Sir, – Ed Abrahamson writes in his article “Ireland’s McCarthyite fervour about Israel is disturbing” (Opinion & Analysis, November 22nd), that the issue he has is not that Ireland is pro-Palestine – he, as “a centrist”, believes in the autonomy and rights of the Palestinian people – but that it is so aggressively anti-Israel.
He correlates Israel’s “inequality” to Palestinians living in Israel with Ireland’s treatment of the Traveller community.
Given the genocide and forced starvation perpetrated by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza for the past two years and the more recent escalation of attacks on Palestinians and their homes in the West Bank – with the open support of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s far-right ministers – such a comparison is, to use the author’s own words, “a sickening perversion of the truth”. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CULLEN,
READ MORE
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Ed Abrahamson states that “The accusation of ‘apartheid’ in Israel . . . doesn’t describe what I see in Israel”. In his 2006 book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, based on personal visits to the area, the late US president Jimmy Carter described the conditions to which Palestinians were subjected as a form of apartheid worse than that which applied in South Africa, a view shared by the late Nelson Mandela.
In his book and in subsequent interviews he spelled out in detail why he thought the treatment of the Palestinian population (in both the Occupied Territories and Israel) met that threshold.
The only change since then has been a significant degradation in terms of the treatment of Palestinians through changes to the legal system, Israeli military law/courts and the expansion of militarily protected illegal settlements in the West Bank, accompanied by militarily protected settler violence, and dispossession and restrictions on Palestinian movement in large swathes of the West Bank.
I’m not sure how what Mr Abrahamson and Jimmy Carter was observing can differ so much, but Jimmy Carter’s brave stand, for which he took considerable criticism (by leading Democrats as well as mainstream media), has my vote. – Yours, etc,
GERRY MOLLOY,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – I was angered reading Ed Abrahamson’s attack on the Irish people and his attempt to deflect accusations of genocide against Israel over their brutal onslaught in Gaza.
Does he reject the declaration of the International Scholars of Genocide who have declared that under UN convention Israel has committed genocide in Gaza?
Even more disappointing was that as a consultant paediatrician, Abrahamson failed to mention the egregious war crimes committed by Israel against healthcare in Gaza with over 90 per cent of all healthcare facilities destroyed and thousands of doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers and patients being killed in those facilities. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN PAUL McCORMACK,
Co Donegal.
Online medical consultations
Sir, – In your recent interview with Webdoctor chief executive Gareth Lambe, he notes that the company has taken “a million consultations off a creaking system” (“Facebook Ireland former boss Gareth Lambe: ‘It gave us the ick, seeing Zuckerberg cosy up to Trump’,” November 21st).
Convenience for relatively healthy, digitally literate people is not the same as strengthening primary care. High-volume telehealth shifts GP capacity into profitable, low-acuity work while leaving complex, vulnerable patients in an ever-lengthening queue.
When essential public services are shaped by market forces rather than need, it is rarely the system that benefits – and never those most reliant on it. – Yours, etc,
Dr CAROLINE McCARTHY,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
Ukraine peace plan
Sir, – The so-called Ukrainian peace deal is not a peace deal at all. It’s a trade agreement between the United States and Russia, with Ukraine sacrificed to keep Russian president Vladimir Putin happy.
Europe needs to stand up and call it for what it is. US president Donald Trump cannot be allowed to destroy a sovereign, independent state for the enrichment of the US and Russia. – Yours, etc,
TIM O’SULLIVAN,
Ballinrobe,
Co Mayo.
Ireland and climate change
Sir, – The final paragraph of Sadhbh O’Neill’s article (“Despite the fudges and bickering, Cop is still the best hope we’ve got,” November 22nd) cut right to the chase: if there is any hope left, it lies in the resurgent climate movement that refuses to accept more delay while fires and floods close in. That is the stark reality.
COP structures aren’t built to confront a planetary emergency – they are built to protect national interests, many of them fossil-fuelled. So of course progress crawls – while the house burns.
Ireland is no exception. For all our speeches about climate leadership, we still arrive at every COP with the same red lines: protect agricultural exports, defend the status quo, avoid confronting the reality that our food and land-use and energy systems are environmentally damaging and fundamentally out of line with our own climate commitments.
We cannot claim climate credibility abroad while shielding high-emission sectors at home. Pretending otherwise is and has long been part of the problem.
This is exactly why those of us in the wealthy world can’t sit back and wait for politicians to deliver a solution.
If the climate movement is the only source of hope, then it needs all of us in it, not cheering from the sidelines or liking posts on social media, but actually making hard choices: consuming less, flying less, changing diets, confronting political hypocrisy and demanding actions that match the scale of the crisis.
The final paragraph is right in that the movement is rising. The real question is whether we’re willing to rise with it. Because without ordinary people in the first world accepting real sacrifice, the “resurgent climate movement” won’t have the power it needs to shift politics and economics at the speed this moment demands. – Yours, etc,
PAUL O’SHEA,
Planet Before Profit CLG,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.
Using AI intelligently
Sir, – I speak as one who likes AI and does not feel threatened by it (and I also speak as a social scientist, not a digital one). I never feel threatened by AI because I only ever ask it for facts, and never “What should I do?”
In this way, I am always faster than AI – faster because I already have the various issues I am trying to solve at my fingertips: I do not need to programme them in to obtain the required answer.
I think this is called ‘human- in-the-loop’ and, as long as I maintain that check, life is fine.
Quite properly, Geoffrey Hinton (the “godfather” of AI) warns that this is difficult to maintain, especially where oversight becomes symbolic rather than functional: “The illusion of control could persist long after the reality has slipped away” (The Silent Threat of AI, page 54).
And yet “the international race for AI supremacy” seems focused on system deliverables. Why are we not demanding ethical deliverables, a control that would keep that human-in-the-loop?
And if profit and greed would really prompt some to bypass that essential check, then get AI to audit the AI.
In other words, turn the beast in against itself. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN KAY,
Blackrock,
Cork.
A new town to house workers
Sir, – The Dublin MetroLink planners grappling with problem of housing thousands of workers needed to build it might look to the example of Boulder City, Nevada in the US.
One hundred years ago they built a brand new town to accommodate the 30,000 workers on the Boulder, later, Hoover dam. Boulder City is still there, a quiet, quirky and artsy place with an annual movie event called the Dam Short Film Festival. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN WRIGHT,
Belfast.
Appearing in the Dáil
Sir, – Taoiseach Micheál Martin was again out of the country last week in South Africa. He has just returned from Brazil.
On many occasions over recent months both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, have been out of the country at the same time, many days at a time.
Out of the three days in a normal week that the Dáil sits, how many days does the Taoiseach be in attendance in the Dáil chamber?
Very often it is a Minister who answers “Taoiseach’s questions”. Is it any wonder that we have a housing crisis, a health crisis, a planning crisis, etc, with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste out of the country so often?
The Dáil only sits for parts of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The ongoing crises in our country demand that the Dáil should sit for four days per week and the Taoiseach should be in attendance in the Dáil chamber on at least three of the days the Dáil sits. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN CROTTY,
Blackrock,
Co Louth.
Different answers
Sir, – Further to Sinead O’Sullivan’s article (November 21st) regarding Simon Harris’s economic qualifications for the office of Minister for Finance and Iggy O’Donovan’s letter (November 22nd) in his defence, they put me in mind of my studies in that field at university along time ago.
The observation being that in economic exams the questions never changed, just the answers. – Yours, etc,
EAMON McMAHON,
Hertfordshire,
England.
Incommunicado
Sir, – Regarding Sheila Hobbs’s letter “Please answer the phone,” on November 24th, I couldn’t agree more as unfortunately the more forms of communication there are, the less communication there is. – Yours, etc,
CATHAL GRIFFIN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
On the run
Sir, – After Ian O’Riordan’s excellent piece on running and motherhood (“Elite-level running the ‘crutch’ that helps Niamh Allen juggle family and work,” November 22nd), I look forward to reading his article on running and fatherhood next week. – Yours, etc,
HUGH McDONNELL,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 9.
Bewildered by the match
Sir, – On Saturday, I had the dubious honour of attending the Ireland v South Africa rugby match. The honour was to see a skilful team – Ireland – play so courageously until the final whistle.
The dubiousness was the largely one-trick rugby of strength and brutality embraced by the South African team.
Shame on World Rugby whose rules permit the game to be played in such a cynical manner. Add in a bewildered referee and enough said. – Yours, etc,
ADRIAN HONAN,
Co Laois.
Sir, – After witnessing a chaotic rugby match on Saturday evening where yellow cards counted as some sort of entertainment, it is surely time for rule changes. Do we really want brute force in the scrum to win more than its fair share ? – Yours, etc,
AIDAN RODDY,
Cabinteely,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – There it is again. In Gerry Thornley’s first sentence of his report on Saturday’s rugby match: learnings.
“The Irish players echoed their master’s voice in maintaining there were plenty of positives as well as learnings to be taken from Saturday’s wild and wacky game against the best side in the world.”
What’s wrong with lessons? – Yours etc,
RICHARD ALLEN,
Cummeen,
Sligo.
A David Hanly interview
Sir, – Some years ago I was invited on Morning Ireland to discuss a new initiative from the Restaurants Association of Ireland – a special value menu. I was president of the association at the time.
I arrived early at RTÉ, about 7.15am, somewhat apprehensive.
I was brought into the studio at 8.50 am and introduced to David Hanly. We got off to a good start with David taking a great interest in my surname and where it came from.
Time passed quickly and we briefly discussed the special value menu initiative. Suddenly it was 9am. The programme finished.
May he rest in peace. – Yours, etc,
TOM MYTHEN,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Mother and baby homes
Sir, – Ellen Coyne’s timely and important report (November 24th) of inadequate State preservation of mother and baby institution records will hopefully provoke an adequate Civil Service and ministerial response.
The report said: “Mother and baby homes were religious institutions where women who had children outside of marriage were sent by their families, local authorities or the Catholic Church. A six-year commission of investigation set up in 2015 found that 9,000 children had died at the “regimented” institutions, about 15 per cent of all the children that had passed through them”.
Referral of women and babies was not confined to the Catholic Church. Clergy in Protestant churches did so also. Three of 14 religious institutions examined by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of investigation were Protestant in ethos: Bethany Home, Church of Ireland Magdalen Home (renamed Denny House in 1980) and Miss Carr’s Flatlets.
Children died there as well. Four more institutions examined were local authority county homes.
Reports on consequences of the treatment of women and children by the Irish State are sometimes affected by this sin of omission.
Awareness of the Catholic Church’s dominant role is too often accompanied by ignorance of misogyny and abuse perpetrated by other Christian churches, plus by secular institutions and individuals.
The effect is to exaggerate the role of one denomination, diminishing that of others and of the State itself that franchised its responsibilities to private bodies. – Yours, etc,
Dr NIALL MEEHAN,
Journalism & Media Faculty,
Griffith College,
Dublin.
