Letters to the Editor: The Irish Government has shown cowardice in the face of Gaza crisis
Humanitarian aid being air dropped over Gaza.
Well said Colin Sheridan, whose powerful and empathetic front-page comment piece (Irish Examiner, April 5) is possibly the best critique I have read by an Irish journalist of the Irish Government’s cowardly inaction on the Gaza catastrophe.
It is incredible that this savagery has now gone on for six months, with no significant action taken by the ‘international community’. Sanctions were enacted rapidly by the US and EU states when Russia invaded Ukraine, and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin were to the fore in pushing for these measures.
However, with regard to Gaza, Ireland has failed so far to take any practical action against Israel. The Government could, for example, enact the Occupied Territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill, but it steadfastly refuses to do so.
Martin has indicated that the Government has no intention either of expelling the Israeli ambassador. This does not prevent him from regularly calling in the ambassador to make clear the deep distress felt in this country regarding the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank. When did this last happen?
What about voicing support for the global campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS)? This is a tactic that worked well many years ago against apartheid South Africa. But, no, this has also been ruled out by the Irish Government.
Hospitals have been destroyed, doctors and nurses killed, ambulances attacked, and aid workers targeted. Food and medical supplies have been tightly restricted. Starvation is being used as a weapon of war. Little children are dying of malnutrition. Shockingly, more than 14,000 children have now been killed in the Israeli onslaught. The overall death toll is said to be above 33,000, but thousands more probably lie buried in the rubble of their homes.
How many more breaches of international humanitarian law must occur before the Irish Government treats Israel as the murderous rogue state that it is? The Israeli state has already crossed every red line in the minds of most decent people.
While the world remembers the Rwanda Genocide — April 7-July 15, 1994 — it seems many conveniently overlook the failure of world leaders to take any action to prevent the genocide from escalating. And also world leaders who chose to ignore appeals from the UN military commander, Lt-General Romeo Dallaire (Canada), for support/assistance.
Has the world learned anything from this genocide?
Perhaps the law-abiding people of Israel and Gaza should be asked that question.
Politicians continue to draw big salaries and talk.
Michael A Moriarty, Rochestown, Cork
Ireland is struggling to reduce its greenhouse gas production while making great strides in harnessing wind and solar power. It may be a world leader in tapping its renewable wind resource, with about one quarter of our electricity now wind-generated, but it lies next to bottom of the EU table when it comes to carbon emissions.
There is certainly a case for looking at carbon-free nuclear power here, especially with the development of several small modular reactors (SMRs). Several of those coming on stream are likely to be the most important response to the increasing difficulty in guaranteeing a supply of clean and affordable energy.
What I find odd (being curious rather than critical here) is the apparent approximate similarity of numbers who are pro- and anti-nuclear energy on the grid ... but there is a disproportionate silence on the pro-nuclear front.
Surely many must realise that it is time the Electricity Regulation Acts (1999 and 2006), prohibiting the use of nuclear for the generation of electricity, were repealed?
Say this happens, and the most advanced of these small reactors were to be coming into play by 2030, who is to say nuclear couldn’t be playing a very important part in lowering Ireland’s emissions to presently unachievable levels by the mid-2030s?
As I emerged from my daily swim at Fenit bathing slip the other morning, a couple of female joggers jocosely shouted, “stay out of the sea during scaraveen, Billy boy”. The reference to scaraveen fondly reminded me of my gifted Leaving Cert geography teacher, an expert in nature and environment. Once April arrives, scaraveen is second only to football in the conversation of Kerry people and while I’m aware of many definitions of scaraveen, none is more convincing than my teacher’s.
Scaraveen (in Irish, garbh shíon na gcuach; the rough weather of the cuckoo) occurs around mid-April to mid-May, when mild spring weather gives way to wet and windy weather. The cuckoo is a solitary bird, who returns to Europe in early spring to lay her eggs in the nests of small birds. Once hatched, the cuckoo chicks eject the legitimate occupants and are then fed by the unsuspecting foster parents. Folklore has it that we all pay the price for the cuckoo’s misdeeds through Mother Nature inflicting scaraveen on us.
The folk adage, “April & May keep out of the sea, June & July swim ’til you die”, cautions against open-water swimming during scaraveen. However, I think the much-maligned cuckoo is blamed in the wrong as Irish weather is so unpredictable that rough weather can occur anytime.
Furthermore, the therapeutic benefits of the iodine discharged into the sea from seaweed and carrageen moss in early spring makes sea swimming during April and May well worth the effort!
The study by the Institute of International and European Affairs will give those of us paying taxes in the Republic pause for thought when it comes to a United Ireland — that the initial cost of unity would be €8bn a year rising to a probable €20bn has the potential to derail the Sinn Féin dream.
While TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn may dispute or disagree with the findings of the study, the reality is that this study was done by experienced qualified academics, in the field of economics, and not community activists-turned-politicians.
While the annual subvention from Westminster to Northern Ireland in 2019 was £9.4bn (€10.8bn), this merely reflects their annual budget deficit, the difference between what it raises in taxes and what it spends.
A DCU study in 2021 by John Doyle concluded as little as £2bn-£3bn (€2.3bn-€2.5bn) of the £9.4bn would carry over if after unity, despite a £3.4bn cost for pension payments.
In 2021, the British chancellor of the exchequer announced funding to the Northern executive of £15bn per year, a 2.2% rise.
Over the past 30 years, the EU cross-border Interreg programmes have invested a total of €3.3bn across Northern Ireland and border counties, with a further Peace Plus (2021-2027) investment of €237m. Without these subventions and grants, Northern Ireland would be a virtual basket case.
Could we as Irish taxpayers, given the economic straits we have been in, and the rising costs of food and fuel, afford such an economic straitjacket? This, on top of our national debt, would require 25% tax rises and a lowering of our living standards.
Are we willing and prepared to pay for this expensive grandiose experiment?
Given all of the above, could we maintain peace and stability given the ongoing divisions with certain communities? Do we really want to add more debt to the debt we have accrued since the financial crash?
While there are those who favour Irish unity, what, if anything, is the ultimate cost to those of us who’ve paid for the mistakes of others or for the political machinations of the larger parties, North and South?
The latest RNLI operation, saving a little girl from the freezing sea during Storm Kathleen, is commonplace for the heroes who on alert 24/7. The charity’s volunteers provide a great service across 46 stations nationwide and it should be Government-funded to maintain this service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Cold water shock can cause your heart and blood pressure to increase very rapidly which can lead to cardiac arrest so people should take heed of the RNLI’s programme Float to Stay Alive.
