Clear Out

13 January 2014 Clear out

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. They have to test another secret communications device. Captain Povey knows ther every movement but does he? Priceless.

Clean car for tomorrow and clear out attic for Peter Rice

Scrabbletoday Mary wins and gets well over300, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Sir John Whitehead, who has died aged 81, was Ambassador to Japan from 1986 to 1992; it was his fourth diplomatic posting to the country, and throughout his career he did much to encourage economic ties between Japan and Britain.

 

Guardian:

 

 

 

Supporters of civil liberties should think twice about lauding plans for police officers to carry body-worn cameras (Not exactly trigger-happy, but police need to work much harder to build trust, 10 January). Even if we accept that footage will be neither lost nor tampered with, we can be far from sure that it will deliver justice. Indeed, rather than supporting justice, the use of filming by UK police forces has led to abuses of power. Increasingly, joint forward intelligence teams are deployed to capture images of legitimate and law-abiding protesters, which are unjustifiably added to databases. It is noticeable, however, that officers tend to be hypersensitive to having their own pictures taken, often spuriously quoting section 23 of the Terrorism Act. It is tempting to suggest that if the Met is in earnest about improving its reputation, it’s not cameras that are needed but mirrors.
Nigel Rayment
London

 

Independent:

 

 

 

 

Times:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – Jeremy Clarkson’s BBC documentary PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster (Mandrake, January 5) did not do justice to the subject.

 

SIR – The continued dumbing down of the once magnificent Radio 3 will not enable it to catch up with Classic FM in audience numbers (Letters, January 5). Classic FM is to be applauded for bringing great music to the awareness of a new listenership.

SIR – John Cridland’s enthusiasm for immigration (Business, January 5) overlooks the fact that one man’s cheap supply of labour is another man’s falling standard of living.

 

 

SIR – Pc Keith Wallis’s plea of guilty, in the case affecting Andrew Mitchell, the former chief whip (report, January 11), means he cannot be questioned in the dock as to who, if anyone, urged him to lie; or who cooperated with him in this, or why.

 

 

Irish Times:

Sir, – The fact that the so-called Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 has come into effect in the absence of clinical guidelines being issued by the Department of Health is profoundly disturbing from a legal and medical perspective (Home News, January 3rd, 2014).

The purpose of this Act, according to the Government, was to eliminate a supposed lacuna in the law which it wrongly claimed had arisen as a result of the decision in X case.

Ironically, instead of removing a gap in the law which did not exist in the first place, the commencement of the Act in the absence of clinical guidelines has created just such a gap, since a pregnant woman is now entitled by statute to an abortion in certain circumstances but medical professionals have no means of ascertaining exactly what these circumstances are.

The fact that no guidelines have been formulated a full five months after the Act was signed can hardly be of great surprise to anyone.

At the Oireachtas Health Committee hearings on abortion, held one year ago this week, the Government was repeatedly warned about the difficulties that would be faced in formulating guidelines to cover the issue of suicidal ideation. Psychiatrists who attended the hearings were unanimously of the view that an abortion is not a treatment for suicidal ideation in a woman, in any circumstances, and therefore it was bound to prove difficult for the Department of Health to produce a set of guidelines which expected doctors to act as if the very opposite were the case.

Unfortunately the Government chose, for political reasons, to completely ignore the evidence from psychiatrists and the ethical conundrum which would arise for doctors as a result of the Act. It will be interesting to see exactly what medico-legal somersaults the Department of Health will seek to perform in order to overcome these enormous difficulties. – Yours, etc,

BARRY WALSH

Brooklawn,

 

 

Sir, – For the record and in response to the letters of Rev Eoin de Bhaldraithe (December 23rd) and Dr Ken Dunn (January 6th), I recognise and understand the injustice of Ne Temere and am also aware that mixed marriages were exempted from Tridentine law (which may well have been to avoid a conflict with civil law). I am also familiar with the McCann case which, as the validity of that marriage was called into question, underpins my argument that Ne Temere was about the validity of all marriages involving Catholics.

That said, I believe that as the same case became heavily politicised it warrants much more robust scholarly research and analysis before any grand claims concerning it can be made. A degree of caution is also required when considering Dr Dunn’s claim that “Ne Temere was applied enthusiastically by both clergy and politicians in Ireland and retrospectively [...] and marriages of long standing were broken up”. For my doctoral research I examined a significant number of lesser-known inter-faith relationship/mixed marriage disputes, many of which came before the Irish courts. I found that Ne Temere was generally not applied retrospectively and that most disputes centred on the issue of the religious upbringing of the children of the marriage rather than on the requirement that a couple should marry before a Catholic priest and two witnesses (Ne Temere). Further, I am not aware of any politicians who applied Ne Temere (the Catholic Church and state were never that close!), though I am aware that many unionist politicians exploited it for political gain particularly in the run-up to the third Home Rule Bill.

Dr Dunn also states that “the upbringing of children was not completely explicit in Ne Temere”. In fact, he should forego the woolly language and acknowledge my fundamental point that there was “no reference in the decree in any shape or form to the religious upbringing of children”.

For anyone interested, my research and analysis of the said inter-faith relationship/mixed marriage disputes will be published in an article entitled “Church and State and Unhappy Marriages” in the scholarly journal New Hibernia Review in 2014. – Yours, etc,

Dr DAVID JAMESON,

York Road,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – The extraordinary claims of Dr Ken Dunn, chairman of the  Northern Ireland Mixed Marriage Association, demand explanation and clarification. His claim that the Ne Temere decree “was applied enthusiastically by clergy and politicians in Ireland . . . and marriages of long standing were broken up” is very strange. While there should be no surprise that [Roman Catholic] clergy would apply Ne Temere, there is no comment in favour of Ne Temere in the Dáil record from its creation in 1919 to the present day. Which politicians is he referring to? The only example he gives is from Belfast in 1910 and as far as I remember the British were in charge then. Has he no other example?

His claim that “the net result of [Ne Temere] was the reduction of the Protestant population in the Irish Free State/Republic by 80 per cent” is simply untrue.  As far back as 1973, RE Kennedy showed that the main causes of Protestant decline in Ireland were colonial retreat after independence, economic emigration, war deaths, natural decrease, and of course Ne Temere. – Yours, etc,

BARRY KEANE,

Glendalough Park,

Cork.

Sir, – , Please allow me space to enlighten John Thompson’s understanding of what we “think we are saving” in relation to the planned obliteration of the Moore Street area (January 6th). For a start, according to the National Museum (in a letter to Minister for Arts and Heritage Jimmy Deenihan), “the most important historic site in modern Irish history that if properly and sensitively developed could rank with famous historic sites around the world as Dublin’s historic quarter”.

The only buildings that lie derelict and abandoned are those at 14 to 17 Moore Street designated in 2007 as the 1916 National Monument and under the private ownership of Chartered Land since 2005. All other buildings associated with the retreat from the GPO are occupied and in use today. It is not true to say that they have no architectural features. Numbers 14 to 17 are listed for preservation not only on historical grounds but also because they do contain important 18th-century elements. Incredibly no other building in the area has been internally examined or assessed. The buildings did not simply shelter “some remnants of the rebel’s leadership”. The Moore Street terrace was the last HQ of the 1916 Provisional Government of the Irish Republic. This was the location where six of the leaders – five of whom were signatories to the Proclamation – spent their last hours of freedom before their execution by firing squad. The terrace is their only extant meeting place that has not been altered or destroyed through redevelopment. For some of us this is sacred ground.

The 1916 Proclamation was not drawn up in Conway’s public house. It was, of course, agreed and signed in 21 Henry Street. Conway’s is the location of the signing of documents of a somewhat different nature in recent times – the brown envelope kind. It is listed for preservation – somebody in authority has, it can be said, at the very least, an ironic sense of humour.

I heartily agree that the best tribute to the rebels would be to see that their vision comes to pass. How to best achieve that is the question? Hardly by a dismissal of the past or the planned demolition of our lasting physical links to the event in our history that led to our independence. These historic locations and buildings are not ours to destroy or hand over for private commercial gain. As part of our history and heritage they are held in trust for future generations. We do not argue for a return to the past – we can however plan our future based on our past – our honourable past, that is. – Yours, etc,

JAMES CONNOLLY

HERON,

Concerned Relatives

of the Signatories to

the 1916 Proclamation,

Oxford Road,

 

 

Sir, – The spirit of Pádraig Pearse can be pictured smiling kindly at Richard Irvine pointing out that “an inclusive Ireland must have room for Britishness; it must recognise it, even embrace it . . . and build an Irish identity that can include it,” (Opinion & Analysis, January 3rd). Pearse himself gave de jure status to such an identity, or at least strongly indicated it, when he named Thomas Davis as a father and evangelist of Irish nationality, shortly before the Rising.

In support of O’Connell’s campaign for repeal of the union, Davis put forward his own concept of a new Irish nationality . This was one which “must contain and represent the races of Ireland. It must not be Celtic, it must not be Saxon – it must be Irish.” Of noteworthy significance, especially in relation to the endemic bigoted sectarianism in Northern Ireland, and the unfinished business of the 1916 Rising, is the requirement that it must “not [be] a nationality which would prelude civil war, but [one] which would establish union and external independence”. Does that not imply that creating “internal unions” must be the means to an independent Ireland?

Davis had a dream that internal union might be brought about by love — the only force which, as Martin Luther King later pointed out, “is capable of transforming an enemy into a friend”. Since “cherishing” is akin to “loving”, the resolve that Pearse wrote into the Proclamation for “all the children of the nation” to be cherished equally can be interpreted now as a first step in establishing as de facto the Davis-conceived new inclusive Irish nationality.

What better time to begin that nation-building, and respond to the legacy of Pearse, than this year, 2014, which brings us, on October 24th, the bicentenary of the birth of Thomas Davis. – Yours, etc,

JAMES McGEEVER,

Dublin Road,

 

 

 

Sir, – I wish to add support to your leading article of January 5th calling for action in 2014 on global warming. It is becoming increasingly obvious that we must reduce our carbon emissions by reducing our use of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) by replacing them with renewables and nuclear power.

In the Irish situation there is a misconception that renewables, notably wind, will alone solve all our energy problems. This cannot be the case due to wind’s intermittency and to the necessity of providing back-up fossil fuel electricity generators for when the wind fails.

I am delighted to see that the leader suggests that modern nuclear power be considered for Ireland as this is the aim of our advocacy group BENE (Better Environment with Nuclear Energy: see bene.ie). Many professional bodies such as ESB, Eirgrid, Forfás, ICTU and IBEC have expressed the same opinion.

Nuclear power is the only source of low carbon, clean, base¨-load electricity and, we have shown that, using the new small modular reactors (SMRs) it would be a very considerably cheaper option for Ireland than wind turbines, together with their back-up gas-fired electricity generators and grid extensions.

It should be noted that one nuclear plant is equivalent to 1,000 wind turbines, higher than the 120m Dublin spire, and would have a lifetime of 60 years compared to 20-25 years for wind turbines. A nuclear plant could be sited in the place of an existing fossil plant, use the existing grid, and so would not require all the controversial extra pylons necessary with wind generation.

It is about time that a serious cost-benefit analysis of our future energy supply be done and that this include the nuclear option. – Yours, etc,

PHILIP W WALTON,

(Emeritus Professor

of Physics, NUI Galway),

Uggool,

 

Sir, – Why the uproar when Irish Water consultancy fees were announced (Front Page, January 10th)? This company was started from scratch and was delivered within a year. There would probably have been financial penalties imposed on the private companies if deadlines were not met. If it were left to the relevant public sector bodies, would the Government be able to impose such fines? Would they have completed the task in a year? Better that private companies were involved so that an efficient organisation could be created. Who knows what inefficient organisation, with long-term increased cost to the taxpayer, would have resulted instead? – Yours, etc,

ORLA GILHOOLY,

Dollymount Park,

 

 

Sir, – From a practical perspective, wind turbines cannot generate enough energy to reduce global CO2 levels to a meaningful degree. Wind power is by nature intermittent and cannot generate a steady output, necessitating back-up coal and gas power plants that significantly negate any savings in greenhouse gas emissions.

There are also ecological drawbacks to wind turbines, including damage to habitats, wildlife and the aesthetic drawback of the assault upon natural beauty and the pristine landscape.

Wind power in Ireland and Britain is being financed at the cost of consumers, who have not been consulted nor informed about this effective subsidy that is being paid from their taxes and energy bills to support an industry that cannot be cost-efficient. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK L O’BRIEN,

Victoria Cross,

 

Sir, – Thomas O’Connor assures us that “the people will appease their appetite for change at next year’s local and European elections” (January 7th).

I would not hold my breath if I were him. When given an opportunity to get rid of the expensive talking shop for the elite called the Seanad they turned it down.

That has continued a debate on the Seanad that gets more removed from reality by the day. First we have high-profile people, who supported its retention during the referendum, opposing the “reforms” that were part of the retention campaign.

Then we had a Government Minister, who supported the campaign to abolish it, proposing “reform” of an institution that during the campaign was “irreformable”.

Since it just means electing another Dáil, dominated by the same political parties, the widely canvassed election of Seanad members by universal suffrage does not constitute reform.

The choice for “reform” of the Seanad boils down, therefore, to two options. Turn it into another Dáil or leave it as an expensive, powerless talking shop for the elite and their cronies.– Yours, etc,

ANTHONY LEAVY,

Shielmartin Drive,

 

Sir, – Paul Milne repeats a misapprehension that frequently arises in discussions of BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) in support of Palestinian rights when he describes it as “ironic that the teachers in a country that has . . . failed to revive its native language should want to boycott the teachers in a country [Israel] which has successfully revived its language” (January 10th ).

Leaving aside the question as to whether the successful revival of Hebrew somehow mitigates the ethnic cleansing and ongoing persecution of Palestinians, the boycott – whether academic, cultural, sporting or economic – is directed at the Israeli state, and not at individuals unless those individuals are explicitly representing that state. Hence, quite simply, nobody advocates a blanket boycott of Israeli teachers. – Yours, etc,

RAYMOND DEANE,

Lower Baggot Street,

Dublin 2 .

 

Sir, – One can only imagine what the recent storms on the west coast would have done to the massive salmon farm planned for Galway Bay and the ecological damage caused by the escapees interbreeding with local salmon stocks. If ever a timely reminder was needed to show the folly and short-sightedness of such a scheme, this was it. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL WALSH,

Thomastown Road,

Killiney,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Early in the new year, readers of the English press learned that repartition was no solution to the Northern Ireland problem, thanks to the release of previously classified 1984 British documents.

Cabinet minutes showed that the British government had formally considered repartitioning Northern Ireland before rejecting the idea.

Readers of The Irish Times hardly needed to wait to learn this. On September 18th, 1975, it published a lengthy article by myself and Ian McAllister showing why repartition would create enormous refugee flight and violence.

The article is accessible at  http://www.profrose.eu/publications. – Your, etc,

Prof RICHARD ROSE, FBA

Director,

Centre for the Study

of Public Policy,

University of Strathclyde,

 

 

 

 

 

Irish Independent:

* It is reported that Irish Water is considering billing water charges in apartment blocks via their owners’ management companies (OMCs), with the OMC then responsible for billing the charges on to individual owners.

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As a managing agent working on behalf of OMCs that represent almost 8,000 houses and apartments in the greater Dublin area, I would strongly oppose water charges being billed through OMCs.

These companies are effectively co-ops which work on behalf of apartment owners that manage the common areas of a development (roofs, gardens, etc). Involving management companies in the collection of water charges would be bad for them (and their members) for several reasons:

{HTML_BULLET} It fundamentally undermines the relationship between an OMC and its members if an OMC effectively has to take on a tax collection function for the State.

{HTML_BULLET} Increasing the annual service charges billed to property owners, is likely to increase the number of owners who do not (or cannot) pay their charges.

{HTML_BULLET} The charges themselves are contentious and it seems Irish Water believes many apartments will be difficult to meter. Any system of “assessed charge” will involve judgment and will inevitably be perceived as unfair by some. It is simply not the role of the OMC to get involved with such matters.

{HTML_BULLET} Administration of water charges (including waivers for vulnerable groups, various payment methods, reducing pressure for those not paying, etc) will be complicated and onerous.

OMCs (with voluntary boards of directors) will generally have neither the time nor the desire to get involved in this work.

Water charges should not be billed through OMCs.

If they are introduced, water charges should be billed to individual households, with the greatest possible use of meters.

FINBAR MCDONNELL

RF PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, DUBLIN 1

BUSY DOING NOTHING

* Frank Kelly‘s comment, “what is retirement but doing nothing?” reminds me of a quote from the late ‘Naked Gun’ actor Leslie Nielsen: “Doing nothing is difficult, you never know when you’re finished.”

TOM GILSENAN

BEAUMONT, DUBLIN 9

HEADS WE LOSE . . .

* I had understood that the main reason for setting up Irish Water was to protect what we are constantly told is a precious resource.

I was, therefore, astonished to learn from your article (Irish Independent January 10) that we consumers could be penalised by Irish Water if we conserve water too zealously. Heads we lose, tails they win!

P DAVIS

DUBLIN 17

IN DEFENCE OF VATICAN II

* Once again, Fr Tony Flannery misrepresents what the Second Vatican Council actually taught. He claims that it “goes so far as to say that unless a teaching is accepted by the consensus of the faithful it cannot be considered a defined teaching” (Irish Independent, January 11). This is completely bogus.

The council teaches that the Pope may define doctrine completely on his own authority, as indeed may a council in union with him. Furthermore, the council defined “the sense of the faithful” as including the Pope and college of bishops, Fr Flannery defines it as excluding them. The council teaches the lay faithful to be guided by the Pope and bishops in matters of faith and morality, Fr Flannery puts it the other way around.

He grants lay people at any stage of the church’s history an effective veto on church teaching. Surely the church cannot simply jettison teachings that have been universally accepted by Catholics down through the centuries, because a proportion of Catholics have rejected these teachings recently?

JOHN MURRAY, PHD (THEOLOGY)

MATER DEI INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION, DUBLIN

BLACK CARD JUST A START

* The black card recently introduced by the GAA is a good idea, as far as it goes. It takes two to tango. But it will not change the ethos of GAA games. One has only to look at rugby to see the glaring difference. It is the attitude that must change.

For example, why are GAA players allowed to throw the ball away instead of handing it civilly to the opponent for a free? Multiplying rules will not change attitudes. The answer is simple: move the ball forward 10, 20, even 30 metres, for every show of bad manners. Granted, the game was far rougher and dirtier long ago, with far fewer rules. Now it is nastier, with far too many rules. No referee can be expected to get it right until the rules are reduced, and made clearer and simpler.

SEAN MCELGUNN

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

WEATHER PREACHING

* I was pleasantly surprised to find that the bulk of your editorial (Irish Independent, January 6) explored the practical ways in which the misery and destruction caused by recent storms could be alleviated.

I would urge you to further explore how best to deal with other weather extremes.

Practical help and advice makes a great deal more sense to me than grandiose preaching on the evils of CO2 and the wickedness of mankind in supposedly causing every extreme weather event under the sun.

The history of science has many examples of the majority being wrong — for instance, the science of plate tectonics/continental drift, which was derided by scientists when it first appeared but is now universally accepted.

RUAIRI WELDON

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

MEANS-TESTING RETIREES

* Re: ‘Secret cuts for OAPs and disabled’ (Irish Independent, January 9) — here’s another little nugget you might want to add. In an earlier article, ‘Retirees turning 65 must wait an extra year for pension’ (Irish Independent, December 21, 2013) we were told that, “People affected from January may be able to get jobseekers’ benefit or jobseekers’ allowance. These payments are €180 a week, less than the state pension of €230 a week.”

What they neglected to let us know was that these payments would be means-tested! I checked this out myself at our local Department of Social Protection office.

What next . . . blood?

S MONAGHAN

KNOCKNAREA, CO SLIGO

MARITIME MEMORIES

* Thirty years ago, Ireland saw the demise of a great shipping company, Irish Shipping Ltd. It was set up in 1941 to bring much-needed supplies to this country during World War II. Its unreliable, leaky old ships battled their way through mountainous waves in the North Atlantic, sometimes in convoy, sometimes on their own, and a few didn’t make it.

Now, a new book has been published about this great shipping firm. Called ‘Irish Shipping Ltd — A Fleet History’, it is written by four proud Wexford men (with input from a ship’s captain) and will be of enormous interest to those who sailed with ISL, or even to those who would have loved to. For more details, contact leocoy61@gmail.com.

GERRY MCGOVERN

DUBLIN 15

TV3 NOT IN THE PINK

* TV3 opposing a UTV Irish licence is akin to a potato planter objecting to Kerr’s Pink!

K NOLAN

CARRICK-ON-SHANNON, CO LEITRIM

Irish Independent