Sir, –What a coup! President Donald Trump has surprised us all with the ceasefire between Iran and Israel. America’s wise restraint in not responding militarily to the attack on its Al Udeid airbase in Qatar sets a new precedent for superpower restraint. Hopefully, China will appreciate, and Russia will stop its aggression on Ukraine. Israel must now adopt a ceasefire in Gaza and respond constructively to President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine’s letter earlier this month.
More than that, Trump should team up with French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Sauidi crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, to make a success of the planned UN conference on Palestine.
The best way forward is for Trump to lift the US veto on Palestine’s membership in the UN, already recognised by an overwhelming majority of its members, including Ireland.
That would boost the Abraham Accords, as it would rejoin the Arab Peace Initiative and settle conflict in the region durably. Israel could at last become an integrated state in its home region.
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Its own internal governance reforms must follow suit. All of this falls imminently on the 80th anniversary of the UN Charter, the call to conscience for which was launched by the peace reflection group of former UN officials, and has been endorsed by Mary Robinson and a plethora of other world leaders, including not least former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon. – Yours, etc,
FRANCIS M. O’DONNELL,
(former UN diplomat),
Vienna,
Austria.
Sir, – Reputedly, when Gandhi was asked about his view on Christian principles, he responded that he greatly approved of them but suggested that perhaps the Christians ought to follow them.
The same, with far more validity, can also be said of UN member states and the principles enunciated in the UN Charter supposedly adopted by them.
It is well past the time finally to recognise that the (UN) emperor has no (legitimate) clothes.
The ongoing support of the US for the war crimes and genocide committed by Israel in Gaza and the United States’ bombing of Iran are the last straws. That is not to say I support either the Iranian regime or Hamas. I unreservedly condemn both.
But for far too long now most, if not all, of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, who control the UN, have made an utter mockery of the UN Charter. The UN has passed countless resolutions in respect of Israel and Gaza and all have been wholly ignored, indeed flouted and mocked, by Israel with the open support of the US.
The US has been engaged in several wars and invasions of other countries over the past several decades – for, at best, dubious and self-serving reasons – and indeed sought, and sometimes even obtained, UN approval for the same. The US and Russia have had the temerity to use the UN to provide cover for their unlawful activities and wrongdoing. This needs to stop now.
Ireland should immediately withdraw from the UN and join with like-minded countries, of which there are very many, to found a genuinely representative world body in which no one country would have either automatic membership of the governing council or a veto.
This new body would of course need to have real enforcement powers and an effective world court. It would not be difficult to do: the UN Charter agreed by all countries already exists. Of course, the United States, Russia, Israel, etc, will not join this new body – at least not right away –– but what harm would that do? – Yours, etc
EAMON DILLON,
Farranshone,
Limerick.
US and student visa rules
Sir, – The new requirement for J-1 visa applicants to submit social media details will affect more than just summer students bound for the US. (“US visa applicants must disclose all social media”, June 24th).
The J-1 visa is typically the primary and most common visa classification for research scholars and visiting professors coming to the US on a temporary, non-immigrant basis, especially for sabbaticals, academic exchanges, and short-term research appointments.
At the very least, this requirement is likely to cause some to hesitate before choosing the US and toward other destinations with more transparent or less invasive visa processes. – Yours, etc,
JAMES QUINN,
Rochester,
USA.
Sir, – If a student seeking a J1 visa has posted their opinion of Trump as an a**hole and that the Israeli actions in Gaza are disgraceful will they get that visa?
If so, then that’s great for free speech. However, if they don’t then is that not telling us the US has fundamentally changed to an adversary of free speech? – Yours, etc,
LEE HEALY,
Ballincollig,
Cork.
Sir, – If the prospect of sharing their social media content with American authorities to acquire a student visa causes “fear and distress”, then maybe America isn’t the right place for these students to go.
Find a better fit or wait for a different administration. – Yours, etc,
DARA O’DONNELL,
Portobello,
Dublin 8.
Seeing red over College Green
Sir, – Do we really need a civic plaza in the centre of Dublin at a cost of €80 million? Admittedly, it’s not enough to solve the housing crisis, but to spend it on a traffic-free, pedestrian and cycle plaza, seems to me, a complete waste of taxpayers money.
Unlike some other European cities, where one can sit and soak up the ambience generated by cafes, ice-cream parlours, restaurants, bars, boutique shops etc., in glorious sunshine, Dubliners and visitors alike, are expected to sit and admire the Bank of Ireland, Trinity College and a few 19th century buildings, with just one or two places where you can get a take-away coffee? Spectacular as they may be, would anyone want to look at them for longer than it takes to lick a “99.” without being able to rest comfortably?
The architect’s image in The Irish Times (June 24th), shows two long backless benches which might accommodate 30 adults – if you don’t mind sitting shoulder to shoulder with a complete stranger, as they sip their take-away coffee, and risk getting hit by an e-scooter whizzing by, as you stand up, or get soaked to the skin by a frequent Irish summer’s downpour.
There is not a single waste bin in sight to dispose of an empty coffee cup and the ground surface depicted is hardly conducive to wheelchairs, rollators or prams – never mind bicycles!
Methinks, it is a case of back to the drawing board. – Yours, etc,
BARBARA KELLY,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Fallout from not upgrading the A5
Sir, – The news that the A5 upgrade will not now happen will be greeted with dismay by all of us who travel that particular portion of road from Donegal to Dublin
It’s time for the Irish Government to upgrade the Sligo to Letterkenny road thus giving the communities in Donegal some hope of reducing the long journey to Dublin and beyond.
We need to stop relying on our neighbours to partner on this much-needed upgrade while they sort out the rights of landowners and climate change impacts which apparently trump the lives of those killed and injured on this notorious road. – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’CONNELL,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Developing a housing policy
Sir, – Dr John McCartney’s article (“Developers are bluffing when they say lower prices would undermine viability of house building,” June 24th) misreads Ireland’s housing crisis.
Persistent affordability pressures arise not from surplus capital but from a structural undersupply of homes and a stubbornly high cost floor.
Housing Commission data show completions still trail demographic need. Reoccupying vacant units helps, yet it cannot bridge the gap, especially in urban areas where demand is strongest.
Cost is the second constraint. Repeated Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland studies confirm that, even on free land, building apartments to today’s safety, accessibility and sustainability standards often prices them beyond reach.
Developers are not on “strike” – they build when schemes are viable.
Targeted supports such as help to buy and the first home scheme – both with price caps – therefore remain essential.
They narrow the affordability gap without fuelling price inflation and give lenders and builders the certainty to start projects. Abandoning supply targets or tightening credit would simply throttle delivery and push prices higher.
What Ireland now needs is evidence-led policy that accelerates planning reform, lowers delivery costs and mobilises public and private capital behind new supply across all tenures.
Yours, etc,
PAT FARRELL,
Chief executive,
Irish Institutional Property,
Upper Pembroke St,
Dublin.
Sir, – With respect to John McCartney’s article on housing I would like to make the following point: While it is refreshing to hear an advocate for less government interference in the housing market, the help to buy scheme is simply giving young working people there own tax money back.
These young workers are already heavily taxed to fund the social housing of others and the various other subsidies that mostly end up in the bank accounts of landlords.
While it is technically an intervention in the housing market, it is one of the few ways that young people have to compete with the Government, institutional buyers and other landlords. – Yours, etc,
ALAN COAKLEY,
Co Roscommon.
Sir, – There abides, but soon to be evicted and despatched, a neighbour. He lives with his mate and brood on the southern end of a substantial top-soil mound which has become wild and richly overgrown having been without human interference for some years now.
An ideal location, with cover, for a pheasant to inhabit, set up a home and start a family.
Stored top-soil mounds are valuable. Rich horticulture land is also valuable, but has a much slower, generational monetary return.
Developers procured this land perhaps 15 years ago built on part of it and now are set to fully “develop” it. Developers become destroyers then when it’s time to build directly on removed top-soil mounds and “fully develop” the land for housing.
Time has come to access this resource, sell and recover their loss for storage then scour the area fit for housing. Heavy earth moving machinery will make short work of a fertile mound.
Our pal sits on his patch and raucously proclaims to all that this is his place in the world. His partner and chicks feel safe and secure here in their elevated idyllic ground nest.
An irony is that he and his family will not see the middle of July, having been evicted and despatched before then.
Not only should we mourn the loss of a pheasant family but also the loss of rich horticultural land. We need homes, but the Government, planners, et al, need to get their act together, find brownfield sites and build there. We need developers not destroyers. – Yours, etc,
PASCAL BYRNE,
Rush,
Co Dublin.
Seriously, though
Sir, – The letters published in The Irish Times recently seem to be of a longer and more serious nature. Time for a regime change perhaps? – Yours, etc,
DAVID CURRAN,
Knocknacarra,
Galway.
Sir, – Monday’s edition of The Irish Times felt very skimpy to me. The shop assistant noticed my bemused look and said: “You’re right and you’re not the first: there’s no news today”. If only. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL KEEGAN,
Booterstown,
Co Dublin.
Spare a thought for school secretaries
Sir, – As schools begin to close their doors this week and teaching staff disperse to the four corners of the world, spare a thought for the most overworked and underpaid secretarial cohort in the country. School secretaries will over the summer ensure that everything is in order for schools to return in late August.
Despite a new contractual system, schools struggle to hold on to excellent secretarial staff who are quite predictably lured away by more lucrative and less taxing positions elsewhere.
Schools have struggled with staffing issues in recent years and substitution has proven difficult but the show goes on. However, most principals will concede that if their secretary is absent they are irreplaceable and that school administration grinds to a halt.
Quite simply, to ensure that these wonderful people stay in our schools, their conditions of employment must change and they should be rewarded for their skills and versatility.
This is a well beaten drum at this stage and one to which most ministers for education have chosen not to listen.
I ask the current Minister for Education, Helen McEntee, to give this matter some thought and consideration. She would be doing both the secretarial community and the whole school community an enormous service by tackling this issue. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN BOYLE,
(Retired principal),
Co Dublin.
Drawing tattoos conclusions
Sir, – I refer to Dr Pat McGrath’s letter ( June 23rd) and would point out that tattoos have a rich and diverse history spanning thousands of years, with evidence of tattooing found in various cultures around the world.
Tattoos have cultural, spiritual, social and artistic significance to numerous groups and societies around the world and it is simply wrong, and insulting to say that years ago they were confined to sailors, prisoners and psychiatric patients.
I got my first and only (so far) tattoo at the age 62 having met a 100- year-old US army veteran on Omaha Beach in Normandy.
The tattoo reads “6th June 1944”, the date of the Allied invasion of Normandy and I got it to commemorate that monumental day and those who lost their lives that day.
I am very proud of my tattoo and very happy that I have it. – Yours, etc,
GARY DOYLE,
Straffan,
Co Kildare.
Duff suggestion
Sir, – If Damien Duff was unhappy with the performance of the Shelbourne team of which he was manager, why did he not just duff them up and get a result? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GREENE.
Spiddal,
Co Galway.
