Sir, – The proposal to fund salaries for displaced US academics who wish to come to Ireland is welcome (“State to co-fund salaries in bid to poach US academics”, News, May 13th). However, the main financial barrier for researchers coming to Ireland is the same as that for researchers who are already here, which is not salary, it is access to research funds.
Aside from salary, a single senior US-based scientist will require millions of euro annually in guaranteed research funds to establish their laboratory, whereas the entire budget available to Research Ireland is in the region of just €300 million annually (for comparison, the US National Institutes of Health alone has an annual budget approaching $50 billion).
The global talent initiative has to be a moment to finally address the State’s history of strikingly low public investment in research, for new and existing researchers alike.
Simply adding more researchers to an already underfunded system is not going to help anyone. – Yours, etc,
My adventures on Vinted: I’m not sure how my single hair roller ended up in La Rochelle
Patrick McCabe: ‘This whole idea of making money out of novels started in the 1980s with Martin Amis and Ian McEwan’
Uncharted with Ray Goggins review: Leo Varadkar has to get halfway up a mountain with Lyra before he lets his guard down
Thrill-seeking in middle age: The spirit is willing but the pelvic floor is weak
DES FITZGERALD,
Radical Humanities Laboratory,
University College Cork.
Boycotting the Eurovision
A chara, – In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Broadcast Union (EBU) immediately suspended Russia from the Eurovision Song Contest.
Today the EBU says it won’t suspend Israel because it is a non-political organisation.
Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza. They are occupying territory illegally, bombing indiscriminately and starving the population. They are trying to drive the Palestinian people out, to make Gaza part of Israel. They admit that themselves.
If the EBU lets Israel perform, we have to boycott Eurovision. Don’t watch the show, don’t stream the songs, don’t vote.
We cannot pretend that Israel is a normal, civilised country while it continues to commit acts of barbarism. – Is mise le meas,
RAY CUNNINGHAM,
Green Party councillor for Ballyfermot-Drimnagh,
Walkinstown,
Dublin 12.
Crisis of imagination
Sir, – Sadhbh O’Neill’s article was both timely and thought-provoking (“Art can communicate messages about our dying planet that are otherwise hard to hear,” Opinion, May 13th). She captured beautifully how art can reach places that facts and data often cannot – into our hearts, our senses and our conscience.
I’d like to build on her reflections by pointing to another layer of the Earth crisis: the crisis of imagination. We not only face an ecological emergency but also a cultural one, rooted in our collective inability to imagine alternative, more hopeful futures.
We struggle to imagine a world not shaped by extraction, acceleration, and collapse. In this void, old systems persist, not because they serve us well but because alternatives feel unthinkable.
Through art, storytelling, play and shared creative experience, our imaginative capacity can be reawakened. Art invites reflection, inspires agency and helps create a sense of shared purpose. This is why cultural spaces matter now more than ever.
Rather than ask whether art is more important than life, perhaps the better question is: what kind of life is possible without art, and without imagination? – Yours, etc,
LISA FITZSIMONS,
Strategy and sustainability lead,
IMMA,
Dublin.
Palestinians at risk of starvation
Sir, – The latest hunger stats from Gaza reveal what Christian Aid’s partners on the ground have known for some time: Palestinians in Gaza are being starved and a full-blown man-made famine grows closer by the day (“Gaza population faces critical risk of famine, global hunger monitor says”, News, May 12th).
After more than two months of Israel’s blockade of all food, medicine, fuel or anything else necessary to preserve life in Gaza, the UN’s food agency has also run out of stock and community kitchens are closing their doors to starving families for lack of supplies. Prices of what little food remains in Gaza have skyrocketed. All while 3,000 aid trucks full of food are blocked by Israel from crossing into Gaza.
Time and time again over the last 19 months we have seen how impunity breeds further atrocities. We have now reached the stage where nearly half a million people face starvation in coming months and more than 70,000 under-fives face acute malnutrition.
But aid agencies cannot be clearer – in line with humanitarian principles, everything must be done to open up the crossings into Gaza to allow in the level of food and aid needed if there is to be any chance of turning the tide.
That Gaza is now on the brink of famine is a shameful indictment of the international community’s complete unwillingness to hold Israel to account for its actions in Gaza. The international community must take heed of these warnings and move to act, and not simply be left shouting into the void. This kind of urgent, co-ordinated action is long overdue.
The Irish Government can begin by delivering on its promise to finally pass the Occupied Territories Bill, resisting attempts to water it down and ensuring that our words are aligned with our deeds.
More than 15,000 children have already been killed in Gaza. Those still alive now risk dying of starvation. If this horrifying injustice is not enough to finally shock the world into action, what possibly could be? – Yours, etc,
ROSAMOND BENNETT,
Chief executive,
Christian Aid Ireland,
Dublin 2.
Priests and the church
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole’s offers the usual “solutions” to the Catholic Church’s institutional decline in Ireland, namely the ordination of women and the scrapping of priestly celibacy (“Ireland is running out of priests. There is an obvious solution”, Opinion, May 13th).
First, the ordination of women is a settled issue that no pope can change. This might sound ridiculous to the contemporary western mind, so steeped in gender parity and feminism, but the church – following Christ’s example – ordains men, and only men, to serve as priests. This is not to say women cannot and should not serve in church offices or roles. Au contraire.
The recent appointments of Sister Raffaella Petrini to president of the governorate of Vatican City and Sister Simona Brambilla to prefect of the dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life are historic moments in the church and for women.
Mr O’Toole concludes his piece by suggesting that the “unique sanctity of the celibate male” is a “lost cause” and should be “easily discarded”. I suggest a different view: in a time where pornography use is ubiquitous and should be seen by the HSE as a public health crisis, celibate men bear witness to the truth that sex is not the be-all and end-all. The healthy celibate’s sublimated sexual desire becomes, ideally, a unique and creative force, one that expresses selfless, salvific love – like that of the celibate Christ. – Yours, etc,
DAN McQUILLAN,
Naas,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole sees the Catholic Church in terms of clericalism alone and accordingly has formed a pessimistic view of the future. A broader assessment, however, presents a more positive outlook with the population of the Catholic Church worldwide now hitting more than 1.4 billion.
The church’s mission to proclaim the Gospel “to the ends of the Earth” remains as urgent as ever but the terrain is changing.
The synodal journey begun by Pope Francis has awakened a new spirit of co-responsibility, urging us to become a listening church, walking together. Religious sisters, lay leaders, catechists, permanent deacons and everyday disciples quietly carry the church forward in schools, hospitals, prisons and parishes, making way for new growth.
One of the most profound signs of hope is the deep and growing hunger for authenticity and meaning among young people. Across the world, there are countless examples of youth-led faith movements, retreats, pilgrimages and volunteerism all revealing a desire to encounter God personally and live faith with sincerity.
While secular culture often promotes individualism and offers only consumption and performance in return, many young people are rediscovering the communal and transcendent aspects of the faith, offering witness through service, prayer, and discipleship.
They will not settle for the latest fad or trend from the wellbeing industry but long for a life of integral human development that whispers the truth that we are not made for mere efficiency but for wholeness and for flourishing.
The message of the Catholic Church is that meaning is found not in isolation but in communion with God, with others and with creation. Through faith, belief and practice, young people are given the tools to ask not just, “what do I want to do?” but “who am I called to be?” A question for us all, perhaps? – Yours, etc,
JOHN MCHUGH,
Principal,
Ardscoil Rís,
Griffith Avenue,
Dublin 9.
‘Deny, delay, destroy’ tactic
Sir, – It is hard to criticise anything in Eddie Molloy’s excellent summary of the “three Ds” approach to dealing with whistleblowers and others who try to highlight wrongdoings in our State services, including the appalling case of “Grace” (“The State deploys the three Ds to silence whistleblowers: delay, deny, destroy”, Opinion, May 13th).
In his final plea however, Mr Molloy points a finger at the Government to embed accountability and end the use of the “deny, delay, destroy” playbook. He is correct, but there is a second guilty party here. We the people need to insist on a culture of rights and responsibilities across the public system.
It was noted in the Oireachtas as recently as January of this year that there were 36 children missing from the care of Tusla. Unlike what happened to “Grace” and others, we can’t say we didn’t know. The truth is that with a few notable exceptions, politicians won’t do the right thing until voters refuse to tolerate the lack of culpability for the scandals that are already out in the open. – Yours, etc,
FRANCES BYRNE,
Castaheany,
Dublin 15.
Mobile saunas an ‘eyesore’
Sir, – The proliferation of mobile saunas at tranquil sea surrounds is causing an unwanted eyesore on the natural environment, particularly in protected areas.
I read with interest the piece by Aine Ryan and am pleased to hear that councillors in Co Wexford are taking a stance on the problem (“Ireland’s mobile saunas in danger of being killed off by red tape and bureaucratic confusion”, Opinion, May 5th).
I suggest that saunas be confined to hotels and leisure centres, where the facilities exist for their proper management.
Please keep our natural environment free of ugly unnecessary wooden boxes and let us admire the sea in its original setting. – Yours, etc,
MARY CONLIFFE,
Robertstown,
Co Kildare.
Religious values in schools
Sir, – In his article, Paddy Monahan bemoans the fact that religion is allocated a half hour per day in the classroom (“Teachers are clear they want religion out of the classroom”, Opinion, May 8th).
How ill considered this is; the religious programme in primary school promotes love, care, sharing, empathy, all of which are values so necessary in the era of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, etc, where emphasis is placed on materialism and commercialism regardless of the misery it may cause to others. – Yours, etc,
MARY O’DOWD,
Kilkee,
Co Clare.
Environmental vandalism
Sir, – It beggars belief that a Minister of State with a specific responsibility in the Department of Agriculture for forestry is now “advocating planting on peatland”(“Michael Healy-Rae’s trees-on-peatland plan is environmental vandalism”, Opinion, Una Mullally, May 13th). Peter Thorne, who has a chair at Maynooth and is quoted in the article, described the move as “environmental vandalism”.
How is it that one of the most important departments of State allows someone like Michael Healy-Rae to utter such nonsense when the very idea of planting on peatlands runs contrary to scientific thinking?
I think we need to hear from the Minister for Agriculture to explain this bizarre idea. No wonder we’re no where near meeting our climate change targets if practices such as these are been pedalled by our own Ministers! – Yours, etc,
ALASTAIR CONAN,
Coulsdon,
UK.
Oscar Despard’s winning ways
Sir, – What an amazing comeback by Dubliner Oscar Despard and his team on Monday night’s University Challenge grand final on BBC2, winning the trophy for Christ’s College, Cambridge by the narrowest of margins and right at the gong (“Irish student leads Cambridge team to victory on BBC’s University Challenge”, Education, May 12th).
The depth of knowledge of all the students was impressive and an inspiration to all watching, especially younger viewers. Mr Despard is deservedly a role model for our upcoming generation. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN QUIGLEY,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.
Real cost of ‘free’ aircraft
Sir, – Keith Duggan’s reports that the US president Donald Trump may soon accept a $400 million aircraft “gift” from the Qatari government (“A ‘very nice gesture’: Trump accepts gift of new Air Force One plane from Qatar”, News, May 13th).
Astonishingly, this would eventually become his personal property through his presidential library foundation.
This would be laughable were it not such a flagrant violation of the US constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits officeholders from accepting gifts from foreign powers without the consent of congress.
Mr Trump, never one for discretion, now practises his grift in plain sight – brazenly mixing personal enrichment, campaign theatrics and international diplomacy.
The real cost of this “free” aircraft may not be measured in dollars but in what the United States loses each time its democratic norms are ignored, bent or sold. – Yours, etc,
ENDA CULLEN,
Armagh.
