Sir, – It had been coming on for a while but it came to a head last week.
It happened in my beloved local – Smyths of Haddington Road – when one of my friends, a solemn and serious man, suggested I might make a decent president.
The others, not a reverential group, quickly agreed though I suspect the prospect of pints in the Park might have been a factor in their enthusiasm.
All went well until the question of background checks, family skeletons in cupboards or in my own past came up.
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That cooled things down.
I wondered if the story of my disreputable rogue of a cousin would surface. He had disgraced himself by his blackguarding of Parnell in that great man’s last byelection, the Carlow byelction of 1891 and later received six months hard labour for a crime taken more seriously now than then.
Or would they drag up great-uncle TJ who got and then lost the Irish Party nomination for the East Galway byelection in the 1890s?
Why he was deselected is still a murky matter. It might not bear too much researching.
And a few more cousinly names came floating back and all this before I even began to think what skeletons, mistakes, bad behaviour might be swimming around in my own past.
I thanked my friends.
The quiet life has much to be said for it. – Yours, etc,
MAURICE MANNING,
Haddington Road,
Dublin 4.
Trump and Putin Alaska meeting
Sir, – I never thought I would say this, but I actually felt sorry for US president Donald Trump as I watched the reports of the Trump-Putin Summit, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, I felt embarrassed for him.
Russian president Vladimir Putin took full advantage of the red carpet welcome given to him by Trump, while at the same time conceding absolutely nothing.
At the press conference, Putin used the opportunity to give a history lesson to justify his invasion of Ukraine, while, for once, Trump seemed lost for words.
My hope is that this experience has alerted Trump to the reality that he cannot trust Putin.
However, Trump appears to be a slow learner so I will not hold my breath. – Yours, etc,
PAULA MOLLOY,
Baldoyle,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – Commiserations, on this occasion, to US president Donald Trump on his valiant but failed attempt to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine, during his talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Perhaps, to use his own idiom, he just didn’t have the cards. – Yours, etc,
NUALA DELANEY,
Killiney.
Co Dublin.
Sir, – It’s apparent that there is no love lost between the US president and large sections of the media. Considering the way that many news outlets displayed a blatant bias in last year’s election, Mr Trump’s displeasure is understandable.
However, the mutual dislike is beginning to get silly and childish.
For example, at the funeral of the late Pope Francis, many commentators were more obsessed with Mr Trump’s choice of suit than concentrating on the solemnity of the occasion.
Now at the recent Trump-Putin summit in Alaska they have latched on to the fact that a red carpet was laid out at the foot of the aircraft.
The latter is standard procedure for all visiting heads of state, regardless of their reputation.
For example, in the UK and Ireland the red carpet has been rolled out for all sorts of questionable heads of state.
A few years ago, the Chinese premier Li Qiang made an overnight stop in Ireland and almost ¤3,000 was splashed out on, you’ve guessed it, a red carpet.
To put it mildly, China has a questionable human rights record.
From blue suit-gate, to red carpet-gate. Can we please have more substantive reporting than this childish trivia? – Yours, etc,
ERIC CONWAY,
Navan,
Co Meath.
Sir, – While Putin said he sincerely wants to end the war, what he forgot to add was “but on my terms”. – Yours, etc,
PAUL KEENAN,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.
Angelus strikes a wrong note
Sir, – I can only answer “yes” to William Burke’s question “Isn’t it time to remove the Angelus from RTÉ’s airwaves (Letters, August 14th).
Having written to The Irish Times and RTÉ on the subject (and having been castigated by several follow-up letters) I think it is time to review this issue again.
It is not the role of the national broadcaster to deliver “a spiritual moment” to the masses, and it is not indeed a spiritual moment directed to the masses, it is directed to Catholics.
If I want a spiritual moment I am quite happy to listen to bird song or waves on a beach.
The Angelus is the anthem of an organisation which still discriminates against half the population, campaigns against contraception and abortion in all cases, refuses their sacraments to same sex couples and further discriminates against citizens of this country who belong to the LGBTQ+ community.
On more than one occasion in the recent past a news report on clerical sex abuse being delivered on RTÉ’s excellent Drivetime programme has been interrupted with “a pause for the Angelus” and it is time we all saw the irony and contradiction in this.
Ireland is now a country with a diverse population in terms of gender, colour, nationality, religious belief (or absence of same) and sexual orientation, and our national broadcaster needs to reflect this.
Let those who wish to listen to the Angelus make their own recordings which they can play at midday and 6pm, but please allow those of us who do not subscribe to Catholicism to enjoy RTÉ’s television and radio programmes without any historical and outdated religious trappings. – Yours, etc,
GARY DOYLE,
Straffan,
Co Kildare.
A warning on The Weir
Sir, – Your review of The Weir omits what should be the standard warning that accompanies any references to performances of that play: do not drink alcohol immediately before watching a performance because it does not have an interval (“The Weir review: Brendan Gleeson and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor bring timeless play to Dublin,” August 14th).
As it happens I attended the original production of The Weir in St Martin’s Lane, London in the late 1990s.
I was with my cousin and we both, as usual, had several pints of beer beforehand.
Despite our best efforts at “containment”, we both separately had to leave our seats to go to the toilet right in the middle of a scene in the play.
My cousin was so affected that he never again drank alcohol – before watching any play. – Yours, etc,
FRANK DESMOND,
Cork.
The feasibility of MetroLink
Sir, – In recent weeks, Dermot Desmond and Michael O’Leary have expressed views that the MetroLink project idea should be scrapped. Common sense should prevail and it should be scrapped.
The metro project has been discussed for over 20 years. About €500 million has been spent to date and not one metre of track has yet been installed.
In December 2023, then minister for transport Eamon Ryan stated that he believed the long-promised metro would begin operating in the early 2030s. He also expressed confidence that the line would be built at an estimated cost of €9.5 billion.
In March 2025, an estimated figure of €23 billion was suggested. Estimated. The truth is, no one knows how much it will cost.
As we have seen with the children’s hospital project, it has grown enormous fiscal legs, as it was never correctly costed from the very onset of the project.
Even now, no one knows the final price for the completed hospital.
Historically, large capital projects in Ireland typically come in well over budget, with gigantic, uncontrolled costs being the norm.
Dublin Port Tunnel and the first Red and Green Luas lines spring to mind as State projects where high cost overruns doubled the cost at completion time.
Potentially, MetroLink could come in at ¤40 billion if the trend is followed.
It won’t even be a proper metro. Just one underground line from the airport to St Stephen’s Green is hardly a metro system.
Given our current housing crisis, the metro project would also remove valuable construction manpower from house building, which is already experiencing labour scarcity.
With chronic traffic issues in Dublin, it would be wiser to invest the vast sums of money in a full Luas for Dublin. With a Luas line running from Broombridge Luas depot up through Tolka valley and via Finglas on an elevated track line along the N3 on to Ballymun and turning towards the airport from Ballymun.
In tandem, a Dart line from the airport down to the Dart at Clongriffin or Portmarnock stations could easily be built.
Much of the ground between the airport and either of these two stations is open, undeveloped, including Belcamp, down to the Malahide Road.
Scheduling the Darts from Clongriffin or Portmarnock could allow for a slow and fast link to Connolly Station, linking out to the south side of Dublin to Bray and into Co Wicklow or running north towards Drogheda. This would give a larger catchment area of airport passengers. Such links would reduce car use to the airport.
As a qualified mining engineer with experience in tunnelling works early on in my career, I know that tunnelling projects typically run vastly over initial cost estimates.
Delays associated with unforeseen hostile ground conditions, mechanical breakdowns and other problems all add to cost overruns and claims from contractors.
A prime and relevant Irish tunnelling project is the Dublin Port tunnel, which came in at ¤2 billion, double the estimated cost 22 years ago.
So, can someone in Government just decide to stop this nonsense and ask Transport Infrastructure Ireland for a swift feasibility study on a combined Luas and Dart link from the airport?
It will save the State and the taxpayers from another multibillion-euro white elephant. – Yours, etc,
RORY O CONNOR,
Chartered Engineer,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – David Clarke (Letters, August 14th) expresses doubts as to whether Michael O’Leary is “speaking from personal experience about public transport” in relation to arguments he raises concerning access to Dublin Airport.
Is this not a slightly churlish comment regarding a man who once demonstrated his commitment and support for the concept of public transport by purchasing a private taxi licence plate so that he could share the semi-exclusive bus-lane corridor provided for them? – Yours, etc,
JAKE WALSH,
Clogherhead,
Co Louth.
Sir, – I agree Dublin needs a rail link to the airport, but MetroLink should not be seen as the only, or best, solution. An overground line could be built far more quickly and at a fraction of the cost.
Living beside the Dart, I see the benefits such a service brings to local communities, and a similar link to the airport could serve passengers and residents without the huge tunnelling expense.
If MetroLink is about connecting suburbs, should we not also be planning similar links for Lucan, Rathfarnham and other areas?
For the relatively low population density of Dublin’s suburbs, underground tunnels are financially and environmentally prohibitive.
Peer-reviewed studies show tunnel construction emits, on average, 27 times more CO2 per kilometre than surface rail. An overground route could be delivered in under five years for about ¤1 billion.
The billions saved could fund sustainability projects that cut emissions and help Ireland avoid up to ¤28 billion in EU penalties.
Otherwise, we risk pouring all our resources into one line while leaving much of Dublin behind. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL O’HARA,
Co-founder,
Techies Go Green,
Guinness Enterprise Centre,
Dublin 8.
Press freedom and Palestine
Sir, – Killian Foley-Walsh may have been quite chuffed when he spotted that Palestine is ranked even lower than Israel on the current World Press Freedom Index (Letters, August 15th), but this fact does not lend his argument as much force as he thinks.
Apparently, he sees this as evidence that statistics coming from Palestinian sources should be treated with at least as much caution as those coming out of Israel.
Perhaps he is right: peer-reviewed studies (in publications such as The Lancet) have shown that the death toll in Gaza is, if anything, substantially higher than the figures released by the health ministry.
Has the letter writer also considered that the low ranking of Palestine in the Press Freedom Index might have anything to do with the fact that Gaza is currently one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists?
Elsewhere on your Letters page, David Woods wants us to take seriously the parallel he suggests between Israel’s violation of international law and the actions of protesters carrying placards in support of an organisation (Palestine Action), whose proscription by the UK government is the subject of ongoing legal challenge, and has been widely condemned by human rights groups for its impact on people’s right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression.
What is happening in Gaza is one of the most appalling atrocities we have witnessed in modern history, and it is hard to understand why some people seem so determined to distract us from it with such equivalences and semantic games. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN O’CONNELL,
Crumlin,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – Dr David Woods states that Londoners taking part in a proscribed demonstration “are doing the same thing” as Israel is, by its creeping annexation of the West Bank.
The mind boggles at the thought that anyone, let alone a university lecturer, could see any equivalence between these respective actions. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL O’DWYER,
Clogheen,
Cork.
Not a record
Sir, – The writer, whose name eludes Michael Keegan (Letters, August 14th), could not have heard John McCormack singing On Hearing the First Cuckoo of Spring, even on a record.
This is a beautiful piece for orchestra by Frederick Delius, which doesn’t call for any contribution from a singer! – Yours, etc,
GILLIAN SMITH,
Dublin 6.
