Sir, – Further to “The Irish Times view on the threat of Trump’s tariffs: Ireland prepares for the unknown” (March 24th), retaliatory tariff increases by the EU are not necessarily the only valid response to Donald Trump’s threats. Increased tariffs on imports increase prices for producers and consumers in the importing country. If Mr Trump proceeds with his threatened tariff increases on imports from the EU, US consumers and many US industries will begin to feel the effects in the short to medium term, probably before the US mid-term elections and certainly by the time of the next presidential election.
Any advantage to be gained by currently less-competitive US producers are likely to emerge only over a longer period. The damaging effects of US tariff increases on exporters and workers in the EU are likely to unfold over a similar period.
Retaliatory tariff increases by the EU would have similar effects for consumers and producers in its market. Whatever about political considerations, there seems to be little sense in deliberately creating additional problems for consumers, producers and workers in the EU. It would therefore seem economically sensible not to retaliate, thereby avoiding further damage to the EU.
An extreme version of this non-combative approach would be to call Mr Trump’s bluff and reduce (or even eliminate) EU tariffs on imports from the US and invite Mr Trump to apply the “reciprocal” tariffs that he talks about. I can imagine that it might be difficult to get agreement on this among EU member states, where short-term thinking by Ministers predominates. The logic of trade fluidity is, nevertheless, compelling and it seems only sensible to reduce or avoid self-harm.
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One or other of these approaches might open the way for a constructive approach to negotiations. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) exists to deal, among other things, with the kinds of “unfairness” that Mr Trump complains about. The US, however, has hobbled the WTO by refusing to appoint members to its dispute resolution panels. There is a way for Mr Trump to find a response to his complaints if his advisers can be brought to get him to look past the raw figures of trade flows.
Mr Trump also has a number of complaints about tax policies. Ironically, the US has withdrawn from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) process, which has already brought about a number of results at international level. Mr Trump may address some of the features of the US corporation tax code that facilitate the shifting of corporate profits of US multinationals out of the grasp of the US Revenue authorities but effective solutions are better defined in agreement with other trade partners.
EU diplomacy should surely aim at getting into effective negotiations. “Jaw jaw is better than war war”. – Yours, etc,
ALAN DUKES,
Tully West,
Kildare.
Sir, – As Ireland braces for the economic fallout of Donald Trump’s impending tariffs, much attention is rightly focused on trade and corporate tax revenues. However, one overlooked consequence could be a shift in Irish emigration patterns.
If US-Irish trade relations deteriorate and investment declines, job losses could drive a new wave of emigration. But unlike in the past, the traditional Irish route to America may not be as welcoming.
With tighter US immigration policies and a cooling economic outlook, younger Irish workers might look elsewhere – perhaps to Australia, Canada, or even European capitals such as Berlin. Mr Trump’s tariffs may not just reshape Ireland’s economy; they could reshape its diaspora. – Yours, etc,
ENDA CULLEN.
Armagh.
Education and gender identity
Sir, – Carl O’Brien’s “Culture wars reach the classroom: what is the best way to teach children about gender and identity?” (March 22nd) illuminates the importance of understanding the difference between sex and gender identity.
Sex is binary and immutable, as evolutionary biologists such as Richard Dawkins clarify, again and again.
I agree with Sandra Adams that it is “irresponsible to say you can change sex”. This is especially true in education settings, where children are developing their sense of self and their grasp of the reality of the world around them.
I believe that Karen Sugrue’s assertion of “solid ground” in favour of the affirmation of gender identity ignores Ireland’s policy shift.
The Government’s 2025 Programme for Government has removed the World Professional Association for (WPATH) affirmation model, aligning with a “healthcare service that is based on clinical evidence”. Our Irish National Gender Service doctors support this shift away from the affirmation model to an evidenced-based exploratory model.
This shift follows the Cass Review (April 2024), which found no evidence for the affirmation model. The evidence for puberty blockers was deemed “remarkably weak,” with unaddressed risks to development. The research also flagged the unaddressed co-occurring conditions in youth, who are distressed in relation to their sex, conditions that are unfortunately missed in the gender identity affirmation model.
Britain and Northern Ireland have now banned the use of puberty blockers for this cohort of distressed youth, and Louis Appleby, the lead suicide researcher for the UK government, in his July 2024 Tavistock analysis, found no suicide surge post-2020 puberty blocker ban, debunking affirmation-as-lifesaver claims.
He calls such rhetoric “dangerous”, urging a broader mental health focus.
Alice Sullivan’s “Review of Data, Statistics and Research on Sex and Gender” (March 2025) revealed that prioritising gender identity over sex in health data threatens healthcare accuracy, from screenings to research.
She stipulates that sex must be recorded by default.
Given the unfortunate harms that detransitioners are living with, from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, because their gender identity was affirmed, we adults need to reflect, very carefully, on our safeguarding duty in relation to children.
The affirmation model of gender identity is far from being solid science. It is unproven and risky.
Policymakers here and abroad are right to demand better evidenced-based care for children and youth in distress.
Our schools and education system have the responsibility to follow suit, and to be on the side of evidence also. – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA AMANTE,
Delgany,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – In Carl O’Brien’s piece, BelongTo (which, according to their 2023 Annual Report reached 312,473 Irish secondary students during its Stand Up Awareness week), was quoted as saying that ignoring the existence of young trans people in primary schools in Ireland “will have detrimental effect on the lives of these pupils” and that the topic of gender identity should not be brushed under the rug. Karen Sugrue, a psychotherapist, said in the article that gender identity “isn’t contested science” and that there is no reason to fear it being raised in the classroom. I disagree.
I recognise that it may appear to be progressive and positive for schools to teach children about gender identity, and for schools to play a role in supporting the social transition of a young person who identifies as transgender (ie accommodating name/pronoun changes and/or use of bathrooms/changing rooms of the opposite sex). However, as Sandra Adams noted in the article, children do not yet have a stable sense of identity and can be easily influenced and manipulated.
Social transition of young people who identify as transgender in schools is a recent phenomenon and we do not yet have sufficient evidence to determine if it is in the best interests of this cohort of young people in the long run and indeed there is some evidence emerging that it may be detrimental.
The UK Cass Review reported that a peer-reviewed study looking at transgender adults found that lifetime suicide attempts and suicidal ideation in the “past year” was higher among those who had socially transitioned as adolescents compared to those who had socially transitioned in adulthood.
More research is needed, and until such time as clearer evidence is available on the best way to support young people struggling with gender identity issues in schools, the safest course of action is for schools take a very cautious approach. First, do no harm. – Yours, etc,
LOUISE WHELAN,
(MSc, Mental Health Psychology),
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
21st-century Irish writing
Sir, – In his review of The Routledge Companion to 21st-Century Irish Writing (Books, March 22nd), Kevin Power makes what, to my mind at least, is the bizarre claim that “It must be 10 years or more since I last heard anyone blame our colonial past for some quirk of the Irish psyche.”
Perhaps I am missing some attempt at humour here, as it is surely the case that blaming our colonial past and obsessing about our post-colonial status remains an obsession among Irish artists and cultural and political commentators of all sorts.
What, for example, would the band Kneecap record if they decided that our colonial past was a topic already done to death?
The academic interest in postcolonial theory, especially around literature, was at a peak in the 1990s following Edward Said’s seminal book Orientalism.
It faded away for a long period, only to return in recent years, since when Ireland’s former status as a colony, over 100 years ago, is regularly advanced as an explanation for all sorts of phenomena, psychic, cultural, and otherwise. – Yours, etc,
ANDREW QUINN,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – I’m sure I’m not alone among your readers in not having understood the expression “TL;DR” used by Kevin Power in his otherwise informative review of The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Irish Writing. I had to do a web search to find out what it meant. It’s ironic that this obscure expression, meaning “too long;didn’t read”, should appear in a review in which academics had earlier been exhorted “to stop talking to each other and start talking to the world”; that surely implies using language that the world readily understands. – Yours, etc,
FELIX M LARKIN,
Dublin 18.
Smartwatches, sleep and health
Sir, – Regarding the value of wearable health technology, Mike Moran (Letters, March 24th), in response to the article “It’s like having a personal health coach in your pocket” (Magazine, March 22nd), wonders why anyone needs to check a device to evaluate their sleep. “Surely”, he reasons, “he knows how well he slept the moment he opens his eyes?”
While this reductive view might seem reasonable, I’d suggest it misses a deeper point, one which might be of real value.
Having received a smartwatch as a gift a few years ago, I was initially sceptical of what it might add. And I liked the watch I already had. My phone kept track of aspects of exercise that mattered to me. I didn’t see a role for more data. I should probably state though that, as an anaesthesia doctor, I do inherently like and grasp physiologic information and was curious as to what it could offer.
As an analogy, the main daily insight is akin to the part at the start of the weather forecast where the current day’s weather is displayed and explained. You might think you already know what it was like, because you just saw it. But you only saw a small area, and even that intermittently. A bigger-picture map and overview can reveal links, patterns and causes you cannot see. In effect, few of us know when we feel asleep, if we briefly woke during the night or how deeply we slept. We have even less of a clue how that compares with “normal”.
As a doctor on call I can often note that when phoned during the night my heart rate changes dramatically, even doubling from the low baseline of sleep. I can identify patterns that lead to bad sleep such as eating too much, eating late in the evening or drinking alcohol. I can’t so easily fool myself that I got away with it!
If I take exercise, such as going for a run after work, I can see that even during the first hours of sleep my heart rate may still be elevated. During colds or infections you can see signs of poor sleep quality, agitation and high heart rates often before you get the obvious symptoms. During a protracted period a few years ago when a family member was dealing with an unusually challenging set of circumstances, I was amazed that my heart rate, during sleep, remained elevated for the entire year – from 56 the previous year to 60. Once it was resolved, the rate reverted to baseline.
Risk factors for catastrophic health consequences are often surprisingly hard to prove. It seems clear now but it was not always obvious that smoking caused lung cancer nor that high blood pressure lead to heart disease and stroke. Ascertaining if someone smokes is actually very easy and measuring blood pressure not that difficult. Nonetheless, showing these correlations took years of large-scale trials. In comparison, determining someone’s sleep quality and duration is more difficult. Just asking is not very reliable as one has no frame of reference other than hazy memories and a vague idea of how one normally feels. Lots of people with sleep apnea are surprised when informed of their condition for example.
There is a body of evidence to suggest that sleep impairment or deprivation is a risk factor for dementia. It may involve a circular pattern of chicken-and-egg, with dementia impairing sleep patterns which propagate the neurological deterioration. Thus optimising sleep may be for dementia what optimising blood pressure is for heart disease – a way to reduce risk.
The accuracy of such devices is an important consideration, and errors and glitches are common. However, in the longer term – akin to the idea of climate versus weather – patterns can be seen and interpreted. The axiom that what gets measured gets improved is often true – it is hard to argue with a display of your own data, showing a pattern over months with peaks and troughs relating to times of unusual stress or showing the benefits of moderation. You may have woken up this morning feeling you didn’t sleep that well, but oddly by tonight that memory may have dissipated. The record on your phone remains as a prompt to address the problem. Given that shift work and circadian rhythm disruption are also regarded as probable carcinogens, improving one’s sleep patterns may be a smart move for many, if a descent into hypochondria can be avoided. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.
Government and Opposition
Sir, – First, the Government sought to reduce the Opposition’s parliamentary time. Second, when found out on that, it sought sought to blur the lines between Government and Opposition. Third, the Government is about to continue on this course of action without a debate. Government maintains the public are not engaged with this issue. They are, and they ought to be.
EDMOND CANNON,
Stepaside,
Co Dublin.
Talking about immigration
Sir, – Further to Joe Humphreys’s article “Garron Noone shows it’s hard to find the words to talk about immigration” (Unthinkable, Opinion & Analysis, March 24th), I would say that we will never be able to have a mature conversation about immigration in this country until we focus on the substance of what is being said and not who is saying it or how they say it.
In particular, we need to do away with the lazy accusations that anyone who dares to raise a concern or question must be A Very Bad Person.
You wouldn’t get away with this behaviour in a school debate, so why do we continue to allow it in political and public discourse on such an important subject? – Yours, etc,
E BOLGER,
Dublin 9.
