Letters to the Editor: The people of Gaza need our support
A fireball erupts following an Israeli strike near a tent encampment sheltering people displaced by war in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on March 25. Picture: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty
Those of us who are of a certain age will remember the Biafran war, and the extreme hunger, the health crisis, that the people of the ever-decreasing Biafran enclave suffered from. We remember the mercy flights carrying food and medicines into Biafra from the then Portuguese colony of Principe and Sao Tome; the photos of the children with distended bellies, and constant reports of horrifying conditions in the newspapers, on the radio and, most graphically, on television — for those who had a TV, as in those days not everyone did.
As long as the war lasted, there was a campaign run by teachers in my secondary school to raise awareness about the humanitarian disaster brought about by the war and to collect money to help alleviate the situation; and we all contributed to the extent that we were able. Today, we all know that there is a similar, if not worse, humanitarian disaster in Palestine, centred on the Gaza enclave.
People are starving. All normal services — education, health, water, electricity, public transport, even people’s homes — have disappeared. This is a man-made disaster, just as the disaster in Biafra was.
As in Biafra, in Gaza the detonating factor was military action taken from within. In other words, it is possible to blame the local leadership in both cases. Nevertheless, in the case of Biafra there was no hesitation within wider Irish society to support the people of Biafra on humanitarian grounds, and a great deal of money was raised to alleviate their suffering, despite their own leaders’ action having led to their appalling plight.
In March last year, several concerned members of the public came together in Co Roscommon to create awareness about the equally appalling plight of the people of Gaza.
We view the situation from a humanitarian standpoint. In doing so we disregard the actions of their self-appointed leaders (as any leader who has been in charge after 20 years without an election can only be considered self-appointed).
We leave to others, to history, or the court in the Hague, to judge the actions of those leaders. We do not condemn the people of Gaza for the actions of their leaders, we simply consider their need and do what little we can to help alleviate their suffering today.
Over the past 18 months, we have tried to encourage people to think of the situation in Gaza. At first while people were seeing images daily on their screens — phones, computers, TVs — it was comparatively easy; but with the so-called ceasefire the flood of images slowed to a drip. Some people have been led to believe that the situation has been resolved; but the reality is very different.
People in Gaza are still going hungry, their homes, schools, hospitals are still destroyed. They are still living in tents, and unfortunately Israel is still maiming and killing people in Gaza — as it is too in the West Bank and Lebanon.
Staying with Gaza, we have done our best to keep the issue in view in our area. Since March 2025, we have collected money to send what we can in order to fund the provision of water and health services. We have done this in a variety of ways, including by our presence at many local events and by having a regular awareness stall at The Square in Roscommon town.
We have met many Palestinians over the course of the last 15 months, and they have all expressed their appreciation of our support and of the welcome they have received here in Ireland.
Our group would in turn like to thank the great many people who have supported us, some with words of appreciation and others with donations of time and money.
In Biafra, as already mentioned, mercy flights brought supplies in to help alleviate hunger and suffering. Over recent months, a flotilla carrying similar emergency supplies to Gaza was intercepted on the high seas by Israeli agents. In an act of piracy, the sailors were abducted, carried off to Israel, and mistreated, all severe violations of international law.
Although it will take some time, this humanitarian crisis can be ended, but each of us needs to add our grain of sand. We have asked the good people of Co Roscommon — and now through your publication, we ask the good people of Ireland — to remember what is happening in Gaza, to speak to their public representatives, to make donations that will help to provide water, medical support, or whatever is most needed at the time. Wear a badge or a scarf, or show solidarity in some other way — a car sticker, a pennant, a flag. They can also help by joining this humanitarian campaign in their local area.
Finally we have the power to choose how we spend our money, which includes the choice not to spend it on specific goods. So on an individual basis we can help by boycotting Israel ourselves — by not buying any Israeli goods or services. The BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) movement was set up by Palestinians almost two decades ago to encourage us to boycott Israel and those who enable Israel to carry out its version of ‘to hell or to Connacht’.
Roscommon Palestine Support Campaign encourages people to inform themselves about this campaign, and to help the people of Palestine by participating in this boycott.
A good friend of mine contacted me recently to discuss the amazingly low level of competence in spoken Irish among students and indeed graduates of second- and third-level colleges. We wondered if the situation was getting worse.
It is accepted that no teacher of a foreign language would be left near a classroom if unable to have a simple conversation in that language, yet many of our teachers are landed in a situation where they are expected to convey a love of Irish without being equipped with basic conversational skills. Teachers themselves will readily acknowledge this.
This friend, like myself, also teaches Irish to adults so he is not sitting on the fence.
But the odd well-meaning effort cannot address the fundamental problem. Surely, at a point in our history where there is such groundswell of positivity towards the language, our educational institutions could come up with appropriate courses to address this glaring need. Are our lecturers and tutors content to let this appalling state of affairs continue?
On the bright side, tá comhghairdeas mór ag dul do Bernard Dunne. The former world boxing champion went back to repeat Leaving Cert Irish this year. Bernard is a classic example of people who just want to use and enjoy the language.
One of Ireland’s most significant medieval manuscripts, the plundered The Annals of Inisfallen which is being exhibited in UCC, should not be returned to the Bodleian libraries in Oxford.
Grabbed by the infamous Richard Rawlinson, a manuscript collector during the 18th century, the document along with many others was eventually bequeathed to the English university where it has remained for the past 250 years.
The priceless document “which is close to 1,000 years old” — ‘‘All-action’ Irish manuscript goes on public display’ (Irish Examiner, September 3) — was handwritten in Irish and Latin will be on view until November 1.
Padraigh O’Machain, professor of modern Irish at UCC, said: “This powerful, all-action history book is a monument to the work of the multitude of scribes who facilitated the translation from Latin to Irish as the language of record and scholarship, a language that is remarkably still very much with us.”
So the Bodleian libraries should do the decent thing and let The Annals of Inisfallen, which “is thought to have been initially copied in the monastery of Lismore, Co Waterford, and details the invasion of Ireland from the mythical Tuatha De Danann, the Viking raids on Skellig Michael, and the coming of the Normans”, stay where it is now, in UCC.
