Letters to the Editor: Solidarity with the people of Palestine
Palestinians amid the wreckage after Israel's airstrike on a UN-run school that killed dozens of people in the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza last Saturday. Picture: Saher Alghorra/AP
Last Saturday, more than 700 people marched through Cork City in support of the beleaguered Palestinian people. Organised by the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign this was the 39th weekly march since Israel began its horrifying bombardment and invasion of Gaza. It is an incredible display of indefatigable solidarity and human empathy from the extraordinary people of Cork.
Back in 2003 and 2004, as chairperson of the Cork Anti-War Campaign, I was involved in organising several large marches in Cork against the US war on Iraq. People still talk about the huge numbers that came out at that time, including a reported 100,000 at one anti-war march in Dublin in February 2003. Thousands also attended anti-war marches at Shannon airport.
These were indeed impressive demonstrations, but are nothing like the relentless and huge anti-war mobilisations that we have seen across Ireland and internationally over the past nine months in reaction to the ongoing Gaza massacre. There have been several massive national demonstrations in Dublin — and there will be another on July 20.
Certainly, the 39 consecutive marches in Cork — sometimes involving hundreds of people, sometimes thousands — will forever be a landmark in the history of anti-war activism in that city. And they continue.
Limerick has a similar weekly march. Moreover, solidarity vigils, pickets, marches, and other gatherings are happening every week across Ireland in villages, towns and cities from Baltimore to Belfast.
Co Cork alone has events regularly in towns such as Midleton, Mallow, Skibbereen, Baltimore, Clonakilty, Bantry, Bandon, and Cobh.
The depth and breadth of feeling in Ireland is clear. But is the Irish Government listening?
People are demanding more than words and symbolic gestures, welcome as these may be. The Government here surely must understand at this late stage that Israel will respond only to purposeful sanctions. Why has Ireland not yet, for example, enacted the Occupied Territories Bill?
It should do so immediately and also continue to push for a formal review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Israel is a rogue state that routinely breaches international humanitarian law and should be treated as such.
The horror in Gaza cannot be allowed to continue.
While there are many highly commendable government-funded organisations to encourage a more productive life for Irish pensioners they fail to highlight the poor facilities for the elderly in our hospital system.
The elderly are more likely to end up as long-stay patients in wards. They are put into geriatric wards which are full of clutter with very few, if any, areas where they can walk safely along corridors without all sort of obstacles in their way or have an area where they can speak with their loved ones with privacy.
Their charts are stuck on window sills, radiators, and anywhere convenient outside patients’ rooms.
Recently I heard of a case where a vulnerable woman patient was in a four-bed ward with three men. This was deemed unacceptable to mature women I have spoken with. They say this practice of mixed wards has been going on for years.
So what is the point of “age friendly” organisations if they do not demand that the elderly at their most vulnerable stage of life should be treated with the dignity they deserve rather than be treated like old motor cars ready for the junk yard.
This is not a complaint about medical staff who do their best in a system and in facilities which does not take the dignity of elderly into consideration.
Recently I was trawling through some excellent coverage online from Oireachtas TV.
In one clip, Micheál Martin was invited to the Seanad, in his capacity as defence minister, to communicate with and respond to the senators’ queries.
The particular questions related to pending Defence Forces’ legislation by the Government, and the questions were directed at the defence minister, mainly by Senator Gerard Craughwell, an Independent senator, who is a former and distinguished member of the Defence Forces, having also served in the British Army, and also as an educator, served as president of the Teachers Union of Ireland.
I quote from an early riposte by Mr Martin to a question by Mr Craughwell: “The hostility to the department [of Defence] that comes across, worries me.”
This was nothing more than another cheap shot, an intimidatory attempt to undermine the value and credibility of the senator’s status, who is also very capably supported by Cathal Berry TD on defence and other matters, being a former deputy commander of the Defence Forces elite ranger wing, in the Dáil.
We in the rapidly disintegrating ‘Defence Forces family’ need more than insults and intimidation from the minister.
I note that even the newly-elected Taoiseach got in on the offensive act recently, when demanding higher standards from the members of the Defence Forces, than other members of society... and yet he pays us less than any other state employees.
Get a grip, Simon.
Never mind the Ariane 6 — how about more buses and trains? Forget about space until we improve life on Earth. Pure daft.
As a Waterfordian who arrived to live in East Cork many years ago, I was delighted at the result of the All-Ireland hurling semi-final last Sunday, as the vast majority of our family were born in the Rebel County and are ardent Cork supporters (in all kinds of sports, actually).
The two unlikely contenders for All-Ireland glory in this years final, on Sunday, July 21, in Croke Park, would have been rank outsiders at the beginning of the championship.
Indeed, this Cork team, having ‘scraped through’ the round-robin series by a solitary point (losing games to Waterford and Clare) were given little chance of reaching the Senior All-Ireland final. However, this writer said to some of his friends after that narrow success: “If I was a betting-man I’d put a tenner on Cork to win the Liam McCarthy Cup this year (2024, for the 21st time).”
My dear departed Dad — having followed the Deise hurlers all his life (and was disappointed at great Waterford teams falling many times at the final hurdle) — used to tell me: “Apart from the skill required in the fastest ball game in the world, a large degree of good luck is also a necessity for a team to have on their side.”
Let’s hope that type of luck remains with Cork’s Senior hurlers for two more weeks ... at least.
Mary Henderson opines that Donald Trump is not fit to run for the position of “dog catcher much less commander in chief” — ‘Kamala Harris should take over from Biden’ (Irish Examiner, Letters, June 6). Really?
Dog catching is a highly skilled profession requiring agility, intelligence, empathy, powers of prediction, and an emollient persona.
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