Letters to the Editor: We need to be more considerate on the roads
Motorists have been urged not to block disabled ramps.
Ireland and its towns have spent untold millions over the years in making the country navigable for the disabled.
It is a disabled-friendly land in nearly all respects.
However, inconsiderate, unthinking motorists who would normally lend a helping hand to a young or elderly disabled person seem to have a lapse of judgement and/or conscience when searching for a place to park their vehicle.
I sit on a bench each morning in the Kenmare square and watch vehicle after vehicle park over a double yellow marking indicating a disabled ramp to the footpath.
In a period of an hour or so, at least one disabled person in a wheelchair or scooter must travel in the roadway in search of another ramp.
The closest ramp is blocked by a parked car.
Is there something alien in the air when seated at the controls of a vehicle that causes a normally polite and caring person afoot to become a rude insensitive enemy of the elderly and disabled when looking for a parking space?
Please, do not block those disabled ramps.
Sinn Féin’s recent 20-page document promising a revamp of the mental health system is alluring and probably somewhat realistic.
The proposed change from ‘Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service’ (Camhs) to ‘Child and Youth Mental Health Service’ promises a “fresh start” for mental health services in Ireland.
A radical and honest inventory is needed.
I think the ultimate re-branding of Camhs is a positive proposal but I do wonder what is underneath the Camhs’s carpet.
Admittedly, the incorrect prescription of medication within the service is one which I feel will be difficult to get past.
The culture of red tape within the service, as well as transparent and effective communication, would also see the beginning of something
positive.
This would cause a serious ruffling of feathers for those not pulling their weight.
All in all, a fresh start is welcome, but my question mark over an embedded culture of ultimate carelessness, whether the service is under-resourced or not, remains.
In Irish elections, it’s the norm for candidates to submit a photograph of themselves for the ballot paper.
Those who don’t supply a photo are seen to be at a disadvantage.
This practice is not done in most western countries, where a simple name and party affiliation (and broad allusion to one’s address) suffices.
We should seriously consider doing away with this practice of putting candidates’ photos on the ballot paper.
It implicitly tells voters to judge candidates by what they look like.
It is wrong and unfair.
Elections should be about policies and substance, not the superficial.
Sinn Féin has proposed giving kids a sporting chance in life with €130 a year to spend on sports or cultural activities.
The activity card proposal would see young people aged between four and 18 given credit from registered sporting organisations.
In view of Ireland’s success in the Olympics in Paris and the seven medals brought home, we need to think of the next generation of participants.
This scheme would also help struggling families with the high cost of living and would be of great benefit to our country and keep young people active.
I would encourage your readers to visit the Heritage Museum at Christchurch on North Main St in Bandon. Excellently curated by Alexis Bolster.
It’s a neat, compact, superb exhibition within a very venerable building.
Built in 1610 on a site that seems to have been known to the Vikings and Gaels as “badger’s hill”. €5 at the door. €10 for a family of four.
For that you get a fascinating mixture of historical exhibits.
From pre-prohibition distilleries to letters written “home” by men in the trenches.
A re-created classroom with old colonial maps on the wall.
A re-created public house replete with tame vices.
A re-created old Irish homestead which my 13-year-old son baulked to enter. He said: “It’s too good, Dad, I’m freaked out.”
Christchurch in Bandon. The oldest purpose-built Protestant place of worship on the island of Ireland.
Now sacerdotally de-consecrated but re-consecrated to the open examination of our mixed-up and complicated national history.
To cap it all off, the building has gorgeous stained glass and once starred in Ken Loach’s award-winning film starring Cillian Murphy, .
The Israeli Defence Forces slaughter in Gaza is non stop.
To listen to their spokespersons trying to defend this slaughter is truly repulsive.
The major powers say the same thing again and again and nothing is done to Israel.
Why have no sanctions been imposed of this country? What does it take for this to happen?
People across the globe are anxious hearing and watching this ongoing human catastrophe and feel helpless.
Regarding redress for the survivors of mother and baby homes: My mother was told I had passed away, as she worked in the adjoining
laundry.
My new parents were given an advert referring to an orphan needing a home.
My paperwork was of a female whose name was crossed out and mine written over hers.
It was through the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
I was baptised at 10 hours old. My godmother, who held me, was Hanorah Sheedy. She was a nun: I found her records in Clonmel where I was sent carrying the female’s details, hence there was no record of my being from Clonmel.
My mother remarried four years later, but never forgot me as her next born has my name... Will the survivors all be gone before a medical card or payment arrives in the post office?
An editorial on August 13 mentioned mass surveillance by countries such as China, Russia, and North Korea.
But there is no need to look that far away for industrial harvesting of private citizen information.
Our next-door neighbours in England and up north would give the Chinese a run for their money at this game.
The Investigative Powers Tribunal in London has revealed the PSNI held a database of ‘troublemaker journalists’ it monitored routinely.
Last month, the tribunal heard around 4,000 communications including text messages and location of calls made, were logged between July and October in 2011, concentrating on a dozen unnamed journalists.
The investigation then went into ‘closed session’ mode after an intervention by a layer representing a party the IPT referred to as ‘respondent three’ — MI5.
Plenty of Orwellian shenanigans are going on right here at home, never mind over in North Korea!
