farming.
Beyond the clientele, the Hub Team has several sustainability initiatives and environmental projects that will continue but floating rather than based anywhere.
A small number of jobs lost, but this cannot be dismissed as every job is someoneâs livelihood. When anyone talks of Dingle, the first thought is of tourism, then farming, fishing, and Gaeilge, but not of us. Not the ordinary people, often working remotely.
The Department for Rural and Community Development needs to work on the peninsula to make good on its remit. Its proposed recipients are towns with populations under 10,000 which is not just Dingle but the entire peninsula. Dingle townâs population is under 2,000. A small but busy town, yet it has no community buildings except the library and no unlicensed evening facilities.
The Dingle Hub has over 50 regular users, even more in the summer months. It supports a diverse range of businesses, remote workers and self-employed people by providing rentable space at an affordable rate for full-time, part-time, ad hoc and once-offs. We are a community; we would like to continue to be a community. One of our characteristics, which is untypical in an intensely touristic location, is we work all year round, we arenât seasonal.
On top of the regular users is a cluster of Dingle Peninsula annual events that have been able to avail of the Hub facilities, Animation Dingle, FĂ©ile na Bealtaine, ComĂłrtas FĂsĂn, Dingle Lit, Dingle Film Festival, and Other Voices come to mind but there are probably more. Does Enterprise Ireland have somewhere for them to meet?
Tor Cotton, Ballyferriter, Co Kerry
Tribute to John Bruton, RIP
I hope you will allow me space in your ever-popular newspaper to pay tribute to the late John Bruton RIP.
John was natureâs gentleman, not alone as a politician but as a friend to so many and a gentleman of high integrity. As taoiseach, he ran the country in a dignified manner, always helping the people he represented in his own area and those in need elsewhere.
He worked diligently on the Good Friday agreement and did the groundwork on examining the Troubles legacy.
I was devastated on hearing the sad news of his passing as he had many more years to give as a dedicated politician but unfortunately it was not to be.
To his wife, Finola, and family, brother Richard (TD) and sister Mary I extend heartfelt sympathy on behalf of my husband, Michael, and myself on the death of John who will be long remembered. May he rest in peace.
Kathleen Woulfe, Midleton, Cork
Yes vote removes security for women
It is with the greatest concern that I write to you on the topic of the impending proposed amendments to the Irish Constitution.
Women who have chosen to work in the home for the good of their families receive very little recognition or support. Having their role recognised and enshrined within the Irish Constitution highlights awareness of their often unseen work.
Removing articles 41.2.1 and 41.2.2 would I fear, lead to serious demoralisation of these women, a group too long marginalised and overlooked in our society.
A womanâs choice to work in the home is something to be protected regardless of financial or economic situation and background.
Conserving articles 41.2.1 and 41.2.2 as they are, does not demand a woman remain in the home but rather safeguards her choice to do so; neither does it belittle the choice of women who choose to work outside the home.
Rather than removing the current recognition and protection given to women in the home, why not simply add to the above articles; to recognise other caregivers whose work in the home may not be currently recognised as it should?
As a young woman, currently working full time outside of the home, I fear a yes vote would remove security of choice in the future for younger women. Therefore I will be voting no on March 8, 2024.
Treasa NĂ Mhuircheartaigh, Rathmines, Dublin 6
Does hurling lack footballâs âlogicâ?
It is to the GAAâs credit that Central Council, early last December, signalled a revised format for the 2025 Allianz Hurling League which will be anchored on each countyâs league placing after this yearâs hurling league.
This will bring a keener element of competition to upcoming games relative to past seasons, as each team battles for the highest possible ârungâ on the league ladder, while the intended âtwo up, two downâ promotion/relegation procedure in seasons hereafter should sustain this higher level of competitiveness.
Consequently, next year, the full hurling ladder will be composed of 35 ârungsâ, each a results-graded team (including three based in Britain) that will be divided into five divisions of seven teams. This is akin to the Allianz football league which has four divisions of eight teams, a format that has considerably sharpened the level of competition since its inception.
The four football divisions are numbered from one to four, no mystery there. Curiously, keeping in mind that this is a graded format, the five hurling divisions will also be numbered from one to four but with Division 1 having two âpartsâ of itself, 1a and 1b.
Dare I ask if this is a subliminal indication that âCroke Parkâ perceives hurling to lack the simplicity and logic of football?
Michael Gannon, Saint Thomas Sq, Kilkenny City
Doctor doesnât always know best
My son was born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a condition where a hole in the diaphragm allows the stomach contents to enter the chest cavity and prevent the lungs from developing before baby is born.
We spent three and a half months in hospital after he was born and he had an NG tube for the first five months. Feeding tubes can save lives, but if theyâre not medically necessary, they can be detrimental.
As I watched my boy getting better, I knew that there needed to be a way out and he should be able to eat orally again. His medical teamâs solution was to put a peg in his stomach, which is a more permanent tube. Thatâs when I started digging online and found an online program that helped me wean my son in three weeks. It was expensive, but the best money I ever spent â to see my kid eat and to stop the trauma to him and us as parents, having to insert NG or see him go through an unnecessary surgery to get a peg placed.
I feel a bit cheated by the Irish health system, if I didnât do my homework, my son would not be where he is today, enjoying food and being a part of family meals. Not only did his team not have the expertise and resources to wean him, but they were against starting the online program as well.
Unfortunately, there are so many families in the same shoes, some that do not know any better, that there is support elsewhere through private programs, but some who do not have the financial possibility to afford this help for their children. And this breaks my heart. I hope something changes for the better!
Veronkia Doherty, Balbriggan, Co Dublin
Blame capitalism, not migrants
We must all be concerned about the dangerous developments, motivated by far-right conspiracy theories, that are gaining a foothold and a worrying level of support.
Giving ground to racism is not the way to address it. Right-wing politicians and members of the âfake-leftâ in Ireland and elsewhere easily play to the racist gallery, seeking to co-opt them to bolster their own support.
We see the consequences around us. We have also seen elsewhere the consequences of those historically or ostensibly on the left starting to speak about âlegitimate concernsâ and other such coded language.
The victims of wars, imperialist interventions, and reactionary regimes have the right to seek a safer life. The problems of homelessness, unaffordable rents and homes, public services in crisis, and poverty are not the fault of migrants. They are the inevitable consequence of the capitalist system.
The solution can only be found in a struggle to overthrow the system that creates wars, poverty, and refugees. Socialists cannot allow themselves to be diverted from these facts.
The Workers Party expresses its solidarity with migrant workers, their families, and refugees. We continue to do so, uncompromisingly and wholeheartedly,
Cllr Ted Tynan, Workers Party, Cork
