Astrid

26 March 2014 Astrid

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to go on an initiative exercise. . Priceless

Cold slightly better Mary very under the weather take Astrid to visit her in hospital

No Scrabbletoday Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Peter Oakley,, who has died aged 86, defied the perceived restrictions of old age to become an internet sensation through his wistful, heartfelt and honest video diary on YouTube.

Respond they did — his first post has, to date, received nearly three million views and more than 10,000 comments. Subsequent films — lasting between five and 10 minutes — touched on personal reminiscence from his military service, working life or marriage, or on broader topics such as education and ageing. The combination appealed to young and old alike. “Biographies are generally boring sort of things unless there’s some anecdotes in them,” he said. For seven years he related anecdote upon anecdote with impeccable manners, an eiderdown-soft delivery, self-deprecation, and shot-from-the-hip candour. His imperative, as EM Forster termed it, was: “only connect”.

Peter Oakley was born on August 20 1927 and grew up during the war in Norwich, where he witnessed the devastation inflicted on the city by German bombers. “My father was a butcher and I loved him,” he recalled of his early family life. “He taught me the trade and how to drive a motor car when I was 10 years old. That wouldn’t happen today.” On leaving school at 16 he got a job with the local authority’s public health department (he later trained as a health inspector).

He was conscripted into the Navy at 18 and became a radar technician (a period he chronicled at length in his video logs). After being demobbed he studied at university in Leicester where he was to pursue his two lifelong loves — an art student named Patricia, who would become his wife, and motorcycles. He eventually gave up the “proper job” to become a garage mechanic, turning a bakery into a workshop, and finding his true calling.

It was in the wake of his wife’s death in the late Nineties that Oakley began looking online for pen friends. After the hugely positive response to his initial YouTube posting he began his “Telling it all” series with the admission that he was “absolutely overwhelmed and don’t quite know what to say. If I should break down during this video then I’ll click the button and I will come back to you as soon as possible. I just need to say thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Oakley began each film with a jaunty “Hello Youtubers” before continuing with whatever had caught his attention since his last entry. This could be a memory, an observation or a helpful tip. In his opus on “Making an English Cup of Tea” he explained the importance of warming the teapot (his aunt, “who thought she was very posh”, would yell at him that she expected “boiling water not boiled water”). A walk into Bakewell along the river path inspired another video, a visual “poem on some thoughts when looking at an old gnarled tree” (“I know exactly how you feel,” was his starting point).

Inevitably his YouTube popularity drew the gaze of the world’s media. He initially refused requests for interviews, which he considered “pointless and dangerous”. In his seventh video he addressed this intrusion and made a statement declaring that several “geriatric1927” websites had been created by others. “I leave you to make up your own mind about their motives,” he said wearily. His aim in making the films was, he reiterated, to reduce his loneliness and isolation, not to nurture any ambitions to become a celebrity. He later relented and gave a BBC interview. “They were so lovely,” he said. “I can’t think how many TV companies have been since. I don’t regret it.”

Oakley believed that YouTube “reflects the whole of society”. But he was aware that the internet had its more unpleasant corners. “Whilst I’ve not been taking part in chat rooms I have seen what goes on and, well, pretty disgusted by it really,” he said in 2007, “because people could hide behind any sort of identity.” The transparency of his video log, however, allowed him to develop friendships and, he acknowledged, become “a grandad kind of figure” to a global audience.

In 2006 he said his YouTube adventure had been “one of the major changes and breakthroughs in my life and given me a whole new world to experience”. In his last post on February 12 this year — in which he appears gaunt from the effects of cancer and is bundled up in a dressing gown — he completed his series of Navy service tales before a typically humble sign-off: “That’s it really. And sort of in conclusion I will say possibly my final goodbye. So goodbye.”

He is survived by a son and daughter.

Peter Oakley was born August 20 1927, died March 23 2014

Guardian:

Larry Elliott asks if the innovations made by Formula One manufacturers cannot be used in the fight against climate change (When nudge comes to shove, 24 March). I agree. We sit on 400 years’ worth of coal, we’re surrounded by sea and wind. Surely the country that gave the world television, the jet engine, antibiotics and the world wide web, among other innovations, can lead the way to develop clean coal technology and use wind, tidal and solar power to give the UK both energy supply and security?

On Wednesday MPs will vote on legislation that could have a huge impact on thousands of the country’s most vulnerable people – yet many who are most likely to be affected will not know about it, let alone get the chance to have their say on it. The legislation is the charter for budget responsibility, which includes the setting of a welfare cap, and the people who are likely to remain unaware are people with learning disabilities.

ages

It’s good to see John Clare referred to in parliament (Maths mist precedes a Clare day, 25 March) in the year of the 150th anniversary of his death (20 May 1864). It is even better he be recognised by Michael Gove as among the great literary figures. It’s a pity your writer refers to him as the “peasant poet”, though, a label he was anxious to escape and that undermines his stature as a poet. Moreover, although he is reported to have claimed Shakespeare’s compositions as his own, this was not the reason he was confined in Northampton Asylum.
Dr Valerie Pedlar
Southport

Independent:

Defenders of the old system of obligatory annuities seem to be arguing that people are so little able to take good financial decisions that they should be forced to take bad ones – which is what buying an annuity has been for a long time (Letters, 21 March).

Now that they no longer have a captive market maybe annuity providers will be forced to make their products more attractive, the sort of thing sensible investors might buy of their own free will.

Duncan Howarth, Maidstone, Kent

In George Osborne’s decision to allow pensioners to do what they will with their pension pots, am I the only one to sniff the next massive financial-services mis-selling scandal?

Stanley Tyrer, Bury, Lancashire

The Government is attempting to target the grey vote, offering a series of goodies to pensioners, thinking they won’t be concerned about the “have-nots” of society: children in poverty, the young unemployed, the disabled/long-term sick, the homeless. They forget that pensioners have children and grandchildren, too, whose future is just as important to them, certainly more so than the marginal benefit offered by such blatant bribes.

John Andress, Lyn Hazel, Jean Heaven, Derys Maddox, Breda Thomas  & Colin Thomas, Dorstone, Herefordshire

No flag of St George for me, thank you

You report Jon Cruddas, one of Ed Miliband’s closest advisers, saying “the Liberal Left should stop feeling guilty about flying the flag of St George and have no qualms about celebrating Englishness” (17 March). As someone on the left, I loathe flags, national anthems and all patriotic things, so to hear talk of people like me claiming the Cross of St George flag makes me sick.

Leave this piece of cloth with a red cross on it for the right where it belongs, and leave thinking progressives to be the internationalists that we are.

Ray Love, Bath

Ofsted offers reasons to be cheerful

Many of us longstanding critics of Ofsted welcome what appears to be a major cultural shift developing within Ofsted itself and its relationship with the teaching profession (report, 21 March). For many years it has ignored criticism from teachers, academics and others, and resisted fundamental changes through a never-ending series of minor, piecemeal adjustments. But Ofsted finally appears to be moving from what has too often been a negative approach, focusing on what is wrong and requires improvement, to a more supportive developmental one focusing more on celebrating success and working with schools to make them even better.

That’s a profound mind-shift – which some inspectors will find difficult to make and which some school leaders will find hard to acknowledge after years of suspicion, anxiety and even hostility to Ofsted inspection teams. But it is welcome nonetheless.

Professor Colin Richards, Former HM Inspector, Spark Bridge, Cumbria

GM crops are not the answer to hunger

In your report on GM crops (14 March) it is stated that the push for GM is important because of the “scale of potential food shortages facing humanity in the coming decades”.

Huge amounts of evidence show that there is more than enough food to feed everyone in the world, yet people still starve. This is because of lack of access to food; lack of money to buy it, or means to produce it. The system is broken and GM crops will do nothing to fix it. In places where they are being grown, they are not feeding people, but animals or cars. GM crops are now causing huge problems to farmers, for example causing pesticide- resistant insects and “superweeds”.

We hear constant claims from the GM industry about what these crops might be able to do in the future, but no tangible results. In the meantime countless tried, tested and successful ways of tackling hunger and food insecurity are underused for lack of investment. It is madness to throw good money after bad on GM, and to open the floodgates to a torrent of risky and unneeded  GM crops.

Emma Hockridge, Head of Policy, The Soil Association, Bristol

Sporting triumph

Well done for the short report and picture of Laura Massaro’s brilliant victory in the World Squash Championships (24 March). Squash is a demanding game that requires supreme fitness and mental strength – Roger Federer stopped playing (for kicks), reportedly saying it was “too brutal”.

While it seems to be being ignored everywhere else, we need more coverage of this great game – which, unfathomably,  is still not included in  the Olympics.

Lalit Bhadresha, London SW4

Perplexed by pronuciation

Who at the BBC has decided that “homage” should be pronounced so that it rhymes with French cheese? It has Latin origins.

Ian Turnbull, Carlisle

No special favours for Scotland

Alex Salmond should factor in an additional hurdle for an independent Scotland to clear before being able to join the EU (report, 18 March). Eastern European MEPs are telling me that they will insist on transitional measures being applied to any new EU accession state, including Scotland. This is because they had to suffer harsh transitional measures when they joined and they are adamant that new member states can expect no  special favours.

When 10 Eastern European and other countries acceded to the EU in 2004, subsidies for farmers were phased in over 10 years. This was also the case for the Bulgarians and Romanians who joined in 2007.

The EU also allows for restrictions on the freedom of movement of workers, giving these Eastern European MEPs additional tools with which to make life difficult for Scotland.

An independent Scotland would require the approval of an absolute majority of MEPs before acceding. The cost of achieving this majority support would be the application of these severe restrictions and transitional measures.

This isn’t “Tory scaremongering”; it’s reality.

Struan Stevenson MEP, (Con, Scotland), The European Parliament, Brussels

Have you ever wondered why so many Scots are in favour of independence? Allow me – a voteless SNP member, happily resident among decent English people – to enlighten you.

First we shall shut the biggest nuclear-arms dump in Europe and invite its American owners to collect their property.

Second, we shall restore the welfare state to full principled public ownership. It will be an offence to call the unemployed who cannot find work “scroungers”. We shall stop the selling off of parts of the NHS to the likes of United Health.

Third, we shall immunise our education from creeping “Goveism”. Unlike England, Scotland does not see education as a consumer item like cars and holidays, as a well-known senior English academic recently defined it, but as an investment for the country’s future. Well, we do have four medieval universities. Two, is it, in England?

Fourth, after a Yes vote it will be how, not whether, our fiscal affairs are organised; and Osborne, Barroso etc will then be singing from a very different song-sheet.

W B McBride, Bristol

Alex Salmond claims that if the UK would not allow an independent Scotland to share sterling this would mean that Scotland would not be liable for its share of the national debt. No it would not. A “yes” vote in the referendum would authorise the Scottish government to negotiate terms for independence, but the terms would have to be agreed by both sides.

It may well be that no matter what currency Scotland might use the creditors of the UK would not be willing to have Scotland take on its share of the debt on the current terms enjoyed by the UK, because independent Scotland, as a new nation without an established credit rating, could not expect such good terms. Scotland might then be beholden to the UK to accept Scotland’s share of the debt, and Scotland would then be in debt to the UK for that amount.

If a newly independent Scotland cannot persuade international markets to give it the same credit rating as the UK, there is no reason why the UK should ignore the risk factor and grant favourable terms to Scotland. Scotland would then be servicing its debt on less favourable terms, at a greater cost to the Scottish taxpayer.

I find it interesting that Alex Salmond thinks it reasonable to suggest that Scotland can leave with the lion’s share of North Sea oil and leave the national debt behind. It is a bit like a party to a divorce keeping the house but leaving the mortgage.

The North Sea oilfields were developed by the UK and became assets belonging to all UK taxpayers, including English, Welsh and Northern Irish. If independence happens it would be reasonable to agree that assets and liabilities should be apportioned by population.

Donald MacCallum, Bletchley, Milton Keynes

Times:

Sir, “We have been meddling carelessly in a situation we did not grasp” (Jenni Russell, Mar 20). How right she is. Does no one in the US State Department or the Foreign Office understand how Russia sees the world? Russia has a (not irrational) fear of invasion from the West. In the past 400 years or so Poles, Swedes, French, French and British (1854), French and British again, Czechs (1919) and Germany have poured troops into Russia, mainly through its western frontier. Russia has no natural defences between Lithuania and the Black Sea in the shape of mountains or rivers. Its only protection is its buffer states. This was the principle behind the division of Europe agreed at Yalta.

When Yeltsin released its first ring of buffer states (Poland, East Germany, Czechosloavkia, Hungary, Romania), Russia was left with two buffer states, Belarus and Ukraine. It was crass stupidity of EU and US “diplomats” to try to detach Ukraine from the Russian sphere of influence, and the outcome was clearly foreseeable.

I do not fear Russian intervention in the Baltic States, unless badly provoked by the West, even though for many years they were part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Crimea is different, as Ben Macintyre explained (Mar 21).

Forget about sanctions. They are difficult to operate, difficult to bring to an end, and will have little influence on policy which has been central to Russian thinking for centuries. They will not bring Crimea back into Ukraine (where it never ought to have been). The best outcome of any negotiations will be a neutral Ukraine and removal of any fear of Russian intervention near Donetsk and Kharkov. That is the practical end at which we should aim.

Edward Nugee, QC

London WC2

Sir, Your report on Obama and crisis talks with European leaders (Mar 24) is alarming. You say rightly that China could have a helpful role. What is important is that bullying should not succeed. It is possible to change frontiers, but this should only be done by the agreement of all parties — as happened in the agreed separation of the Czech and Slovak republics, the Velvet Divorce.

I suggest that the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe be asked to report on the situation of Russian speakers and nationals and other minorities, within the present boundaries of the Ukraine. The facts could then be calmly considered without threats or unnecessary troop movements.

Lord Hylton

House of Lords

Sir, There is no doubt that due to the lack of any real sanctions against Russian expansion, within the month Putin will move into Ukraine and on to part of Moldova. We are, in effect, having a re-run of Hitler’s expansion policy and the resultant appeasement that brought about the Second World War. The Baltic states with large Russian populations ought to be very afraid.

Nato and the West have no military will to oppose this and the proposed basing of 3,000 British troops in Germany is laughable, as are the economic sanctions which will impinge only on Russian people and not on the oligarchs.

We have a non-elected Ukrainian government formerly led by a corrupt leader and a people who have voted for Russia in the Crimea. The West’s response is weak and Putin knows it.

Bill Bradbury

Billinge, Lancs

Sir, These young igniferous politicians and generals advocating a show of military strength worry me. They have become detached from reality or have a grossly exaggerated idea of our capabilities.

John P. Hunter

Swindon, Wilts

Telegraph:

SIR – You report that “almost half of children fail to bond with their parents by the age of three”. Can this have anything to do with the almost ideological fervour with which successive governments have subsidised institutional childcare?

SIR – The collapsed Al-Sweady Inquiry into allegations that British troops murdered Iraqi prisoners has already cost in excess of £22 million, all paid for by the British taxpayer.

Irish Times:

Sir, – As a former member of An Garda Síochána I am glad that Mr Callinan has decided to resign as commissioner, both for his own sake and for that of his family.

It is sad to see any commissioner being backed into such a position, but it may allow the spotlight to shine more clearly on a Minister for Justice who has used the commissioner for too long as a shelter from criticism.

Mr Shatter has decimated the Garda since he came into office. He has denuded the force of stations, manpower and transport, leaving us with a skeleton force. When opposition is expressed to his decisions, he will say that the commissioner runs the force. The truth is that the commissioner was not allowed to run the force.

When I joined An Garda Síochána, I found it to be a force subservient to politicians and that has changed very little since. I vividly recall a case in Boyle, Co Roscommon, where a sergeant who raided a licensed premises after hours and found a high-ranking member of government there, quickly found himself transferred. He was only saved by his representative association (the AGSI), who took up his case and had the decision reversed. This was far from being an isolated situation.

While we now have calls from politicians on all sides for an independent police authority, I would remind them that the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants & Inspectors were calling for such a body more than 30 years ago. One former minister for justice at the time opposed the suggestion, saying “It would be giving excessive control to a police authority”. At that time, and through the intervening years, there was no political party in favour of a police authority and members of An Garda Síochána of all ranks are well aware of why that is the case. Yours, etc,

TONY FAGAN,

Bellefield Road,

Enniscorthy,

Co Wexford

Sir, – The Garda Commissioner should not have had the option to resign. He should have been dismissed because the moment he let the word “disgusting”pass his lips, he revealed that his attitude toward accountability comes from a different era and is unacceptable in a modern police force.

His departure raises the question of the process that will be put in place to choose his successor. Not only must this process be transparent and open to external candidates, but the remuneration agreement reached with Mr Callinan before he resigned must also be made public.

It is also essential that the two whistleblowers, whose bravery in standing up for ethics and integrity in the face of what we now know was massive pressure from vested interests who preferred the ways of the past, are given adequate recompense. Yours, etc,

DESMOND FITZGERALD,

Canary Wharf ,

London

Sir, –   Since the Watergate scandal it has frequently been the case that people in public life in various countries have insisted on learning the hard way that the cover-up can do them more harm than the scandal it is supposed to hide. In Ireland the variation is that the cover-up is an effect rather than an intent. The Garda whistleblowers are heroes who should have been welcomed with open arms (to say the least. The fact that Alan Shatter and Commissioner Callinan treated them in precisely the  opposite way was a cover-up in effect (regardless of intent) and that was a bigger scandal than how any penalty points system “works”. At least let us hope that those in Irish public life will have learned this lesson for future scandals. Yours, etc,

FRANK DESMOND,

Evergreen Road,

Cork

Sir, – “If he (Martin Callinan) stays in office, the message goes out that it is still normal, in official Ireland, to be nauseated by troublesome truths,” writes Fintan O’Toole (March 25th). I could not agree more. I have the highest regard for the whistleblowers who had the courage to speak out. In a democracy, lack of accountability and lack of transparency should worry us all. My late father grew up in the Ukraine and Poland, under a totalitarian regime. In those days, people were thrown into prison for expressing the “wrong” ideas. Need I say more? Yours, etc,

INGRID NACHSTERN,

Eglinton Road,

Donnybrook,

Dublin 4

Sir, – No doubt PAC member Mary Lou McDonald will be crowing with delight at the resignation of Martin Callinan. I do believe that the Commissioner’s “disgusting” remarks were inappropriate and intemperate (and should have been unreservedly withdrawn) but I would sooner embrace his morality than that of his inquisitor. Yours, etc,

GEOFF SCARGILL,

Loreto Grange,

Bray,

Co Wicklow

A chara, – Minister Shatter is an intelligent man, but seems incapable of seeing the simple truth. He is supposed to be the representative of the citizens and to look out for our interests. In months of endless scandals however, he has not been on our side. He has defended the establishment against the interests of the people, and neglected their legitimate concerns. The people no longer have confidence in him as their representative at Justice. In the light of the growing list of scandals and with the security establishment he sought to protect having buckled under much-needed scrutiny, how can the politician trusted with this portfolio remain above question? How can his position be tenable? Is mise,

JOE BYRNE

Schoolhouse Lane,

Dublin 2

Sir, — I have personally felt that Mr Shatter has been unfit for the office of minister for justice ever since he used confidential Garda information to smear an opponent in a political debate. His ongoing difficulties are only teaching us how much his colleagues are willing to tolerate before they feel the need to withdraw their support for him. Yours, etc,

SEÁN HOGAN,

Fisherman’s Grove,

Dunmore East,

Co Waterford

Sir, – The Taoiseach and Alan Shatter backed the wrong person, Martin Callinan. Martin Callinan didn’t back the right persons, whistleblowers McCabe and Wilson. Disgusting! Even though Callinan didn’t apologise, he did have the courage to do the right thing by resigning.

KEVIN DEVITTE,

Mill Street,

Westport,

Co Mayo

Sir, – Martin Callinan must get his Irish Times early (“Disgust means Callinan must go”, March 25th). Yours, etc,

GP McHUGH,

Somerton Road

Belfast

A Chara – I was delighted to see that Una Mullally is not surprised that Fianna Fáil is failing in its attempts to fill a third of its candidate lists for this year’s local elections with women candidates. For too long, its safe-seated senior women politicians rubbished calls to introduce gender quotas.

After the 1987 general election returned no Labour woman candidate to the Dáil or Seanad, I was involved with the Labour Women’s Council in analysing our difficulties in attracting and electing women candidates. Academic research was examined; our sister socialist parties were consulted, while the leadership of the Irish Labour Party was charged with solving the problems of retaining the integrity of the PR ballot paper once we were convinced that quotas were necessary.

Soon, 25 years later, we are to witness changes in the candidate selection process which will deliver gender choice to the electorate. After much soul-searching, all parties, including FF, have committed themselves to supporting the Government’s proposals to agree to field at least 30 per cent women candidates at the next general election – or suffer the financial consequences.

Fianna Fáil has some catching up to do. Pleasant Mary O’Rourke’s protestations against the need for gender quotas are already sounding positively archaic.

Women constitute 50 per cent of the population. We dominate educational league tables. Our experience and education must be harnessed so that we can all contribute to the national efforts of resolving our present economic crisis. Together we should be able to shape a better Ireland. – Is mise le meas,

NIAMH BHREATHNACH,

Anglesea Avenue,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin

Sir, — Has Paul Williams (Letters, March 25th) considered the possibility that the reason there are fewer women than men interested in going into politics is because of larger societal factors rather than their inherent dispositions? Men who want a career in primary teaching may indeed be discriminated against by social forces which view this as “women’s work”. This is an example of how oppressive gender roles shape people’s lives, and in effect steer men from caring, nurturing roles, and women from careers involving science or leadership.

As Ms Mullally states in the piece Mr Williams criticises (March 24th), men need only be asked to run for office, while women need “confidence-building, encouragement, solidarity and support” – precisely because of the extra barriers they face. Their absence in this field is particularly damaging as women’s interests are ignored, thereby preserving a male-dominated status quo. Quotas may at least somewhat redress this imbalance in the short term, but more importantly they help change attitudes about who can and cannot lead. Mr Williams’s sneering reference to “quotaistas” suggests that he, like many anti-feminists, will not even listen to those they argue against. Yours etc,

DAVID BEATTY,

Coolamber Park,

Knocklyon,

Dublin 16

Sir, – Col Dorcha Lee’s article (“Steady Decline of Defence Forces must be halted”, March 24th) is timely, coming as it does between Green and White Papers on defence.

The Irish Maritime Forum (TIMF) shares Col Lee’s concern at the low percentage of GDP allocated to defence. In the context of the vastly increased sea area claimed by Ireland, the forum advocates an increase in the allocation to maritime security.

The area of operations to be covered by the Navy has more than doubled since the publication of the last defence White Paper. To patrol the area encompassed by the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (410,000 sq km), the White Paper on defence 2000 recommended eight ships and 1,144 personnel. The defence and security of our hugely expanded maritime domain (now 1,000,000 sq km) is surely worthy of an increase to a more realistic number of ships and personnel.

We are an island nation and we now claim the largest maritime domain to landmass of any northwestern European state. In fact 92 per cent of Ireland is under water. This domain contains natural resources with a potential value of several trillion euro, including mineral deposits, fossil fuels, marine life, fisheries and wind and wave energy. Effective policing of our maritime domain is an important indicator of our determination to exploit our marine resources effectively and sustainably. Yours, etc,

CAPT JAMES ROBINSON,

On behalf of the IMF

Boulaling,

Riverstick,

Co Cork.

Sir, – On the subject of the Irish language, which has been featuring in these columns over the last few days, I feel I must express some pent-up feelings that have been with me for decades.

Going to school in Dublin 4 during the 1950s, at all times during Irish class I was reminded that I was not a “fíor gaeilgeoir”. Terms like “seonín” were used liberally and frequently. I was good at Irish and got more than 90 per cent in my Leaving Cert and I have retained a strong affection for the language. But that did not matter during class time.

The school did not have a GAA team – neither did it have a soccer team. It had a rugby team, and I was its captain at several age levels. No opportunity was ever missed to remind me of “garrison towns”.

Some of my classmates were from rural Ireland. The favouritism shown to them by the teacher was little short of sectarian.

Needless to say, most of the rest in the class were completely demotivated from ever having any interest in speaking or having a strong feeling for the retention of the language.

How wonderful now to have TG4 showing Rugbaí Beo . I don’t care if Jerry Flannery’s Irish isn’t perfect (his rugby was very nearly). Can we get on with preserving the language by making it living and not an academic exercise? Yours, etc,

FINTAN GIBNEY

Glasnevin Hill,

Dublin i9

Sir, – The only meaningful way to ensure the continuity of the Irish language in Ireland is if we mandate a high percentage of all broadcasting to be made in Irish. This would allow people the ability to think of the language outside of school. A similar policy has worked wonders for Catalan. So why not in Ireland? Yours, etc,

HEBER ROWAN

Annagh lodge,

Geevagh,

Co Sligo

A Chara,- Tá go leor scríofa, agas cainte déanta, faoi “Ceist na Gaeilge”. Is trua gur i mBéarla a bhíonn sé! Tá sé in am dúinn anois ár dteanga Ghaeilge a úsáid, a bheag nó a mhór de atá againn. Mar a deir an seanfhocal, “Beatha teanga í a úsáid”. Use it or loose it! Is Mise,

SÉAN O’CUINN,

Gleann na Smól,

An Charraig Dhubh,

Átha Cliath

Sir, – My stomach turned listening to RTE’s Primetime interview with Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney on the subject of horse welfare. But it wasn’t just the thought of all those abandoned horses that sickened me, heartrending though their plight is: untold numbers have starved to death, been ill-treated or been rescued in a pitiful, emaciated condition.

It was also the Minister’s professed concern for the welfare of animals generally and his boast that the new Animal Health and Welfare Act has greatly advanced the fight against animal cruelty. He spoke of his determination to alleviate the suffering of animals that are “welfare-compromised”. Yet this is the same Minister who specifically exempted hare-coursing and fox-hunting from prohibition under the Act.

Instead of protecting the fox and the hare from cruelty, the legislation fully permits the live baiting of these animals for “sport”.

Can the Minister not see, or accept, that a wild dog being hounded until its lungs give out and exhaustion delivers it to a pack of hounds to be eviscerated is “welfare-compromised”? And could this euphemism not also be applied to a hare that is terrorised, mauled and tossed about by dogs like a paper toy for the amusement of a crowd of gamblers and sightseers?

The welfare of a fox or fox cub that is dragged from its underground refuge with the aid of spades, terriers, and poles wrapped with barbed wire is certainly compromised, whatever about claims that the hunt “dig-out” is part of a proud rural tradition.

Instead of a horse cull, I suggest a (non-lethal) culling of politicians who claim to love animals while refusing to legislate against some of the worst animal cruelty practices on the planet. Yours, etc,

JOHN FITZGERALD

Campaign for the Abolition

Of Cruel Sports,

Lower Coyne Street,

Callan,

Sir, – The Society of Irish Foresters has added its voice to warnings from the Woodland League on the loss of trees from our parkland, roadsides and hedgerows (Pacelli Breathnach, Letters, March 24th).

Wherever a tree is planted it graciously provides oxygen, flood soakage and shade to the population, while also offering shelter and a habitat to the natural world.

It is to be hoped that our local authorities will fell trees only after an inspection by a qualified arborologist has recommended this course, and then on grounds of safety alone.

It has been pointed out in this newspaper that only one-fifth of one per cent of our tree cover consists of ancient oak, and we cannot afford to lose any more of this species.

At a time when so many people are unemployed it seems incredible that the Government has not seized upon the economic advantages of a massive programme of afforestation. We have 11 per cent tree cover in Ireland.

If we actually wanted to provide jobs and the real wealth of natural resources, greater numbers of different varieties of trees would be planted. On maturity and when ready for harvesting these could produce a paper industry, construction materials and renewable fuel. Yours, etc,

CAITRIONA LAWLOR,

Redesdale Road,

Mount Merrion,

Sir, – I am a local historian engaged in research on the Cumann na mBan in Co Louth. The cumann was the women’s auxiliary corps to the Irish Volunteers and by extension the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence and Civil War periods. It was founded on April 2nd, 1914, in Wynn’s Hotel, Dublin. I wish to contact anyone who may have had a relative, a friend or a neighbour involved in Cumann na mBan activity in Louth and who would like to contribute to my research. I can be contacted at a.rog20@live.com. Yours, etc,

AILBHE ROGERS

Leinster Road,

Rathmines,

Dublin 6

Irish Independent:

* As a former member of An Garda Siochana I am glad that Martin Callinan has decided to resign as commissioner – both for his own sake and for that of his family.

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It is sad to see any garda chief being backed into such a position but it may allow the spotlight to shine more clearly on a Minister for Justice who has used the commissioner for too long as a shelter from criticism.

Alan Shatter has decimated An Garda Siochana since he has come into office. He has denuded the force of stations, manpower and transport, leaving the country with a skeleton police force.

When public opposition to his decisions is expressed, he says the commissioner runs the force. The truth of the situation is that Mr Callinan was not allowed to run the organisation.

When I joined An Garda Siochana, I found it to be a force subservient to politicians and that has changed very little in the interim.

While we now have calls from politicians on all sides for an independent police authority, I would remind them to recall how the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors were calling for such a body to be put in place more than 30 years ago.

Indeed, one former minister opposed the suggestion, alleging “it would be giving excessive control to a police authority”.

At that time, and through the intervening years, there was no political party in favour of a police authority and members of An Garda Siochana of all ranks are well aware of why that is the case.

TONY FAGAN

ENNISCORTHY, CO WEXFORD

COLD MORAL HIGH GROUND

* Yes! Callinan is gone; let’s march on Leinster House and remove the Minister for Justice. Yes, Alan Shatter with his reformist views and bustling intellect, not to mention his in-depth knowledge of our legal system. Why? Sure we don’t like him. He’s not popular. He challenges us and we definitely don’t like that. He’d never be voted in down the country.

Who will replace him? Surely there is a career politician and former teacher ready to fill the highest legal position in the land.

And who should lead this charge to maintain the moral high ground? How about an elected representative who has openly and brazenly avoided paying all his taxes? Perfect. Because we love the rogue who chances his arm and gets away with it. Just like your brother or sister or uncle who was caught speeding but got the points removed after a call to their cousin’s partner’s brother-in-law who happens to be a guard. Ah now, nobody in Ireland would do such a thing!

I have come to admire politicians who are uncomfortable with the parish pump political model and who genuinely seem to have the greater good of the country in mind.

Let us be patient and allow Mr Shatter time and space to defend himself and his record in office. Let us try to park our party loyalties and do what is in everybody’s interests. If this means resigning, so be it, but let it be an informed decision.

RONAN BERRY

TULLAMORE, CO OFFALY

OFF THE CUFF

* I see Health Minister James Reilly is proposing a smoking ban in cars. I agree that it is wrong for adults to expose children to second-hand smoke while driving, but in what universe does he think this is enforceable?

Even if our already overworked gardai were able to pull somebody over for it, how could they ever hope to get a successful prosecution?

An offender would have plenty of time to stub out the ciggie and pull out an e-cigarette before the garda could even get out of the squad car. How is anybody to prove which item was in use at the moment the blue lights started flashing?

Parents are inflicting far more damage on their children by smoking in the home. Can we expect a ban there too? This problem is better solved through education.

If they refuse to learn, then huffing and puffing and threats of the cuffs will achieve nothing.

REVD PATRICK BURKE

CASTLECOMER, CO KILKENNY

OUR TWO-FACED NATION

* It is really amazing how two-faced Ireland has become. We have the positive, vibrant, happy, booming, open-for-business Ireland as portrayed by Enda Kenny and his illustrious team of ministers as they travel the length and breadth of the globe for St Patrick’s weekend.

Then we have the other side as experienced by the public on a day-to-day basis: the shootings, stabbings, muggings, suicides, poverty, depression, robberies, fear, repossessions, bankruptcies, homelessness and bullying.

Which face are you seeing today?

CATHERINE DOLAN

TRALEE, CO KERRY

SICKENING HYPOCRISY

* My stomach turned listening to RTE’s ‘Prime Time’ interview with Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney on the subject of horse welfare.

But it wasn’t just the thought of all those abandoned horses that sickened me. It was also Mr Coveney’s professed concern for the welfare of animals generally and his boast that the new Animal Health and Welfare Act has greatly advanced the fight against animal cruelty. He spoke of his determination to alleviate the suffering of animals that are “welfare compromised”.

Yet this is the same minister who specifically exempted hare coursing and fox hunting from prohibition under the act. Instead of protecting the fox and the hare from cruelty, the legislation fully permits the live baiting of these animals for ‘sport’.

Can he not see, or accept, that a wild fox being chased until its lungs give out and exhaustion delivers it to a pack of hounds to be eviscerated is “welfare compromised”? And could this euphemism not also be applied to a hare that is terrorised, mauled and tossed about by dogs like a paper toy for the amusement of a crowd of gamblers and sightseers?

The welfare of a fox or fox cub that is dragged from its underground refuge with the aid of spades, terriers and poles wrapped with barbed wire is certainly compromised, whatever about claims that the hunt ‘dig-out’ is part of a proud rural tradition.

Instead of a horse cull, I suggest a (non-lethal) culling of politicians who claim to love animals while refusing to legislate against some of the worst animal cruelty practices in the world.

JOHN FITZGERALD

CAMPAIGN FOR THE ABOLITION

OF CRUEL SPORTS, CALLAN, CO KILKENNY

MORAL FIBRE STRUGGLES

* The most recent Fianna Fail ard fheis brings to mind author Milan Kundera‘s observation that “the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”.

With the local and European elections looming it is important voters’ memories are not so dulled by the struggles of the past six years that they forget: that the previous FF government is responsible for the fact that they don’t have a job; or that if they are lucky enough to be working that it is a form of servitude where they are working to pay a big mortgage and a host of bills, with little incentive to make money as it would only go to the banks.

Families who have members with disabilities and who are victims of lost services will not forget (they are reminded on a daily basis) and, of course, there are the thousands of people who have had to emigrate.

Finally, while this cognitive faculty is important, let us also recognise that though the Coalition’s inheritance was a poor one, it has not done enough for those mentioned above and, indeed, as the recent conduct of the Minister for Justice has shown, that the struggle of man against power is about many other things as well as memory – not least of which is moral fibre.

ROB CAREY

TRALEE, CO KERRY