Sir, - The folk memory of our island nation is filled with tales of the coffin ships wherein our forebears sailed. Yet even the worst of those vessels did not deny oxygen to the wretched human cargo.
Surely, as a temporary emergency measure, we could cut a small vent near the floor level of steel containers, and another near ceiling level. This would evacuate the rising warm current from the heat of human bodies, priming a life-saving air intake via the lower vent. This remedy is quick and cheap, finished in five minutes with an angle-grinder.
It was all so sad. - Yours, etc.,
Michael Reynolds, Ashford, Co Wicklow.