Letters to the Editor: Marches show Palestinians that we have not forgotten them
Yafa school in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza was completely destroyed in an Israeli army attack. Picture: June 30, 2025. Khames Alrefi/Anadolu/Getty
The marches for peace may seem pointless to some observers, but they show the people of Gaza they are not forgotten and to put moral pressure on governments to help end the out-of-control war by Israel’s forces on a defenceless 2.2m population; the key word here is ‘defenceless’.
And it’s fewer than 2.2m Palestinians now as no one can say for sure how many unarmed civilians have been killed by Israel’s missiles, drone bombs, tank rocket fire, and shootings by Israel’s military. The current estimate is 55,000 people dead with far more injured, some with limbs amputated. Many are homeless and many lie dead under bombed buildings.
On May 29, volunteers near the Houses of Parliament in Westminster read out names of 16,000 children killed in the war in Gaza. It took 18 hours — 300 names were read out by each volunteer. It was to also highlight the starving children and the indiscriminate bombing in Gaza.
On June 7, 300,000 people marched in Rome. They believe Italy’s government has also been silent on the war in Gaza. One of their banners read: ‘Stop the massacre, stop complicity.’
On June 15, The Hague in the Netherlands saw a march of 150,000 people; 100,000 people marched in Brussels, Belgium.
The EU is not united in taking action against Israel’s horror war in Gaza. EU countries such as Ireland, Norway, and Spain speak out independently. The founders of the ECSC in 1951, later renamed the EEC and then the EU in 1993 worked for economic co-operation for peace in Europe after the
Second World War. They are long gone but I hope they would want the EU to be a strong voice for a tormented population in Gaza from a war aimed now very much to possibly push them out of Gaza where they have lived legally for generations, recognised by the UN, and is their home.
We hope Hamas will return the remaining hostages taken from Israel in October 2023, some of them are dead, to their families. Hamas needs to show humanity too.
On June 17, King Abdullah II of Jordan said of Gaza to the European Parliament: “If our global community fails to act decisively, we become complicit in rewriting what it means to be human.”
Cars, cars, and more cars — yet still no bicycle parking.
After years of planning conditions, countless requests, petitions, and patient waiting, it is astonishing that Páirc Uí Chaoimh remains utterly devoid of dedicated spaces for bicycles. Meanwhile, efforts to accommodate motor vehicles continue unchallenged.
During a recent visit to a football match with the stadium only half filled, I saw hundreds of bicycles chained to fences, railings, and anything remotely secure. This wasn’t an isolated scene — it was a clear sign of public demand. People of all ages want to cycle to the grounds, but the infrastructure simply isn’t there to support it.
Why does the board and stadium management persist in ignoring this? The appetite for sustainable travel is real. It’s time the powers that be took action.
The State taxes persons and companies to raise the funds to pay for the services it supplies for the benefit of everyone. Ideally, the proportion of tax on persons and on businesses is fair and balanced. But when large corporations or vested interests lobby the government and get special contracts, or favourable grants or special deals, it’s the shareholders, company directors, and princes of industry who reap the benefits in the excess profits that are made by those companies and shareholders.
But those grants, special deals and favourable terms must be paid for from somewhere. That somewhere is increased taxes on, you guessed it, Joe and Mary Taxpayer. So the system is designed (rigged) to enrich the already rich at the expense of the poor and ordinary Joe and Mary who suffer on with fewer services, fewer opportunities, and more struggles against systems that don’t work for them.
The social contract whereby the State guarantees equal opportunity for all and a fair sharing out of the State’s resources and services is broken, evidenced by the lack of adequate housing, healthcare, education, recreation, and other services.
Joe and Mary get the opportunity to change the system every five years. Use it.
I watched , the BBC commissioned but never shown documentary that Channel 4 more bravely broadcast last week. It is hard to understand why the BBC didn’t broadcast it.
It is beyond inexplicable to me and countless millions of ordinary people of goodwill globally how Netanyahu’s regime is quite literally getting away with murder on a large scale in full view of the world. But we have known from quite early on after the terrible massacre of October 7, 2023, that Israel’s vengeance against innocent Gazans, including humanitarian workers, would be massively disproportionate and sanctioned by the global powers. We cannot claim ignorance. It is even more incredible to those of us horrified by the plight of the Gazans that, with a few exceptions including Ireland, leaders and governments of the so called advanced nations are doing absolutely nothing to stop the suffering of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, and in many instances are actively supporting Israel militarily and morally. There is a strong sense that governments are not properly reflecting the humanitarian concerns of their voters for Gazan suffering, in the US, in Britain, and across the EU.
The Middle East is on the doorstep of Europe and as the US is currently a political basket case it is even more incumbent on Europe to rigorously respond to the overwhelming humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza. And yet Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas have disgracefully had no problem on several occasions in beating a wimpish path to the Israelis without a mandate from the democratic structures of the EU, and yet only feel able to offer tepid statements of how “abhorrent and unbearable” the humanitarian suffering in Gaza is without actually condemning the perpetrators of this suffering — the Netanyahu regime. This is so ineffectual and so shameful.
Why are officially designated international hospital ships not lining up in the Mediterranean to offer humanitarian and medical aid to the decimated people of Gaza and why is Israel not being forced to back down by the use of diplomatic strong arm methods?
Shame shame on the “civilised” Western powers.
Ireland is a much poorer place following the death of Brother Kevin Crowley.
A gentle gentleman who practised what he preached, but was never preachy. Those who queued outside his soup kitchen were fed, regardless of their age, religion, or colour. I hope there is a special place in the hereafter for special souls like him. Next time I am asked what is ‘Irishness’, I’ll just refer them to the life of Br Kevin — RIP.
The removal of a portrait of President Michael D Higgins from Belfast City Hall by Tracy Kelly, the DUP lord mayor, just days before the annual ‘Eleventh Night’ bonfires, is a sinister development.
As we approach the Orange Order marching season and bonfires which are an integral part of loyalist culture, nationalist society is forced to endure the sectarian burning of Irish flags and posters of nationalist political representatives.
Many of these bonfires contain vast imitation funeral pyres adorned with nationalist and republican effigies of people who were voted for, in the main, by Catholics. We are told that these bonfires are inclusive celebrations of loyalist culture where everyone is welcome and respected. This ‘respect’ does not appear to include the thousands who vote for the politicians whose images, names, and symbols are consumed in numerous celebratory conflagrations. It would be most regrettable if images of President Higgins were to adorn these bonfires as a result of the decision to remove his portrait.
Were Jewish, Muslim, or black people’s representatives so depicted, it would rightfully be called racist. Why is it acceptable for nationalist representatives to be so depicted? In the context of an explicitly Protestant celebration it is sectarian. Incredibly, many grand officers of the Orange Order are also Church of Ireland ministers. If the Orange Order and the Church of Ireland cannot come out and account for itself, are there ordinary members not afraid to openly protest this cancerous scandal?
