Walking the Old Head of Kinsale
Sir, – Keep Ireland Open, which campaigns for legislation to protect and extend responsible access to the countryside for walkers and other recreational users, fully supports the letter from Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne in which he bemoaned the lack of access to the Old Head of Kinsale peninsula in Co Cork to all but a privileged few golfers. He also refers to the long-running Old Head of Kinsale campaign which, sadly, hasn’t yielded positive results.
Those of us who want to improve access to the countryside really need to work together to highlight how restricted access is for walkers. In Keep Ireland Open we are aware of many current and former campaigns to protect access, often to significant beauty spots.
These include the following to name just a few: the Bray-Greystones Cliff Walk, the walk to Wicklow Head, the campaign for access to the North Beach in Arklow, to Fenit Island in Co Kerry, to Ugool Beach in Co Mayo, to the Cliffs of Moher paths, to Castlegoland Beach near Glenties in Co Donegal, access to view the Pollet Sea Arch in Fanad, Co Donegal, access to a woodland area in Ardagh, Co Longford and access to the Old Coach Road near Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.
If we combined our efforts we would have more clout and have a greater chance to get politicians to enact legislation. That’s how progress was made in other countries. Legislation would be a win win for everyone, a win for walkers whether people living in Ireland or tourists, a win for many rural areas where business opportunities serving the needs of walkers would arise and a bonus for people’s physical and mental health. – Yours, etc,
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ROBERT DOWDS,
Chairperson,
Keep Ireland Open,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.
Mental health services for children
Sir, – Dr Tom O’Dowd (Letters, April 14th) highlights critical concerns about services to address child and adolescent mental health and suggests the appointment of an czar-type figure with responsibility and power to reform and restructure what is effectively a broken system of care.
As a group of GPs (deependireland.ie) working in disadvantaged communities, we want to highlight how important it will be within such restructuring to develop services based on need. While Dr O’Dowd focuses on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs), where there are indeed critical concerns, there is also an urgent need for investment in primary mental health services.
Currently, Camhs and other services are distributed by population numbers (typically per 50,000 people), completely disregarding the fact that serious mental health illness is three to four more times prevalent in children in the most disadvantaged communities. Parents living in poverty don’t have the means to access the private services that may act as a safety net for children in more affluent areas.
A focus primarily on investment in Camhs will not address the far wider supports required in general practice and primary care where the majority of mental health and disability care is based. Our patients face waiting lists for primary care psychology of two to three years and up to seven years for disability services. GPs are not resourced to provide the longer consultations required to address complex mental health difficulties.
As a society, we are not providing services that are fit for purpose and we are effectively discriminating against those with the highest needs. There is a lot of evidence that failure to address these issues in childhood leads to lifelong physical and mental health problems. We welcome and support any initiative to reform services, that builds on the commitment within Sláintecare, to needs-based resource allocation and its underlying principles of equity and universalism. – Yours, etc,
SUSAN SMITH, GP, Dublin 8 and professor of General Practice TCD;
EDEL MCGINNITY, GP, Dublin 15;
ANNA BEUG, GP, Dublin 8;
BRID SHANAHAN, GP, Dublin 1;
PATRICK O’DONNELL, GP, Limerick City;
MARY FAVIER, GP, Cork City;
MARK MURPHY, GP, Dublin 1;
DEIRDRE CARROLL, GP, Dublin 8;
CLIONA WATERHOUSE, GP, Dublin 8;
FINOLA MINIHAN, GP, Balbriggan;
FIONA MCGRATH, GP, Dublin 10;
FIONA MONAGHAN, GP, Cork City;
CATHERINE MULLEN, GP, Dublin 15;
TADG LEHANE, GP, Dublin 8;
ANGELA SHORTALL, GP, Dublin 15;
BRIDGET KIELY, GP, Dublin 1;
EOIN MONAGHAN, GP, Cork City;
EMMA KILGARRIF, GP, Galway;
ORLA JOHNSTON, GP, Dublin 10;
NIAMH O’BRIEN, GP, Galway;
VIVIENNE WALLACE, GP. Dublin 5;
On behalf of DEEP END IRELAND
Master McIlroy
Sir, – High drama, exquisite tension, plot twists, extreme emotions and a masterful performance witnessed by a global audience ensured that McIlroy’s fantastic win was a true Hollywood blockbuster. – Yours, etc,
CIANA CAMPBELL,
Ennis,
Co Clare.
Long live newsprint
Sir, – I agree with letter writer Colin Walsh’s observation that the paper version of The Irish Times has certain advantages over the digital version for outdoor reading in sunny weather (Letters, April 14th). Another advantage of the paper version relates to the ancient art of fly-swatting, an activity that is less advisable with digital devices such as phones and tablets. In this instance the earlier technology of paper is a much superior and safer choice (Though maybe not from the perspective of the humble housefly). – Yours, etc,
BRIAN HARRINGTON,
Clybaun,
Galway
The cost of uniting Ireland
Sir, – The Economic and Social Research Institute’s report on the disparity, and growing divergence, between relative prosperity, health and wellbeing between the Republic of Ireland and the North should give our political leaders pause for thought in relation to the pace at which unification should be pursued (“North behind South on quality of life metrics”, April 15th).
A clear inference from the ESRI’s report findings is that any unification of the island’s two jurisdictions would result in significant additional cost to the taxpayer in the Republic of Ireland. Given the current global turmoil wrought by US trade and security policies, the Republic would be well-advised to align its interests with the European Union for the foreseeable future, and to put plans for unification on the back-burner for the time-being. – Yours, etc,
JOHN NAUGHTON
Leopardstown,
Dublin 18,
Minecraft movie
Sir, – I was one of about 200 people that attended the opening screening of A Minecraft Movie at Tralee Omniplex’s gigantic MAXX auditorium last Friday week. Apart from knowing that it was a film based on a very popular video game with Jack Black and Justin Momoa, I was clueless.
This was the first time I heard of “chicken jockey” as the mostly young audience reacted on cue and en masse to a scene in the film. It made my evening. The young girl beside me said afterwards “that was the best fun I’ve had in ages”.
Since then, we’ve heard and read about the projectiles and popcorn being thrown in cinemas – and worse (“Irish cinemas enter world of chaos amid flying popcorn madness, Home News, April 15th”).
My local Omniplex now has notices up for patrons to behave themselves while still enjoying the movie. And this is of course where management, or lack thereof, comes into play. Many modern cinemas now have very poor control structures with poorly paid and indifferent customer service. Tralee Omniplex, thankfully, does not fall into this category.
Would I go and see A Minecraft Movie on the big screen again? Absolutely. And so should you with the whole family this Easter holiday season as it literally is great fun. – Yours, etc,
TOM MCELLIGOTT.
Listowel.
Co Kerry.
Scéal supplement
A chara, – Deá-Scéal!
Is mise,
JOE MCLAUGHLIN,
Bonnyrigg,
Midlothian,
Scotland.
Trump’s tariffs
Sir, – Speaking as a (now retired) psychiatrist/psychoanalyst, I would suggest that Fintan O’Toole’s recent article, “There’s a psychosexual dimension to Trump’s tariffs. You don’t have to be Freud to see it” (April 15th, 2025), tells us more about the author than about Trump. And, no, I am not a supporter of Donald Trump – just a critic of amateur psychoanalysis. I will offer Fintan a deal: I will not write newspaper articles if he will refrain from practising psychoanalysis. – Yours, etc,
LAWRENCE P KENNY, MD,
Clifden,
Co Galway.
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole highlights the use of the term “master strategy” by US president Donald Trump’s advisers and “sycophants” in relation to “the great tariff debacle” (“The psychosexual dimension to Trump’s latest debacle”, Opinion, April 15th). Indeed, that sycophancy displayed by so many is a greater concern than the delusion of one man, the president.
One is reminded of a dazed and bloodstained bull, emerging from a china shop, being congratulated by the onlookers for the masterful rearrangement of the shop displays. – Yours, etc,
DAVID LOUGHLIN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.
Sir, Ostensibly the United States has done “the tariff thing” three times in their history. They had them in 1828, 1930 and now in 2025.
It is interesting to note they are spaced about 100 years apart because everyone who remembers the last one needs to be dead for the next one to happen. It is also important to remember the last two mass tariffs in the US caused depressions.
According to Donald Trump, this one will make America very rich. Trump is to my mind a superspreader of a craziness that has split America in two.
The late Scottish writer and novelist Alasdair Gray, in his novel Lanark, wrote the following words which I find apposite to the above: “You suffer from the oldest delusion in politics. You think you can change the world by talking to a leader. Leaders are the effects, not the causes of changes.” -Yours, etc,
JOHN O’BRIEN,
Clonmel,
Co Tipperary.
Neutrality in a changing world
Sir, – The Catholic catechism in the 1950s had two particularly serious sins – despair and presumption. Presumption was defined as “a foolish expectation of salvation without making use of the means necessary to obtain it”
In that vein, I would define the Irish version of neutrality as “a foolish expectation of security without making use of the means necessary to obtain it”. – Yours, etc,
AJ MULLOWNEY.
Co Kildare.
Strand Road cycleway
Sir, – I read with much amusement Cllr Mannix Flynn’s threat to go to the European courts to oppose the construction of a single cycle lane in Sandymount (“Councillors clash over future of Sandymount cycleway”). He might want to consider the optics of this given that our European neighbours are busy expanding their cycling networks at breakneck speed: London has quadrupled their number of cycle lanes since 2016, Berlin has built over 600km of them, and Paris has added 500km over six years and now boasts over 1,000km.
I pray we be spared the embarrassment of having a spotlight shone on our capital’s currently dismal 34.2km of high-quality cycle lanes. – Yours, etc,
CALLUM SWIFT,
Moycullen,
Co Galway.
The immersion and the hot press
Sir, – I was amused to read Colin Coyle’s piece about the particularly Irish naming of “a clever piece of domestic equipment” (Overheard, April 12th). Feargus O’Sullivan is correct in noting that US visitors are bemused by the immersion heating system; indeed visitors from many other regions are too. But within the UK it is the nomenclature that is strange, not the concept. I grew up in the northwest of England with Irish parents, but when I came to live in Ireland, I discovered that an “airing cupboard” was now a “hot press”. Indeed, all cupboards were now presses! – Yours, etc,
KATHLEEN MAURER,
Booterstown,
Co Dublin.
