Letters: It is a delight to see fresh new faces contesting the elections

These ladies are energetic, personable, enthusiastic and blessed with the full skill set for public life. I wish them well. It’s refreshing to see so many new faces on the ballot paper, many of them young, many of them female.

I admire candidates willing to contest elections. Politics causes many aspects of personal and family life to suffer. Invasion of privacy, personal safety, hurtful commentary on social media and ingratitude are issues regularly encountered.

All candidates deserve to be treated with courtesy on the canvass and in office as politicians are the custodians of our democracy.

Not everyone can be successful. There is disappointment, but no shame, in failing to win a seat. Community and voluntary associations are always glad to have members who wish to serve others.

In the words of US president John F Kennedy in his inaugural speech in January 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

As for my three former students-turned politicians, I haven’t yet decided which of them, if any, will receive my first preference vote.

Billy Ryle, Tralee, Co Kerry

Coalition is complicit in Israeli war crimes

Sir — The Government is responding to the wishes of the vast majority of the Irish electorate by moving, belatedly, to recognise Palestine as a state. This decision is to be welcomed.

The decision by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to seek arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders should also be welcomed by all who value the rules of international and humanitarian laws.

Complicity with war crimes and genocide are also crimes that come within the remit of the ICC and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The US and several Nato and EU member states have been actively supportive of Israeli war crimes and probable genocide in Gaza by supplying large amounts of weapons and munitions that Israel has been using to commit those crimes.

By allowing US military aircraft to use Shannon Airport and Irish airspace, Ireland and its leaders and officials are at least indirectly complicit with war crimes and probable genocide.

Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Limerick

​It’s not a good time to recognise Palestine

Sir — In my view, the Government’s timing in deciding to recognise Palestine is wrong.

Last October 7, an increasingly politically isolated Hamas militant wing staged a terrorist spectacular. It succeeded beyond its wildest dreams, due in no small part to the Israeli army being more concerned with protecting the illegal settlements in the West Bank.

The Hamas leadership probably realised an Israeli response was likely to fall on the civilian population of Gaza — but, emboldened by a large hostage haul, reckoned it would suit their aims in the medium- and long-term to let this happen.

Over seven months later, 70pc of Gaza is destroyed, the remaining hostages are facing probable death and there is no end in sight to the slaughter on the ground.

In the West Bank, an ageing Abbas has no authority as Hamas gains political ground among a population increasingly irate at the 600,000 illegal settlers occupying their land.

Into this quagmire the Irish Government has inserted itself by a declaration that will do nothing to resolve the mutual hatred on both sides and only serves to embolden Hamas, Hezbollah and their Iranian backers.

The immediate effects of this decision will be an increased risk to Irish peacekeepers in Hezbollah-controlled south Lebanon and an increase in Palestinian refugees (mostly genuine) coming here to seek asylum.

Michael Flynn, Bayside, Dublin 13

​Your vote counts, so please use it wisely

Sir — Philip Ryan quotes Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien as saying: “People are seeing through Sinn Féin’s flip-flopping across the board and are seeing that they have no policies.”​

I beg to differ. Two-and-a-half years ago, I was involved in a campaign to save our cinema in Listowel, which had closed after nearly 35 years. An online petition generated 2,400 signatures, followed up with a fund-raising initiative. Not a single politician from the area supported us.

Then we got an unsolicited visit from a Sinn Féin TD in Tralee who publicly endorsed us. This had the immediate effect of both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil changing tack and coming on board.

Small towns are declining through the inaction and policies of the incumbents. New ideas and creativity will only come about through political change.

Use your vote wisely on June 7.

Tom McElligott, Listowel, Co Kerry

Sincere opinions will be revealed in ballot

Sir — Now that the country has been thoroughly enriched with documented and undocumented diversity, we must consider what that means to our financial wellbeing as a nation.

With the many thousands of hotel rooms occupied, modular houses bought, brand new tents and sleeping bags given out and disposed of, nourishing food supplied and social-welfare allowances paid, it might be relevant if the Government had the courtesy and manners to inform the generous and benevolent taxpayer how much it is costing them.

Or would that request be classed as being a little too picky, too irrelevant or — heaven forbid — far too honest for the exploitable and diminishing public purse?

Roll on June 7, when the sincere opinion of the electorate will be determined at the ballot box.

Vincent O’Connell, New Ross, Co Wexford

Pensioners must turn out in show of force

Sir — I refer to the letter (Sunday Independent, May 19) from Brian Lube, entitled ‘Pensioners trapped below the poverty line’.

The issues he raised are all true and relevant to a large section of our population, and the suggestion made regarding pensioners protesting at Dáil Éireann is a positive one. However, the use of the ballot box on June 7 to cast a prudent vote may yield a more positive result for pensioners in the next budget.

Jim Fay, Tallaght, Dublin 24

Teach your children about a fairer world

Sir — I am writing to challenge Ciara Kelly’s article (Life maga­zine, May 19), in which she argued that teaching children about trade unions is a mad idea.

INTO’s ‘Trade Union 101’ less­ons help children’s understanding of the values of trade union membership and the important work unions do in fighting for a more just and fairer world.

If these lessons had been available when Ms Kelly attended primary school, she might now have sharper awareness of the important role unions play in society.

They have historically played a crucial part in advocating for workers’ rights, fair wages and safe working conditions.

Were educators to ignore the significance of unions, we would risk today’s learners remaining ignorant of the facts.

Schools seek to equip children with essential knowledge, skills and values for them to deal with a range of situations during and beyond school life. Understanding the role of trade unions gives them knowledge of their rights and the collective power they will hold as future workers.

This is not just appropriate; it is essential.

John Boyle, General Secretary, Irish National Teachers’ Organisation

​Irish farmers are the custodians of nature

Sir — I smile wryly when I hear some MEPs tell us of all they have done for Irish farmers.

To others we are a national nuisance, barbarians who must be tamed and educated to our new world. It suits them, when the grim reaper of climate change is upon us, to offer up farmers as sacrificial lambs.

The fact that we are world-class food producers generating billions for the country in food exports and feeding millions of people daily is quietly forgotten.

It is hypocritical of MEPs to promise safe, secure, sustainable and affordable food to all EU citizens while legislating diligent producers out of business. This carries through in the import­ation into Europe of GM grain, or of poultry and pork products from regions with far more lax regulations.

It is EU policy to cut CAP payments to productive farmers and incentivise others into growing weeds. The late great businessman Tony O’Reilly did not build our world-renowned Kerrygold brand on nothing.

For those seriously concerned about biodiversity loss, look up from your phones and tablets. I have never seen such lush hedgerows and trees laden with leaves and blossoms; I have never heard the birds singing as loudly. This is testament that we are custodians of the environment, farming in harmony with nature.

We have made great strides in recent years in meeting our clim­ate obligations. Weather controls our every move. If it wasn’t for our dedication and resilience, we would have thrown in the towel after the last few years of high input cost, horrendous weather and a tsunami of legislation and regulation.

We have invested heavily to meet environmental challenges, and these are costs we cannot pass on to the consumer, unlike other industries.

Regardless of whether they like us or not, it’s vital our MEPs back Europe’s ability to feed its people with safe, sustainable food.

As US president and farmer Dwight D Eisenhower once said: “Farming looks mighty easy when your plough is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfields.”

Ned Ward, Dunmoe, Navan

Government misled nation in referendum

Sir — We hear a lot of discussion from political parties on the importance of gaining the trust and confidence of the electorate.

There is one major intervention the Government could adopt to improve communication with the people. If it committed to publishing the advice it receives from the Attorney General before any future referendums, it would diminish the volume of misinfor­mation and disinformation it could be accused of engaging in.

The leaking of the advice given in relation to the family and care referendums underlines the level of disinformation the Government has been shown to have spread in its failed attempt to encourage the electorate to change the Constitution.

It’s time for them to embrace the true meaning of the values they supposedly try to uphold.

Eamonn O’Hara, Manorcunningham, Donegal

GAA lives up to ‘Grab All Association’ label

Sir — Top marks to Eamonn Sweeney for his superlative piece, ‘The GAA has stabbed its members in the back’. He managed to call out the rank hypocrisy, nauseating cant and outright bullshit surrounding the GAAGO fiasco.

However, there was one group of “stakeholders” he neglected to mention — the players. Here is the real “hidden subsidy”. The whole kit and caboodle depends on the willingness of young women and men to submit to the rigours of a lifestyle/regime that would make the ancient Spartans cry. All that effort for a shot at medals and glory, but peanuts in terms of what that effort generates in monetary terms. ​

What happens when the players decide to adopt the GAA ethos of “maximising the monetary return from every interaction”? The old saw that designated the meaning of GAA as the Grab All Association has never seemed more apt.

Garry McCarthy, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin

I am happy to pay for GAAGO in my 80s

Sir — I am in my 80s and have been a GAA person all my life. My first All-Ireland was Louth v Mayo in 1950, courtesy of a lift over the turnstile. I have been a player for club and county and always regarded the All-Ireland Championship as an annual pilgrimage until we were beaten.

Nowadays, it’s different: the travelling, parking, walking being sometimes too much. I am happy, with the help of a tech-savvy grandchild, to pay the €12 to GAAGO and watch the full match from my couch. Up Louth!

John Woods, Carlingford, Co Louth

We are being sold a pup on trans rights

Sir — When men want to wear women’s underwear in the bedroom, it is a private sexual matter and we are told it doesn’t hurt anyone. When they want to wear women’s clothing at home, they say it helps them relax and we are told it doesn’t hurt any­one. And when men want to wear women’s clothes in public, they are called brave for being their authentic selves and we are told it doesn’t hurt anyone.

When men say they are women and demand entry to women’s single-sex spaces (toilets, changing rooms, refuges) and to women’s sports and demand the erasure of women’s language, we are told they are women and it doesn’t hurt anyone. And when women point out that it does hurt someone, mainly women and children, they pay a big price (Jacky Grainger, Sunday Independent, May 5). How did we arrive at this point?

I believe the biggest trick the trans rights movement ever pulled was convincing the world of the existence of the trans child. Children are being taught the natural discomfort with their body that comes with pub­erty or any non-conformance with strict, regressive gender stereotypes means they might be the opposite sex (trans) or neither (non-binary) and are suffering great mental distress.

Of course we feel sorry for these gender-confused and distressed children and want to help them. And the inference is that men who say they are women must once have been such gender-confused children, so we should feel sorry for them and give them what they want.

This ignores the fact that the majority of trans children seeking treatment are teenage girls, many of whom are autistic or struggling with the realisation they are same-sex-attracted or suffering trauma or multiple mental health issues, while the majority of trans adults are heterosexual men.

If this is truly an innate, organic issue for humanity, where are all the adult women coming out as men and demanding men be referred to as “people with prostates” and being feted on International Men’s Day?

The whole issue of gender is more complex than can be discussed here, but until we have the courage to face up to this fact, we cannot have an honest conversation about the issue.

And our children’s health and well-being and women’s sex-based rights will continue to be deemed an acceptable sacrifice to fulfil the desires of some men.

E Bolger, Dublin 9

I loved letter about fun in the old days

Sir — I very much identified with Margaret Acton in her letter last Sunday about the simple toys that kept us, of a particular generation, amused. When I was a youngster of seven or eight years of age, I used to play “cars” by running around with a saucepan lid, which substituted as a steering wheel.

With the extraordinary price of cars nowadays, I am often tempted to rummage in a certain drawer in the kitchen.

Tom Gilsenan, Beaumont, Dublin 9

I was shut down about a James Joyce portal

Sir — The portal and the controversy that has ensued since its installation in Dublin city centre reminded me that some years ago I sent a proposal to Dublin City Council that an electronic version of Ulysses be erected in the city centre.

This would be rather like the Book of Kells in that a page of Joyce’s masterpiece would be turned every hour (or every day) for perusal. It would, I felt, enhance the city centre and serve as an attraction for Dubliners and tourists alike. The response to my proposal? “There’s enough clutter in the city centre.” Quite.

Eddie Naughton, The Coombe, Dublin 8