If the Camogie Association can modernise its dress code for greater mobility, what’s stopping schools from doing the same?
At 15, I successfully campaigned for the option to wear trousers in my secondary school. I immediately switched to cycling — arriving faster and stress-free. Fifty years later, I still cycle regularly (with waterproof over-trousers when it rains), but now I find myself campaigning again — this time for my granddaughters.
This week, Irish citizens are funding a new Government campaign to encourage children to be more active. With €1m a day in public funds spent on active travel in recent years, why are many schoolgirls still forced into skirts — impractical, unsafe, and a barrier to cycling? This outdated rule discourages the use of the very transport infrastructure their parents’ taxes help fund.
Only one in 250 teenage girls cycles daily (An Taisce, AndSheCycles). The Road Safety Authority advises cyclists to wear clothes that won’t catch in chains or obscure visibility. Skirts, especially in wind, do both. Schools mandating skirts are ignoring these safety concerns.
This isn’t about banning skirts — it’s about choice. Let’s retire outdated uniform rules that undermine girls’ health, safety, and mobility.
Orla Farrell, registered primary and second-level teacher, address with the Editor
Skorts solution may inspire integration
Photos and video clips from last Saturday’s Senior Camogie Championship games indicate the “harmonious implementation” of the new rule change pertaining to players’ dress code.
Interestingly, Reuters, one of the world’s largest news agencies, who had been following the “clash of the skorts and the shorts” all along, carried immediate news of the outcome of last Thursday’s Camogie Association special congress, headlined thus: “Ireland’s Camogie Association votes to allow players to wear shorts”.
Such an international profile potentially added a further shade of crimson to an already embarrassing situation that was entirely avoidable.
It should be acknowledged, once player intent became obvious, that the issue was addressed reasonably expeditiously and especially so in the context of the traditional and sedentary character of the GAA and its powers that be.
Let’s hope that the ongoing snail-paced integration process between the GAA, the Camogie Association, and the Ladies’ Gaelic Football Association will not require another ignominious spectacle to get the process completed.
Michael Gannon, St Thomas Sq, Kilkenny City
Suitable name for children’s hospital
The name of the new children’s hospital in Dublin must embrace all the children of Ireland.
The All-Island Congenital Heart Disease Network is a collaborative healthcare initiative between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This recently-established network aims to provide comprehensive and high-quality care for children with congenital heart disease across the island of Ireland. Much co-operation has gone into its establishment, with surgery and interventional procedures now centred at CHI at Crumlin. Other collaborative initiatives are anticipated.
The peaceful future of our country requires hands across the border. Has the Royal Belfast Children’s Hospital been involved in the choice of name? Have political sensitivities of families in Northern Ireland been considered?
Let our children lead us into that peaceful future by choosing an inclusive name for their hospital, such as, perhaps, the Ireland Children’s Hospital.
I believe Dr Kathleen Lynn would approve.
Róisín Healy, consultant paediatrician (retired), CHI at Crumlin
Grow up and face the US military’s ‘civilian’ loophole
While our politicians take some pride in our outlier stand in relation to the occupied territories in Gaza and the West Bank, they are also expert at the ‘loophole’ game.
Take the use of Shannon Airport by the US military. This evening, Tánaiste and defence minister Simon Harris ‘explained’ that any ‘civilian’ aircraft passing through Irish airspace or landing in Shannon needs no permission from his department, blithely ignoring the fact that all those ‘civilian’ aircraft transporting troops and weapons and engaging in illegal [by American law] deportations are contracted by the American military so that we, the Irish, can engage in a neat bit of sophistry to stay on-side. It’s past time we grew some
cojones and spoke truth to power.
I do give credit to our Taoiseach for calling what is happening in Gaza a war crime, but we should back it up with practical actions within our power.
Con Hayes, Tower, Blarney, Cork
Hope from Pope Leo XIV and MLK
I agree with Colin Sheridan in his column (‘We quibble over words as children burn in Gaza’ — Irish Examiner, May 19) that the 2024/25 war in Gaza is the “least ambiguous conflict since the Second World and the Holocaust”.
At the same time, an interview with a British MP on the Al Jazeera channel of what he saw in a recent visit to the West Bank shows no ambiguity either. His assessment of the situation for the Palestinian people, in what is their legal territory, does not flinch from reality.
I believe it is not anti-Israel to speak of the reality in the West Bank and Gaza, while not forgetting the brutal attack into Israel by Hamas in October 2023, killing over 1,200 people and taking of over 200 hostages into Gaza, many of whom were returned. Some tragically died or were killed.
Israel’s current government is still inflicting extreme punishment on a population, and most of Gaza is bombed to rubble. Some 55,000 of Gaza’s citizens have been killed,
including 16,000 children.
The British MP said it is now close to midnight for the Palestinians. Their human rights, in the West Bank also, are now being crushed, and their situation has got much worse since October 2023. He saw a city in the West Bank of 50,000 people suddenly gated off by Israel’s army with no explanation.
It is the opposite of the new Pope Leo XIV’s hope of shining a light into dark corners of the world and, in his first speech to the joyous multitude in St Peter’s Square, saying: ‘May peace be with you’.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr said, in hope: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
It is not too late for the international community to protect the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza if the will is there to do so. One of the reasons for the UN is for the protection of vulnerable civilians in wars and famines.
Mary Sullivan, College Rd, Cork
US deportation and military flights
I am an immigrant into Ireland, and I love this country, its people, the landscapes, cities, and even the weather. I have become a citizen, and I also love Ireland since we speak up about what is right, whether it be related to the island of Ireland or further afield. We have a long-standing commitment to neutrality, human rights, and international law, in part stemming from Ireland’s historical challenges, famine, and colonisation.
Myself and many other Irish citizens have huge concerns and object to the ongoing practice of allowing military flights to stop in Ireland (usually US military at Shannon), with focused objection to US military flights on their way to provide aid to Israel as they carry out genocide in Gaza.
Myself and many others also object to allowing US deportation flights to land/refuel in Ireland.
At present, these flights are linked to the delivery of weapons for Israel to help them continue committing war crimes, and the illegal forced deportation of migrants out of the USA.
I live near Shannon and I see the planes as they fly overhead. It sickens me to think that Ireland is complicit with the massive destruction and deliberate famine taking place in Gaza. The wanton destruction of Gaza and its people by Israel is unconscionable, and it boggles the mind why the US government is blindly supportive of Israel, no matter what Israel’s war crimes are.
Ireland is profiting financially from these flights and that motivation for profit is not enough to support the continued killing of citizens in Gaza and the illegal forced deportation of migrants out of the USA. As we know too well from Northern Ireland, lasting peace will never be achieved if destruction and inhumane treatment continues. We must stop being so compliant.
Now, we need full transparency and Government oversight regarding all of the military and illegal deportation flights. We need clear and consistent inspection processes and significant legal and financial repercussions for those attempting to violate the agreements.
We cannot stand idly by while our country is used to support actions that fly in the face of Ireland’s focus on human rights and dignity.
Janet Grene, Ballybricken, Co Limerick
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