Sir, - In the light of recent atrocities against the elderly in this country, I am reminded of some lines Yeats wrote in his poem Sailing to Byzantium; that this "is no country for old men", and "an aged man is but a paltry thing".
It is understandable that we as a society should demand severe punishment for the perpetrators' of these savage crimes against some of the most vulnerable in our society. However, these attacks have happened before, which underlines that this problem is not one which will go away overnight or when these thugs are eventually caught.
Is it not true to say that we as a society have largely forgotten the elderly? While every other cause was being championed the elderly were sidelined. The elderly are not respected or included in our society. These thugs learned their viciousness and disrespect from someone.
Is there a quick solution? No, but there is a way towards finding one. Visit an elderly person near you: relieve the isolation, the fear, the loneliness - make one hour in your week for that person. Perhaps then we won't need Garda checkpoints on our roads.
Without our elderly, our society is a poorer one. - Yours, etc.,
Leeson Park Avenue,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.