23 July 2014 Books

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A very dry day

Scrabble Mary wins, but gets under 400. perhaps I will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Hilik Bar (A thirst for Israeli blood, 21 July) reduces the charge against Israel to killing too many Palestinians. The story is more complicated. The government of Israel, having provoked the firing of rockets by its rampage through the West Bank, is now using that response as the pretext for an overwhelming assault on Gaza. People are dying, and for what?

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Angus Roxburgh (Comment, 22 July) describes the “rebels” in eastern Ukraine as “drunken, gun-toting hotheads”. Some facts are in order. Ukraine’s democratically elected President Yanukovich was overthrown in a western-backed and largely fascist-led coup. In response the people of Donetsk and Luhansk, who had supported Yanukovich, held referendums for independence on 11 May. With turnouts of 75% in both Donetsk and Luhansk they voted for independence from Ukraine with 89% and 96% respectively of the vote. The response was an intensification of the military assault from Kiev.

Dear Michael,

Hearty congratulations to you on becoming the new chief executive of the Global Reporting Initiative. Your selection among an exceptionally strong group of candidates bodes well for both GRI and the future of corporate transparency worldwide.

Ernst Ligteringen’s departure after a dozen years of exemplary leadership is a pivotal juncture rich in opportunities in a world dramatically different from 1997 when Bob Massie and I co-founded GRI. At that moment, we committed to a vision whose time we believed had come. We sensed that the ingredients common to all major social innovations – shared grievance, propitious timing, and bold leadership – were present and ready to fuel a major shift in corporate transparency. With collaboration from companies, investors, NGOs, labour groups and multilaterals in GRI’s early years, we were able to lay the foundation for the GRI that you will lead in the coming years.

GRI faces a spectrum of challenges in preserving its position at the vanguard of sustainability reporting. As you well know from your work as an entrepreneur, an organisation that stands still is an organisation that will not thrive in the long-term. GRI’s reconstituted governance is an example of adaptation in the face of a changing landscape in which sustainability reporting, in little more than a decade, has shifted from the extraordinary to the exceptional to the expected. Now, the challenge of raising the number of GRI reporters from thousands to tens of thousands demands a new generation of innovation, executed in a way that ensures that its original higher purpose – contributing to a just and sustainable global future – remains intact. Reporting has been, and always will be, a means to an end, not an end in itself. Disclosure is one among many necessary, but not sufficient conditions, for catalysing transformational change.

In collaboration with the Board, you undoubtedly are developing a strategy to guide GRI’s operations in the coming decade. From my outsider perspective, I hope that these deliberations include a number of critical questions: First, how to bring sustainability reporting to the hundreds of thousands of private companies worldwide to complement GRI’s strength with publicly-listed firms. Second, how to further advance customisation of reporting to address the diversity of materiality issues for both report preparers and report users such that no organisation can rightfully claim irrelevance, complexity or burden as an excuse not to report. Third, how to accelerate GRI reporting from “soft law” to “hard law” through integration in government policy, law and regulation.

Fourth, how to more closely and constructively collaborate with kindred disclosure initiatives to address market fatigue and confusion with disparate – and potentially complementary – initiatives. GRI’s memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IRRC (pdf) is a step in the right direction. Like any MoU, it’s not only what’s in writing that matters – it’s the concrete actions that follow that give any MoU real meaning. GRI’s efforts to cooperate with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) should continue. The focus of the SASB – investor, US and sectoral – complements GRI’s multi-user, global and universal indicators strengths. Imagine the impact of harmonising these two initiatives in driving reporting excellence and uptake worldwide. Win-win arrangements are within reach.

And lastly, how to ensure that sustainability context – the integration of thresholds and limits into environmental and social disclosures – remains a high priority in GRI’s methodological innovation. The collective gains resulting from incremental improvements in environmental and social performance must be measured against the realities of finite constraints in terms of ecological limits and social norms if true sustainability is to be achieved.

Sustainability reporting and the transparency it promotes remains a work in progress, and always will be. New sustainability issues continuously emerge in a dynamic, rapidly changing world. In the early 2000′s, GRI identified HIV-AIDs as a material issue in mining and other extractive industries, a position met with raised eyebrows that soon gave way to broad acceptance by both reporters and report users. Now, privacy, livable wages, “dark pools” in financial markets and other emergent issues merit the same level of attention as carbon emissions, occupational health and safety, board diversity and other issues regarded as mainstream. The “mainstream” does not stand still; it continues to widen.

I wish you great success in leading GRI into its next phase. In a perilous world, its role as movement builder, thought leader and social entrepreneur is needed more than ever. With restructured and streamlined governance, an enduring commitment to innovation and collaboration, and reducing barriers to scaling the number of reports by orders of magnitude, GRI’s will continue to play the role of game changer that its founding fathers envisioned.

Cordially,

Allen White

Independent:

“Why can’t the countryside be governed by the people who actually understand it?” asks the headline on Nigel Farage’s column of 19 July. I know that Ukip harks back to “the good old days”, but isn’t the 18th century going a bit far?

The people who understand the countryside are those who earn their living there by producing our food. If Nigel Farage wanted to get an idea of the countryside he should have gone to any of the big regional agricultural shows and spoken to productive members of rural society.

Instead he went as a guest of the Country Landowners’ Association to the annual Game Fair held at Blenheim Palace – an event for the country’s wealthiest elite and gun-toting City types, to whom the countryside is a noisy playground, an onshore tax-haven and a conduit through which they can expropriate vast amounts of EU agricultural subsidy in the form of the “single farm payment”.

In the rest of the EU these payments go almost entirely to working family farms. In the UK they are snaffled away by those who own the land, either by claiming the subsidy before renting the land to those who work it, or by forcing up rents to such a level that all of the subsidy goes to the landowner.

It is shocking for Mr Farage to say that Ukip would limit the EU payment going to any individual; the EU has been trying to do this for years , thwarted by the ultra-rich British establishment, his hosts at Blenheim, lobbying the UK government against any limit.

Aidan Harrison
Rothbury, Northumberland

I visited a small farm which is in an EU “stewardship” scheme. There were hares everywhere on the wide field margins. If I were a hare, I wouldn’t vote for Nigel Farage.

Alison Brackenbury
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

MH17 reveals gaping hole in air safety

Media coverage since the loss of MH17 seems to focus on the rights and wrongs of the various criminals involved, but to me as an engineer the terrible loss of 298 persons is a result of the failure of a system, the air transport system that is tasked with keeping us all safe.

No aircraft had any business overflying Ukraine in the last few weeks as evidence mounted that weapons being used were a growing threat to civil aviation. The weak link in the chain seems to me to be that a country is responsible for certifying its own airspace, when there are reasons of national pride and competence, not to mention over-flight fees, that could cloud local officials’ judgement.

There will always be the Putins of the world but the airline industry, by addressing this gaping hole in our air transport protocols, will go farther to prevent further atrocities than any amount of moral indignation.

John Holdsworth
London E14

Yes, McVey should keep quiet

So poor Esther McVey will sit at Cameron’s Cabinet table but will not be allowed to speak (Matthew Norman, 21 July). No surprise there.

She has in recent months visited the school where two of my nieces go, to inspire the young female sixth-form students. She showed a clear lack of interest in them or their concerns for their uncertain job future. But they noticed her distinct interest in the press cameras that were in the same room, so much so that the students renamed her “Esther McMe”.

One 17-year-old said Esther would do well to take the cotton wool out of her ears and shove it in her mouth. Perhaps Cameron had the same thought?

Anna Christie
Wirral

Pictures of the victims of war

I agree with Robert Fisk (21 July) about the censoring of news pictures from war zones, and especially from Gaza. The coy phrase “some viewers may find the pictures disturbing” is in itself disturbing to most thoughtful people.

If pictures were on our TV screens showing a parent running in terror carrying her child with a limb torn off or half its face blown away, instead of the sanitised pictures of wrapped bodies on the way to burial, how long would public outrage be contained?

After a few days of censored pictures and action shots of long-range guns or helicopter gunships the public switch off; we have seen it all before. Let the world see the real effect of high explosive on human bodies, not its affect on piles of concrete rubble, and the outrage would demand it stop immediately.

Gary Kirk
Burnley, Lancashire

I find Robert Fisk’s suggestion that we should be shown the uncensored pictures of dead bodies in war zones most unsavoury. It affronts the very essence of a civilised society.

If it were to prevent war I could understand, but it won’t. Instead it will create even more hatred and a craving for revenge, which, in the Middle East, will recruit yet more bloodthirsty jihadis.

The last thing we need is more voyeuristic pornography on our television screens.

Stan Labovitch
Windsor

Wrong place for a statue of Gandhi

The proposal to erect a statue to Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square is a stunt worthy of Tony Blair’s spin machine. It shows a lack of understanding of history and is a blatant tool of diplomacy.

Gandhi is certainly worth commemorating: he was a great man and a key figure in promoting non-violence. However, this is not the way to commemorate him or the place to do it.

Gandhi was primarily interested in moral and ethical issues, not in participating in parliamentary democracy. He led the Congress boycott of the 1920 elections, which began a process of devolution of powers within a parliamentary system, allowing responsibility in certain subjects to Indian ministers. Thereafter, he was involved more in obstructing constitutional change than promoting it, culminating in his call for mass civil disobedience at the moment when the Japanese invasion in 1942 was threatening India.

There is already a very fine statue to Gandhi in Tavistock Square, London, now known by many as “Pea   ce Park”. Parliament Square, standing near his arch-critic Winston Churchill, is inappropriate.

Gandhi is too often used as a convenient icon, whilst neglecting his real messages. A much better commemoration of the Mahatma would be the provision of scholarships for overseas students in law (Gandhi’s chosen subject), human rights, and business ethics.

Philip Woods
London W5

An appointment with shameless commerce

My GP surgery have just installed an on-line appointments system and, guess what, it cost them nothing. Wonderful! Except of course it isn’t.

If I had known it was a freebie before I used it I would not have touched it with a barge-pole, because one of the things which you learn is that free sites are not to be trusted.

I got a load of trouble in the shape of pop-up adverts. My computer started to look like the Blackpool sea front. That people think they have the right to put stuff I do not want and cannot easily remove on my computer without my permission makes me fume. It cost me £50 to get MacAfee to do it for me.

I understand that the suppliers of the service are completely unapologetic. They say “That’s how we make our money”  and “people can get pop-up blockers”. Understood, but I resent the onus being put on me to pay keep out stuff I do not want. I know I have to do this with “cowboy” sites, which I do by simply ignoring them, but I do not expect to have to put up with this from my doctor!

It doesn’t give you much confidence in business morality which, in my view, is rapidly going downhill. I do not want the Health Service joining in this decline.

Dudley Dean
Maresfield, East Sussex

Assisted dying is all about choice

It was very difficult to read Robyn Appleton’s description of his father’s final hours (letter, 19 July) without emotion. On the face of it, the letter made a powerful case for perseverance with the status quo regarding assisted suicide.

However it brought into focus the critical issue here. Were the law to change in favour of Lord Falconer’s private member’s Bill, Mr Appleton’s father would still have had the option to see out his life in pain or to choose to end it all, albeit assisted. As things stand, those of us who would welcome the choice will still have no such option.

Philip Stephenson
Cambridge

Superbugs on  the rampage

In your report “Shock find of superbugs in river alarms scientists” (19 July) sewage-treatment plants are described as giant “mixing vessels” where antibiotic resistance can spread between microbes. With increasing outbreaks of ebola virus in West Africa, and smallpox being regenerated in laboratories, is this nature’s WMD?

Mike Loveland
London SE1

Times:

Telegraph:

SIR – The move to mass-medicate, using statins for prevention (Letters, July 19), is not without its cost to the individual.

6:59AM BST 22 Jul 2014

Comments

Irish Times:

Sir, – As Stephen Collins (July 19th) rightly points out, Mary Lou McDonald’s recent claim that the IRA campaign in Northern Ireland was “inevitable” must be challenged.

While she is right that nationalists in Northern Ireland experienced blatant injustices and discrimination, this in no way legitimises the armed response of the IRA. In fact, opposition to those injustices was led not by the IRA but by the leaders of the peaceful and democratic civil rights movement. As a result of their work, major reforms were achieved in housing allocation, employment, the electoral franchise and policing. They also negotiated the reform of the governance of the Northern Ireland state in the Sunningdale Agreement of 1974, which included power-sharing between unionists and nationalists and the establishment of all-island institutions.

The IRA, however, completely rejected this agreement and demonised those democrats who negotiated it. Instead, they embarked on their own “long war”, with the stated aim of making Northern Ireland ungovernable under a crude “Brits Out” strategy – without reference to reform, civil rights, or ending discrimination and injustice. This caused thousands of deaths and countless atrocities and saw Northern Ireland caught in a bitter sectarian conflict between the IRA, loyalist paramilitaries and British security forces.

Only when the IRA belatedly came to the conclusion that they could not win did they begin to seek a way out. This came at the expense of many lives and a deeply divided society in Northern Ireland that remains divided in the more peaceful era enjoyed today.

Sinn Féin leaders have received credit for finding a way out of the bloody cul-de-sac into which the IRA should never have gone. Their party has entered the political mainstream and achieved success. But any credit is tarnished when they try to rewrite history and claim that the IRA campaign was in any way justified.

SEAN FARREN,

Portstewart,

Co Derry

Sir, – Gerry Adams, in his recent response to Prof John A Murphy, seems to have missed his most important point, which was that nationalists in general should “face up to the unpalatable historical truth that some form of partition … was necessary to deal with the two conflicting nations in Ireland”.

Similarly, some form of “partition” is necessary to deal with the same two conflicting nations in Northern Ireland. But not according to Prof Murphy: “At this stage in Northern Ireland, surely what is needed most is a long period of peaceful community relations and the slow building of reconciliation.” But he had actually dismissed this kind of talk from Gerry Adams: “But this is no more than aspirational waffle … Orange has shown no interest in any ‘accommodation’ with Green.”

To quote unionist columnist Alex Kane, writing in the News Letter: “Or – and I did say we had a choice – we keep going as we are and accept the most difficult truth of all: which is that we really don’t like each other, don’t want to work together and won’t ever have a common agenda or purpose. I suspect the latter represents the unvarnished truth of our situation.”

What we need to understand and accept is that the Ulster Protestant people do not want to be part of a united Ireland, full stop. The main “republican ideal” is to coerce those people into a united Ireland by force of numbers. To quote Gerry Adams, “a peaceful path to Irish unity”. – Is mise,

MALACHY SCOTT,

Teach Clifton,

North Queen Street,

Belfast

Sir, — As many Irish speakers have stated, the Gaelic language is the first offical language of the State and our native tongue.

If that is the case, why do we need a Department of the Gaeltacht when we don’t have a Department of English? Why are there Irish language schools for Irish people, when the English language schools are only used by foreigners? If Irish is becoming more popular, how come the Gaeltacht has not increased in size since it was created?

Why do we have Údarás na Gaeltachta, which wastes half its €17.5 million funding on administration? How many multinational companies set up in Ireland because of our Irish speakers? Why do our schoolchildren spend so much time on two subjects, Irish and religion, which are of minimal use in getting a job, contribute nothing to the economy or exchequer, and in relation to which most children leave school knowing as much about them as when they started.

Why does the website of An Coimisinéir Teanga focus on Irish language rights, when the Official Languages Act 2003 instructs him to protect the rights of both languages? And why do Irish language activists continually ask for public services through Irish and then not use them? Case in point, for Census 2011, of the 1,662,253 forms submitted, only 7,806, or 0.47 per cent, were the Irish version. – Yours, etc,

JASON FITZHARRIS,

Rivervalley,

Swords,

Co Dublin

A chara, – Aidan Doyle’s assertion that native speakers of Irish prefer to use English with State bodies is misleading. If services through Irish weren’t provided so grudgingly and without question there would be no issue. For no practical reason, many of us have had to wait for extended periods and even produce solicitors’ letters to avail of these services. It would be a terrible mistake to change the constitutional status of Irish as this is our defence against a Government that, in spite of its rhetoric, is doing everything to discourage us from speaking our language. – Le meas,

MAITIÚ de HÁL,

Cearnóg an Ghraeigh,

Baile Átha Cliath 8

Sir,- I am pleased to hear that the Minister for the Gaeltacht, Joe McHugh, has to brush up on his Irish (your editorial, of 19th July 19th).

I hope, however, that he will be realistic and also speak English freely, as he would in any other European country when he has a problem with the local language. I am pleased, since at last the majority of Irish speakers (the ones not fluent in the language) will have a rep familiar with our difficulties, one who might hopefully face the realities that we labour under, such as – the gross imbalance between funding of creative writing in Irish and expenditure on translating official documents; the need to boot the language high priests to allow freedom of expression and modernisation in old-fashioned grammar such as prefixes – which are the bane of students and writers. That would be rebalancing his portfolio, which after all includes Irish culture. – Yours, etc,

RAPHAEL DARCY,

Dundrum.

Dublin 16

Sir, – If and when Joe McHugh attains “fluency in the State’s first official language” (your editorial “A tongue-tied Minister”, July 19th), might he be tempted to show off his newly acquired skill by communicating solely through the medium of Irish while in the Dáil chamber?

If so, I feel such a course of action would be bound to shame the majority of our “linguistically challenged” Deputies currently ensconced in the lower house to enroll into (subsidised?) Irish language classes during the long winter months. Ní faide gob na gé ná gob an ghandail. – Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Beacon Hill,

Dalkey,

Co Dublin

A chara, – Bíonn go leor daoine ag fail lochtanna orthu siúd a bhaineann triall as an chuid Gaeilge atá acu. Níl taithí ar bith eile níos comhachtaí chun stop a chur le scaipeadh na dteangan. Ní feictear an friothgníomh céanna le daoine nach bhfuil Béarla foirfe acu pé Éireannaigh iad nó eachtrannach. Ba choir dúinn fáilte a chur roimh éinne atá sásta an iarracht a dhéanamh má theastaíonn uainn an teanga a scaipeadh níos forleithne. (Níl aon amhras orm ach go bhfuil lochtanna ag baint leis an litir seo feasta!) – Is mise,

CÓRA Uí SHEARCAIGH,

Celbridge,

Co Kildare.

Sirs, – I refer to the article “Denis O’Brien ‘is on the wrong side of history’, says Viber chief” written by Mark Paul (Business This Week, July 18th). Unfortunately, your piece seems to focus upon the misleading and self-serving version of events presently being advanced on Viber’s behalf. In so doing, some fundamental facts are omitted and thus the piece lacks balance.

Viber entered into a written agreement with Digicel, but is now refusing to pay for the services provided under that agreement. The article also fails to highlight that it is illegal in many markets in the Caribbean (most notably in Jamaica and Haiti) to deliberately circumvent the facilities of licensed network operators.

Indeed, in many of these markets, a very significant portion of the revenue earned from international incoming traffic is passed to local governments in the form of Universal Service Funds and other government-imposed levies. This bypass deliberately deprives both licenced operators and governments of significant revenues whilst earning windfall sums for parties that have invested nothing in the region but who seek to make a quick buck on the back of significant capital investment made by others.

The issue is not about being on the wrong side of history; it is about being on the right side of the law. Mr Paul also fails to inform your readers that Digicel’s primary competitor in the region, Cable and Wireless, has taken similar action and has also blocked certain VoIP operators in the region, including Viber. – Yours, etc,

CONOR CLARKE,

Director of International

Business,

Digicel Group Limited,

Kingston,

Jamaica

Sir, – Frank Flannery (“Flannery criticises FG election efforts”, July 22nd) is too critical. Voters supported Fine Gael at the last general election primarily to bring back financial stability to the country. Since that time, it has comprehensively delivered on that objective. Ten-year bond yields currently oscillate around 2.5 per cent, exceeding what would have been reasonable expectations three years ago. The party put in place a target of 100,000 jobs created by 2016, and that target has since become a realistic one.

It is true that the voters did not reward the party at the last local elections. Such a decline in support was, on the whole, unjustified. The tradition of complaining about the Government has become so deeply ingrained in Irish society that it has become almost automatic. Whichever party takes on the difficult task of government after the next election will face similar criticism after a short-lived political “honeymoon”. Mr Flannery’s comments do not sufficiently reflect that reality. – Yours, etc,

JOHN KENNEDY,

Goatstown,

Dublin 14

Sir, – Tim Dennehy (Letters, July 21st) notes that The Irish Times has not published any expressions of opinion supporting the direct provision system for asylum seekers. He is correct, perhaps because to support direct provision is to defend the indefensible. Supporting it justifies an unjustifiable situation for those men, women and children forced to live in reprehensible conditions, day after day, year after year in a brutal limbo.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights hearings last week made it clear that the Government supports and defends direct provision. Countless letters and articles have apparently not yet demonstrated to it the vast and overwhelming depravity of it.

So we’ll keep writing. – Yours, etc,

AISLING TWOMEY,

Anne Street North,

Dublin 7

A chara, – To answer concerns raised by Breda O’Brien about certain social media sites (Opinion & Analysis, July 19th) Declan Kelly lashes into the Roman Catholic Church (Letters, July 22nd).

Debate in this country is going to become fairly simple, but very boring and rather pointless, if instead of actually addressing issues that come up we instead employ a one-size-fits-all response along the lines of “Forget about that – just look at the Catholic Church.” – Is mise,

REVD PATRICK G BURKE,

Castlecomer,

Co Kilkenny

Sir, – I am a proud Cork man and Irish man. I am of average weight (or less); I am not an alcoholic or a drug addict; I do not own any apartments in Bulgaria or anywhere else. In this I am typical of most citizens of this country.

Fintan O’Toole (“We Irish are unable to think about the future”, July 22nd) seems to be addicted to gross generalisations and lazy self-loathing on our collective behalf. Arbitrary generalisations about a nation, or any other subset of humanity, offend me, as they do any right-thinking person. Mr O’Toole should desist from this practice. – Yours, etc,

JOHN McNAMARA,

Salmon View Terrace,

Corcaigh

Sir, – Gerry Adams (July 22nd) states that “The citizens of Gaza may hear of the Irish parliament extending solidarity to them.”

The trouble is that the “citizens of Gaza” include Hamas, who may feel that the Dáil gesture denotes unquestioning support for their militant behaviour. It may not be seen as “something that represents the feeling of a huge number of Irish people – that is peace in the Middle East?”

Mr Adams, of all people, should know that the first step to achieving peace anywhere is to cease military activity that is clearly failing in its objective and to seek unconditional dialogue.

If Ireland wants to position itself as a peacemaker, it must first be careful not to be seen as taking sides. This should not preclude us from deploring the lethal consequences on both sides of armed conflict. – Yours, etc,

PADDY CREAN,

Bromley Court,

Sir, – I note with some alarm the award of €70,000 to a born again Christian dismissed from his position for repeatedly failing to respect the rights of others to a religion-free workplace.

The equality officer in this case would, I am sure, equally find in favour of myself as an atheist had I formally complained about a colleague behaving in this manner and the management had subsequently failed to prevent his (entirely inappropriate) behaviour.

What can an employer do, caught between two such positions, when the person charged with hearing a case like this shows such a lamentable lack of common sense or judgement?

I should have thought that any equality officer worth the title would have had no difficulties in telling those of any particular creed or faith (or lack of it!) to leave it where it belongs in a modern workplace – at the door. Yours, etc,

DARRAGH McHUGH

Kilmainham,

Dublin 8

Sir,   – I’m gobsmacked by your report (“Council worker unfairly sacked over his faith”, July 22nd).  Next time I visit my council office, in the event of the official I deal with being an evangelical Christian, a scientologist or a salafist,  am I obliged to put up with advocacy, or even proselytising, as part of the transaction?  Even though I only want a parking permit?   Ye Gods!   – Yours, etc,

PAT NOLAN,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin

Sir, – Ronan O’Brien (“Redmond’s role in story of State should be recognised”, July 21st) describes “a constitutional triumvirate that dominated Irish politics for a century”.

Really it was a string quartet, and one with an obvious first violin. Sure, O’Connell, Parnell and Redmond were the most significant politicians. But there was also ecclesiastical dominance, personified in particular by Cardinal Paul Cullen (1852-78).

The Catholic bishops were on the happy side of every election in Ireland from 1832 until 1880, including 1859, when they backed the British Conservative Party then led by the Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. – Yours, etc,

PAUL HICKEY,

Gamehill,

Castlecoote,

Co Roscommon

Sir, – Brian Maye’s account of WG Grace as a cricketer (Irishman’s Diary, July 22nd) also mentions his qualification as a medical doctor. He may have been a great cricketer but he was my grandmother’s not-so-great physician – she was an invalid most of her life. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD PINE,

Perithia,

Corfu,

Greece

Irish Independent:

* I attended Croke Park last Sunday where I watched a wonderful minor Leinster final between Dublin and Kildare.

I then watched a one-sided Leinster senior final where it was all over bar the shouting by half time.

It was not what I expected.

Yes, Dublin are indeed a class act. Yet there are TV, radio and newspaper pundits who still labour on about this team not yet being tested as if to say that there are better teams out there who will finally take the scalp of the All-Ireland champions.

There are some who go so far as to say that Dublin’s superiority is no help to the other teams in Leinster or to any of the other provinces.

It might be no harm to remind these whimpering pundits that the mighty Kerry won the All-Ireland no less than 14 times from 1975 onwards, while the wonderful Kilkenny hurlers have lifted the championship nine times since 2000.

I don’t recall any moaning when either of these teams dominated their respective games.

They forced other teams to step up to their class.

They made other teams realise that it can be done, only if the will is there and it is allied to help and encouragement from the county boards.

Everyone secretly wants to see the matador gored no matter how great he may be.

And for a long time the world of boxing wanted to see Cassius Clay, later the great Muhammad Ali, being defeated until they finally grudgingly bowed to his superiority.

And so it goes on and on. It’s called human nature – or to be more precise, the secret wish of the begrudger.

To all of the aforementioned, bow your heads now and ask for forgiveness before the time comes when this great Dublin team have long since retired and you will probably whisper between the slugs from your pint: “Ah yeah, that Dublin team was great alright.”

FRED MOLLOY

GLENVILLE, CLONSILLA, DUBLIN 15

AN ECUMENICAL MATTER

* I realise that we are a dying breed – by which I mean those who can remember the newspaper reports from the late 1940s when the Stern Gang, the Irgun Guerrillas and, to a lesser extent, Haganah were establishing the Jewish homeland as promised in the Balfour Declaration.

With the Arabs trying to keep their land from Jewish immigrants (legal and illegal), the French police were saving London when they stopped a group from the Stern Gang who were planning an aerial bombardment.

The retaliation was similar to today, more noisy but less effective.

Some years ago Geoffrey Wheatcroft wrote an interesting article in ‘The Daily Telegraph’, drawing attention to how much of the Earth’s troubles derive from the Old Testament, inter-Jewish, inter-Christian and inter-Islam factions and the three main bodies carrying out Crusades and Jihads.

I feel Christians are now moving towards the message of Christ through ecumenism but the other two are still in the mire, believing in a vengeful, unforgiving and self-righteous God. For their sakes, I hope when they finally meet him he is not.

CAL HYLAND

WEST CORK

ISRAEL’S LAND GRAB IN PALESTINE

* I have just read the Ian O’Doherty piece on Israel and was slightly shocked by his take on the situation in Gaza, with him believing that we are being fed lies by the media and receiving incorrect information. What the facts tell us is that France and Britain organised there to be an area for European Jews to live in Palestine over a century ago.

What the facts tell us is that the UN partitioned Palestine in 1947 to allow the creation of Israel, which the Israelis subsequently ignored and have since proceeded to invade and cross over international lines to give themselves a larger area to control. They have destroyed a nation and pushed people to live in a cramped open-air prison.

How is that not an occupation? How is that not reminiscent of ‘lebensraum’?

EMMA HARRIS

CASTLEKNOCK, DUBLIN

IT’S TIME EU STOOD UP TO RUSSIA

* Two hundred and ninety-eight lives were lost when a civilian airliner was shot down by a missile available to only the most advanced armies in the world and fired from an area controlled by Ukrainian rebels.

Such weapons had previously been used to shoot down Ukrainian military aircraft. Whether it was operated by insurgents, Russian “advisers”, or regular Russian troops, is almost immaterial. Putin and the Russian federation are ultimately responsible. And yet European leaders do little but wring their hands and complain about the chaotic crash scene investigation and the recovery of bodies.

No one expects European leaders to go to war with a nuclear power like Russia over such a provocation – but the repeated mincing of words by Obama and his NATO allies is embarrassing.

Well might Putin obfuscate until the outcry dies down. But isn’t it about time that the EU took some concerted action? How about a strategic EU energy policy and plan to reduce all dependence on Russian gas within 10 years to zero by building a European super-grid powered from largely sustainable sources?

Irish and Scottish wind, wave and tidal turbines allied to eastern European and Mediterranean solar farms could make up a huge amount of the energy deficit created by a progressive reduction in Russian energy imports, whilst at the same time providing a much-needed boost to investment across the EU.

FRANK SCHNITTGER

BLESSINGTON, CO WICKLOW

PUBLIC INTEREST BROADCASTING

* Irony always springs to mind when I hear RTE personnel asking questions about high salaries, especially when you know that the questioners are themselves earning very high salaries – in some cases, for the minimum of time and effort.

It would be in the public interest to have the whole organisation opened up to scrutiny by the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee on behalf of the licence payer.

One of the questions that could be put to them would be on their position as an equal opportunity employer. And the whole area of expenditure and expenses as well as salaries and fees.

HARRY MULHERN

DUBLIN

KERINS ‘ORDEAL’ IS LAUGHABLE

* Angela Kerins says she suffered an ‘ordeal’ under questioning by PAC. Poor baby. After eight years of living it large as a very well paid CEO, she had to answer some questions about the taxpayers’ money.

I’ve spent 12 years working for Rehab, on about 15pc of what she earned annually.

Am I asked regularly what I am doing? Of course.

Do I have to constantly prove my effectiveness? Yes.

Is my spending planned, checked and verified? All the time.

Like me, Angela knows the work, knows the sector, knows who the money is coming from and exactly what will be asked of her.

Like any member of staff, she had a spotlight shone on her – at the intensity suitable for her abilities and paygrade. Unlike the thousands still working (and working very well) for Rehab, she chose to resign.

JAMES HYDE

LISMORE, CO WATERFORD

Irish Independent