Letters: Appalling treatment of Irish pigs worthy of an RTÉ exposé

The latest investigation, like the previous, was met with the usual denials from the industry: isolated cases, inspections are carried out and so on, denials starting to ring hollow at this stage.

But why is it we only get outraged about cruelty against the animals we engage with socially? What about our treatment of the animals we raise for food?

A recent report by the ­National Animal Rights Association showed systemic cruelty in the pig-farming industry in Ireland, with the animals kept in conditions and subjected to treatment deemed illegal and cruel in the dog breeding indus­try, for instance, yet tolerated when it comes to pigs.

It’s worth noting that pigs are in many ways smarter than dogs, bond with humans when given the chance and have been shown to recognise humans and, indeed other pigs, after years of separation.

In other words, they are intelligent, sentient creatures. Despite this, we raise them in appalling conditions that go totally against their natural instincts, ensuring their short lives are passed in a state of constant stress.

The pig industry and the Department of Agriculture responded to the animal rights investigation — and guess what the response was?

You guessed it: isolated case, inspections are carried out and so on.

Dermot Lane, Tyrrelstown, Dublin 15

Ryan leaves stage with a record to be proud of

Sir — I was heartened to note the tributes to Eamon Ryan when he announced his forthcoming retirement last week.

He is a politician who always endeavoured to do what is right, and in persisting to do so he truly fought the good fight.

Despite the scepticism and ridicule of others, often bordering on the nasty, and the powerful influence of vested interests such as Ryanair, he never resorted to snide personal remarks and grat­uitous jibes, the blight of political discourse in this era.

Michael Gannon, St Thomas Square, Kilkenny

•Sir — Eamon Ryan had his critics, but I always found him to be a man of decency and integrity and wish him well in his retirement from the cut and thrust of politics. In his last speech to the Dáil as Taoiseach, the late Charles Haughey quoted Othello. Eamon Ryan, too, has done the State some service.

John O’Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary

No farmers upset by Green chief’s farewell

Sir — Heaven protect us from the pleadings of Eamon Ryan that there is misplaced animosity in rural Ireland towards him and his Green Party.

He also says he and his party failed to connect and get their message across, to farmers in particular. In fact, it came across loud and clear: the Greens want all of us farmers to return to a 1950s style low-input, low-output subsistence agriculture with organic production dominating.

They tell us we will get a premium for our produce. Well, it’s not the Greens who decide whether we get a premium for our produce, it’s the consumer — and the consumer has decided against it. Organic produce commands little or no premium in the supermarkets and everyone knows you can’t have champagne for lemonade money.

He is correct when he says there is animosity in rural ­Ireland towards the Greens, but animosity is a two-way street, and the animosity and disregard the Greens have shown towards rural Ireland, and farmers in particular, is palpable and shocking.

John Hourigan, Chairman, Carbon Removals Action Group, Co Limerick

Varadkar’s unity plan just does not add up

Sir — Speaking at an Ireland’s Future event in Belfast, Leo Varadkar suggested a financial fund could be set up by the Government to prepare for the transition period towards unity.

I find this surpris­ing as he seems to have dismissed the recent report provided by John FitzGerald and Edgar Morgenroth. Both highly regarded economists made it abundantly clear that the cost of unity would be of such a colossal scale it would be unaffordable.

It also makes me wonder why he would have made such a suggestion at a meeting consisting mainly of highly motivated supporters of a united Ireland.

Niall Ginty, Killester, Dublin 5

Latest attack shows our laws are failing

Sir — Media reports on the savage assault on a woman making her way home from work in Limerick and the subsequent fully suspended sentence imposed by the judge brought to mind some of the litany of assaults perpetrated by men against women.

Following the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996, the government said a “watershed” had been reached and legislation would be introduced to deal effectively with violent crime and those responsible for it.

In 2009, 17-year-old Swiss student Manuela Riedo was strangled after just two days in Ireland by a convicted rapist and killer who was on bail at the time he carried out this brutal murder. This killing was also referred to as a “watershed moment”, with promises that comprehensive legislation would be introduced to deal with violent crimes against women.

In 2021, a sentence of six years was imposed on a man for the attempted kidnapping, assault and false imprisonment of a 70-year-old woman at Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin. The victim, a seemingly forgotten statistic now, was forced into the boot of a car at 7.30am as she walked near her home at the Phoenix Park. This case was also regarded as a ­“watershed moment” in the struggle to protect women from violent attacks by men.

The killing of teacher Ashling Murphy in 2022 in ­Tullamore should not be allowed to be turned into just another “watershed” statistic.

Most of us can only look on in confused bewilderment and helpless frustration at the inadequate sentencing policies and bizarre bail laws that result in violent criminals remaining at liberty to terrorise society.

Sentences handed down by the courts set standards of behaviour in society. While I agree with prison reform and prisoner rehabilitation, I also believe in the right of citizens to feel safe on the streets, on public transport and in their homes. We have had enough “watersheds” to turn the Sahara into an oasis.

Tom Cooper, Templeville Road, Dublin 6W

•Sir — I have never ceased to be shocked and stunned by sentences handed down in our courts. At present a man lingers in jail, basically because of his religious beliefs. Meanwhile, a man who beat a woman senseless, and others who terrorised elderly rural people in their homes while out on bail, walk the streets having received the “benefit” of suspended sentences.

I am not sure any more that our system of justice is fit for purpose. That disturbs me greatly.

Liam Tighe, Dublin 15

•Sir — I’m shocked and sadd­ened that a judge would suspend a sentence because he reckoned a soldier charged with repeatedly striking a defenceless young woman would lose his job. He is paid to defend citizens, not to punch a young girl.

Kevin Carolan, Bailieboro, Co Cavan

UL saga is mixing tragedy and farce

Sir — Surely the best one-liner in the gripping mid-West End farce that constitutes management life at the University of Limerick (UL) came from TD Alan Kelly, a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Spluttering in frustration at the failure of a key UL witness to appear at a scheduled examination of its accounts in May last year, he likened proceedings to a performance of Hamlet without the prince. Neat.​

Now, thanks to Wayne O’Connor’s piece last week, we know that the absent prince (UL’s chief commercial officer) was busily encouraging his colleagues by text to row in behind a UL president struggling to deal with the PAC’s questions. Some of them related to the circumstances of his own appointment.

Quite how and why the CCO managed all of this at a previous and unrelated engagement that coincided precisely with the PAC meeting (as he has maintained) has yet to be made clear.

The tragedy of this production of Hamlet has nothing to do with a prince who loses the power to act nor a queen handed a poisoned chalice. UL has had the misfortune of being led by people who failed to accept that the rules and norms that apply in society as a whole apply equally to those entrusted with leading its most precious institutions.

Jeremy Callaghan, Caherconlish, Co Limerick

Civil War parties are still joined at the hip

Sir — I congratulate Eilis O’Hanlon on her incisive article on Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael co-dependency (June 16).

There is not one Oireachtas member in either party who could list a dozen differences between the parties off the cuff.

Paddy Murray, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath

Swastika graffiti is a matter for gardaí

Sir — I’m not Jewish, but I have many close Irish contacts and friends who are. I have been told of two recent incidences of graff­iti swastikas scrawled in public view, in places where my Jewish friends work. These were ignored by passers-by until reported to management by my friends and then subsequently removed.

One of these places was the local university and the other a local supermarket. My friends and I were obviously disgusted that this type of graffiti did not attract immediate condemnation by passers-by and management, and in hindsight gardaí should have immediately been contacted in both cases.

These incidences and a complaint would then be on record and maybe CCTV could have been used to identify and punish the culprits.

Unfortunately, my children have told me that there was always the odd swastika carved into a desk or two at school. This symbol can only be interpreted as representing pure evil.

Scrawling a swastika on a wall must be seen as the equivalent of burning a flag, or proclaiming the battle cry of any terrorist organization, so should not be tolerated or ignored by us as a society.

Name and address with editor

Jewish writers play part in our heritage

Sir — Chris Fitzpatrick celebrates the Jewish legacy of Leopold Bloom, the fictional character in James Joyce’s great novel Ulysses (Letters, June 16). How about celebrating real Jews who did so much to enhance Irish history and ­literature?

Two of the best-selling novels of the Jewish-American Leon Uris were Exodus, published in 1958, on the founding of ­Israel, and Trinity (1976), on the Irish fight for freedom. Four iconic Irish writers are James Joyce, ­Oscar Wilde, ­William Butler Yeats and Samuel Beckett.

Jewish-American ­Richard ­Ellmann wrote biographies of the first two, books on the third, and ­Jewish-American Alan ­Schneider was the foremost director of Beckett’s plays.

Jacob Mendlovic, Toronto, Canada

Vindictive employers must be called out

Sir — This week we heard of a Wix employee asserting at the Workplace Relations Commission that she was blacklisted over soc­ial media posts criticising Israel. These reports have become more common and help to explain why long-term unemployment is a problem for some people.

I am willing to reveal that a problem arose with an employer I worked for back in the early 1990s and I have remained substantially unemployed since. This has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands in welfare when I could be out working.

We have people in this country who are absolutely obsessed with power and control, and that control can extend to employees to an extreme level. These employers believe their employees are their personal property. They will try to crush them into the ground and go as far as they can to make their lives a misery and are constantly hoovering for information so they can do as much damage as possible to you.

I also experienced attempted interference in efforts I made to get further education. The truth has got to come out some time about why some long-term unemployed people find it extremely hard to get work after a run-in with a vindictive employer.

Maurice Fitzgerald, Shanbally, Co Cork

Funds are needed to back cancer strategy

Sir — In my foreword to the National Cancer Strategy in 2017, I noted that it would be difficult to define the challen­ges that would arise in the later years of the strategy.

Little did I know back then that the greatest challenge facing the National Cancer Strategy in 2024 would be the lack of funding in each year’s budget.

The plan is strong. The collec­tive political will to support it has proved to be weak. The strategy has only received proper funding in two of the last seven budgets.

What’s worse, the funding — which was supposed to grow over time — has never reached the required level. According to the Irish Cancer Society’s pre-budget submission, the cumulative loss of investment in cancer services from 2017 to 2024 amounts to almost €180m. This €180m has real-world consequences for patients in this country.

Screening has not been expanded as planned. Target waiting times for cancer tests are not being met. Cancer surgeries are frequently delayed due to shortages in staffing, beds and theatre space. Investment in infrastructure has been lacking, despite increasing infection control issues and rising cancer incidence. Radiotherapy services operate significantly below capacity. We are falling far short of the modest target of 6pc of patients participating in cancer clinical trials.

There is now genuine concern among the clinical community that we are losing momentum — and worse, that Ireland’s cancer outcomes could be going backwards.

Last week, the Irish Cancer Society publicly called on the Government to commit to providing at least €20m in ring-fenced new recurrent dev­elopment funding in 2025, and each year thereafter, to get the National Cancer Strategy back on track.

This demand is being echoed by the Irish Society of Medical Oncology and the Irish Society of Radiation Oncology. I see this as the minimal effort required in the upcoming budget.

Professor John Kennedy, chair, National Cancer Strategy

Paul Murphy and his turbulent priest

Sir — I found Mark Tighe’s report on Fr Fergal Cummins’s posts on his personal Facebook page highly amusing (‘Bishop sorry for priest’s conspiracy theory posts’, June 16). Are priests not allowed any personal freedom these days?

I wonder would People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy have taken umbrage if Fr Cummins had posted far-left views on Facebook instead of “posts that advocated for right-wing parties”.

I did not know that expressing a right-wing opinion was a sin in our democratic society. Let Fr Cummins be.

PJ Mathews, Dublin Road, Drogheda

Sindo gave you a tip, but did you back it?

Sir — I read Jimmy Murphy’s article on the first Bloomsday (‘The Zarathustra incident: backing the wrong horse on the very first Bloomsday’, June 16).

Alas, like Kavanagh, Cronin, and Myles 70 years earlier, I forgot to back the horse with a Z in the name. Rauzan won at 10-1 in the 4.05 at Downpatrick on Bloomsday last week. A fiver on that would have netted me €50.

Colm Ó Fatharta, Rath Garbh, Áth Cliath 6

France’s war dead deserve our respect

Sir — Your Letter of the Week (June 16) deservedly mentions the sacrifice of Allied soldiers liberating France in World War II.

The story regarding passports is quite an old one, and is often repeated with a change of the Allied soldier’s nationality and commemorative anniversary.

The impression given is one of a helpless French people at that time and possibly an ungrateful future post-war generation, but this may mask the contrib­ution of the French people to their own liberation, which was significant and often overlooked in the triumphant jingoism of victory.

Total French military casual­ties in World War II came to 217,600, but combined with civilians, an estimated 567,600 French lives were lost — a sacrifice deserving of recognition and respect.

Fergal Murphy, Old Ross, Co Wexford

Cemetery has been left to just run wild

Sir — Unfortunately, my visit to Mulhuddart Cemetery for the annual blessing of the graves was not as pleasant as that of Mike Kelleher to Killaha Cemetery (Letters, June 16).

For the second year running, the grass here is growing wild — and having had my parents’ grave cemented over and pebb­led to reduce maintenance, I was appalled to find it completely covered with the grass growing wild beside it.

I contacted Fingal County Council last year, but nothing has been done about it. It is very upsetting to see our departed loved ones treated in this way.

Patricia Keeley, Templeogue, Dublin 6

Aer Lingus pilots are not that badly paid

Sir — Does the Irish Airline Pilots Association (Ialpa) realise that Aer Lingus is just a small fish in IAG’s big pond of airlines, which includes British Airways, Iberia and Vueling? IAG could, at the drop of a hat, sell it off to whoever.

If the pilots are so badly paid, why haven’t they jumped ship in a market where pilots are in huge demand worldwide?

Gary Dixon, Sutton Lawns, Dublin