I took a stroll through Bishop Lucey Park in Cork City on Saturday. Unfortunately it can no longer be described as a āparkā as it would now appear to be just another walkway between South Main St and the Grand Parade. We already had Tuckey St, Tobin St, and Nano Nagle Bridge to facilitate this connectivity.
Why was the design commission given to a company based in Belfast?
It has been described as an āaward-winningā company. What awards did it win and who awarded it? What empathy with Cork had they. None, it would seem.
There was little enough green space in the city as it was. Note the usage of the Peace Park at the top of the South Mall by young people sitting on the small area of grass during lunchtime in the summer. Was it necessary to remove most of the grass, which was so well used by city workers during the summer months, and replace it with gravel containing some substance that stains shoes and clothing that comes in contact with it? The Onion Seller is not overlooking the park, as I read in one review, but has her back to the park.
I know that most of us resent change but in this case the former park has been utterly destroyed and all this at a cost of ā¬7m. What a travesty.
Kevin Carroll, Carrigaline, Co Cork
Perils of prosperity
Iām neither a climate activist nor a climate sceptic. However, it stands to reason that as we humans use more and more energy, still mostly fossil fuels, the earth will heat up unless the heat is re-radiated into space. To ignore this fact would be folly indeed.
There are three undeniable forces acting to increase human activity. First, undeveloped regions of the world want the same standard of living as developed countries. Second, developed countries need new markets for their products largely in undeveloped regions of the global south. Both result in increased human activity and consequent energy usage and heat and CO2 generation. The third force is the ever increasing population of the world, mostly in the Global South.
More human activity means more energy usage and more heat generation unless the energy comes from renewable sources. Even then, building renewable infrastructure itself generates more human activity which requires more energy and generates more heat and CO2.
The fourth source, globalisation, is both the product of and promoter of increased trade and hence increased human activity, requiring more energy usage, generating more heat and more CO2.
Ironically, US president Donald Trumpās effective US isolation policy is a negative drag on such globalisation, energy use, and heat and CO2 generation.
However, as the world is increasing its prosperity and expanding its globalised trade, it consumes more and more. Unless we cop on to the consequences of this reality now, before 2030, the world will cannibalise itself.
Kevin T Finn, Mitchelstown, Co Cork
We need nuclear to power our future
Everyone knows weāre heading into dangerous times on the whole climate action/ energy scene.
The only practicable way out of this, is a mass move into nuclear power, mostly in the form of small module reactors. The money pouring into this right now is massive, yet here in Ireland, the subject is completely taboo. We are going to get badly left behind.
The model to be aimed for is a conversion of the worldās military industrial complex away from weapon making, into the manufacture and installation of these
units.
These could provide energy to large units of demand, such as data centres, with the waste heat then going to enable pesticide-free 24/7/365 vertical growing, which it appears is one thousand times more productive than intensive field growing.
As a responsible publication, could the Irish Examiner please start educating us, not just a continuation of āthis is wrong, that is wrongā and not an iota of an idea what to do about it.
Nicholas Grubb, Dromana, Co Waterford
Ceasefire breached by Israel in Gaza
People of conscience throughout the world welcomed the ceasefire in Gaza, declared on October 10, hoping that it would lead to a new start for the battered and bombed civilians there.
All of the living Israeli hostages and almost all of the deceased have been returned to Israel, yet the āceasefireā has been breached daily by Israeli forces.
In the subsequent period, according to Israeli human rights organisation Bātselem, there have been 500 breaches by Israel, leading to the deaths of 345 people of which 119 were children.
The World Food Programme says 70% of Gazaās population are still being denied food, with the promised 600 trucks a day limited by Israel to 200.
A further 1,500 civilian buildings have been destroyed since the cessation. Tents, mobile homes, and tarps are regularly refused entry, and people are forced to sleep in flooded tents on soaking bedding. The footage on Al Jazeera of elderly people and children sleeping in such conditions are both enraging and heartbreaking. Most Western media is barely covering Gaza now.
All of this demonstrates a war on civilians by Israel that is systematic and relentless. The report from the United Nations Trade and Development Board on Tuesday shows that the destruction of health care, infrastructure, education, and the banking system, has erased 69 years of human development.
This marks, the report says, the worst economic collapse ever recorded. As UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese notes: this is not war, it is genocide.
We must keep our eyes on Gaza. The Irish Governmentās continued foot dragging on the Occupied Territories Bill is unconscionable . After eight years of hand wringing, it is time for some action.
Betty Purcell, Mount Argus Rd, Dublin 6W
Migrant pressures on Irish taxpayers
While the usual NGO suspects lament An Garda SĆochĆ”na deportation operations, the reality for Irish taxpayers is much more stark.
Hundreds of thousands of euro have been spent on flights to countries for those who have failed in their attempts to stay in the State.
As of February this year, 112,189 had registered for temporary protection since March 2022, with 25,208 residing in State accommodation, while 36,520 were in hosted/pledged accommodation.
In 2024 Ireland received 18,560 applications for International Protection. The IP office issued a total of 13,099 decisions of which 30% were positive, 28% of those were for children.
Taxpayers spent ā¬2.3bn on accommodation programmes last year: ā¬1.2bn of that on providing accommodation and other ancillaries for Ukrainian refugees while another ā¬1.1bn was spent on IP accommodation.
Yet we are struggling to accommodate 8,500 asylum applicants that have applied so far this year, with hundreds of unaccompanied minors. Up to April of this year the CSO recorded that almost 125,300 people moved to Ireland. This includes 31,500 returning Irish citizens and 30,200 arrivals from the UK and EU.
So far this year 2,000 people have been issued deportation orders, but only 6% of those have been deported.
Where are those who are here illegally, or have been refused asylum or temporary protection now?
Meanwhile we are struggling to accommodate our own homeless with figures reaching a new high of 16,600, which includes 5,200 children.
An example of the pressures our services and our schools are under: Some 17,420 Ukrainian students alone were enrolled in our primary and secondary schools. In march 2025, 56,082 temporary protection beneficiaries were in receipt of income support, 14,774 receiving child benefits, while 87,639 received medical cards.
All of this comes at a great cost to the Irish taxpayers, who themselves are carrying the extra burden of increased cost of living increases in fuel, rental accommodation, soaring house prices, access to medical services, etc.
Maybe those NGOs, some who are funded by the state ā ie, Irish taxpayers ā who are always decrying or bemoaning the Stateās response on behalf of those we are accommodating, whether here legally or illegally, should be more appreciative and thank us for our commitment to those who genuinely seek protection.
Christy Galligan, Letterkenny, Co Donegal
