The role of president
Sir, – Contrary to Geoff Scargill’s “blessing sandwiches” (Letters, August 25th), many of us see more important aspects of the president’s role.
Within the framework of our Constitution, she or he represents our country, acts as a moral reference, and safeguards our freedoms. This is why we need to hear what candidates believe and to understand how they would act as our national compass in a challenging world. Our other institutions do their job of governing.
Our presidents have often successfully provided a more overarching consideration: how we want to see ourselves; how we would like others to see us; and how we can act together to achieve our ambitions with integrity. – Yours, etc,
COLIN WOLFE,
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Avoca,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – While much attention is being given to the possible candidates who could emerge for the presidential election, there is one small group who cannot really participate. Atheists are not banned per se but the terms of the declaration that the elected president has to give, upon election, under article 12.8 of the Constitution whereby he/she must declare and promise “in the presence of Almighty God”, makes this difficult.
This paragraph goes on to say that the president invokes the direction of God in the execution of his/her duties in the office. One would have to be a believer to think this has any factual bearing on what a president does during their term.
No atheist to my mind could make such a declaration.
It matters little to those who are elected since the de facto participation itself rules this out. The acceptance is understood. It matters little, I would have thought, to the majority of the electorate what beliefs the president holds.
It does, however, raise the questions about the secular and inclusive nature of our State and movements towards this are slow and reluctant. – Yours, etc,
DAVID LYONS,
Dublin 8.
More deaths in Gaza
Sir, – Israel has said it does not target journalists, which, in light of its most recent atrocity in Gaza, is as ludicrous and mendacious as Russia claiming it does not target civilians in Ukraine (“At least 20 killed, including five journalists, as Israel strikes Gaza hospital”, News, August 25th).
Perhaps now the Irish Government might dare to stand out from the crowd and in an act of sovereign independence announce that Ireland is prepared to take decisive action against Israel in the area of sanctions and international legal action, wherever appropriate.
It is not acceptable to wait for unanimous action agreed by the European Union or the United Nations. As things stand, genocide, ethnic cleansing and blatant breaches of international law are becoming commonplace.
Ireland can and should speak out. – Yours, etc,
HUGH PIERCE,
Celbridge,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – How much louder must the people of Ireland shout before the Government hears us? How many more protests, vigils, banners, fundraisers and broken hearts will it take for them to act on Gaza?
Across every town in Ireland, citizens are crying out for justice. Yet from the Taoiseach’s office there is silence, avoidance, complicity. Shannon Airport continues to facilitate the machinery of war. Ireland, according to Trócaire and the Houses of the Oireachtas, is one of Israel’s biggest trading partner in Europe. That is not neutrality. That is enabling. And it is happening under their watch.
How can the Government ignore the people it claims to represent? History will not forgive. – Yours, etc,
ELLIE BYRNE,
Kilkee,
Co Clare.
The right to work
Sir, – Orla Ryan’s article, “Number of international protection applicants working ‘has increased dramatically’ – CSO” (News, August 25th), does not mention that international protection applicants were only granted the right to work in Ireland in 2018.
It is unsurprising, then, that the number of applicants in employment would “increase dramatically” in 2016-2024.
International protection applicants were granted access to the labour market after the Supreme Court found the prohibition on employment to be unconstitutional.
ESRI research has found that international protection applicants in Ireland are primarily employed in low-paid but vital jobs, including home care assistants, factory workers and cleaners. They continue to face challenges in accessing employment, not only in terms of language barriers but also discrimination.
Work allows people to find a sense of purpose, gain independence and build community. Basic needs and rights, including work, must be understood as distinct from a person’s international protection claim. – Yours, etc,
EMILY CUNNIFFE,
School of Law,
Trinity College Dublin.
GenAI’s unreliability
Sir, – Any conversation about artificial intelligence (AI) would be improved by distinguishing between GenAI and non-GenAI.
Non-Gen AI has been around for decades, does not consume excessive quantities of electricity and it works, boringly well, for very specific tasks.
In contrast GenAI is new, exciting, promises the sky but has major issues, especially for education. For starters, GenAI is notoriously unreliable. By way of example, GenAI killed a friend of mine – not literally, in the real world he is alive and well but search online and he died in 2017.
When GenAI does produce valid synthetic text, that text is likely to be violating somebody’s copyright. Lastly, creating a text by hand requires the writer to engage with the material. Using GenAI does not and this alone makes it an unsuitable tool for use in education. – Yours, etc,
BEN AVELING,
Ranelagh,
Dublin.
Tricolour’s symbolism
Sir, – The Irish Tricolour should symbolise unity and peace. Yet in parts of Dublin it has recently been put up unofficially by anti-immigrant activists, twisting its meaning into something divisive and intimidating.
The flag belongs to all of us. It must not be allowed to become a badge for extremism.
The council should act quickly to remove these displays and reaffirm the Tricolour as a symbol of inclusion. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK CUSACK,
North Strand,
Dublin 3.
Armed troops in US cities
Sir, – The move by Donald Trump to order armed national guards to enter US cities is right out of the playbook of despotic leaders throughout history (“National guard deployed on streets of Washington after Trump takes control of city’s police”, News, August 13th).
The US president’s acts of retribution on those who have slighted him, or those whom he perceives to have slighted him, is another worrying trend. His threats to take over other sovereign nations should be a clue to his intentions as he sits ruminating in the oval office.
He also knows that the US Supreme Court is heavily weighted in his favour. There are many more examples of Mr Trump using his executive powers, albeit spuriously, to force his brand of republicanism on all organs of the American state.
One should never forget how he and others stoked the fires of insurrection on January 6th, 2021 when his supporters attacked the Capitol because of lies about the presidential election.
We should be wary of anything this man says, or those in his administration.
The US, under Mr Trump, has taken the path of authoritarianism where the rich elite, or uneducated, become part of his Orwellian nightmare. – Yours, etc,
CHRISTY GALLIGAN,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Gen Z and legal jargon
Sir, – In John McManus’s recent article on the use of plain English in Irish courts, he writes: “There is much work to be done to make their rulings easily understood by a reasonably intelligent person, never mind a member of Generation Z” (“Why won’t the courts use plain English?”, Opinion, August 26th).
Such a statement is an unwarranted slight against me and my Gen Z peers. We are, after all, the generation that has grown up interpreting the internet with its ever-shifting dialects and vocabularies. Rest assured, we can handle as much jargon as any other generation. – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN HAYDEN,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4.
Noisy audiences
Sir, – Chloé Bernard complains of audience inattention and the attraction of the bar over the music at last week’s Human League concert in Dublin (Letters, August 26th).
I recently attended the wonderful production of the Weir at the Olympia in Dublin, however it was difficult to concentrate on the play with some of the audience constantly getting up from their seats to go to the toilet or noisily feasting on food during the performance. – Yours, etc,
MIKE MORAN,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.
Too many articles
Sir, – How many more articles is The Irish Times going to trot out about the cost of returning to school? Every year from July onwards the public is informed – as if it is news – that going back to school costs a lot of money. People who decide to procreate cannot be unaware of the costs associated. Anyone who already has one child must be able to do the sums and figure out that two children cost more than one. Does it have to become “news”? – Yours, etc,
DEIRDRE DAVY,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
A doctor’s legacy
Sir, – I read with interest Noel Costello’s candid account of his school days in Belgrove Boys National School (An Irish Diary, August 25th).
I recall my mother attending Dr Cyril Daly on the Howth Road in Dublin. He did indeed “play a pivotal role in the ending of corporal punishment in 1982”. Dr Daly took on the establishment in the name of justice for children, asserting that “the Irish child is a human being with human rights”.
How important this is today, when thousands returning to school are experiencing a shortage of teachers and special needs requirements due to a lack of support facilities. All of this impacts on a pupil’s right to an education that prepares them for the productive adulthood they deserve. – Yours, etc,
BRENDA MORGAN,
Howth,
Co Dublin.
Fogo to Dooey
Sir, – I enjoyed Deirdre McQuillan’s account of Zita Cobb’s altruism on Fogo Island (“Lessons from a Small Island”, Magazine, August 23rd). She quoted Ms Cobb saying “Dingle is 120 nautical miles further north than Fogo”, but unlike it, is kept warmer by the Gulf Stream.
Dooey beach in Co Donegal is even further north and the Gulf Stream was the most likely bearer of a discarded, plastic lighter I found washed up there some 30 years ago.
The image on the lighter of a fishing trawler testifies to Fogo’s piscatorial heritage. We have also found sea beans on Dooey. In The Way that I Went, Robert Lloyd Praeger illustrates five “tropical drift seeds”, four of which were found in Co Donegal. In 1696 Sir Hans Sloane identified some such beans as being from plants growing in Jamaica.
Subsequently, Charles Darwin conducted experiments to determine how long such beans could remain in salt water and still germinate. It is fitting that the lighter should have come to Ireland from Fogo “… the most Irish island in the world outside Ireland”. – Yours, etc,
ALUN EVANS MD,
Professor emeritus,
Centre for Public Health,
Queen’s University of Belfast.
Totting up 110%
Sir, – Once upon a time the marks, usually out of 600, achieved for each subject in the Leaving Cert were given to candidates. I recall my father telling me, while training as a national teacher in the 1950s, that one of the lecturers asked a student how he had achieved a mark of 660 (110 per cent) in his maths exam. His answer: he achieved the top score of 600 on the paper and was awarded the extra 10 per cent of that mark for sitting the paper through Irish. – Is mise,
AISLING FOLEY,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.
