Sir, – I urge the Government to urgently establish a psychological taskforce for Ukrainian refugees arriving in Ireland.
Previous experience of war has proven that post-traumatic stress disorder can manifest at all ages and may last a lifetime if untreated. The refugees arriving need a one-stop shop where they can access such supports in a timely, effective and age-appropriate manner.
The matter of language barriers must also be addressed in offering such help.
Prolonged uncertainty wears down resilience. We are not just physical bodies, we have minds and hearts. Splitting body and mind, as if one is unrelated to the other, flies in the face of all the evidence from the social sciences that says otherwise. This was evident during the lifetime of Nphet which did not give due regard to psychological and mental health issues when formulating their advice. Psychological wellbeing, physical health, and even mortality are tightly linked.
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The State reacted swiftly during the pandemic and learned how to set up complex logistical systems in quick time. A similar approach is now required in terms of the short- and longer-term effects of displacement and trauma, and I have offered to meet Ministers to discuss the possibilities.
We know that early intervention works, which is why a taskforce is needed now. – Yours, etc,
Dr MAUREEN GAFFNEY,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has ruled out any action on Section 110 companies, saying that they are not part of the EU sanctions package.
Of course they aren’t because Ireland is the only country in the EU to have such special-purpose vehicle (SPV) structures which allow Russian-owned entities a neutral tax regime.
It is also worth pointing out that both the Irish Government and the EU, together with the Irish media, including The Irish Times, have been quick to state that the EU has done more than Britain in sanctioning Russian oligarchs. That may have been the case two weeks ago but is now debatable. Given that the UK has sanctioned Oleg Deripaska, the owner of Aughinish Alumina, what is Ireland and the EU now going to do? The Government needs to clarify Ireland’s position on both Deripaska and Russian-owned Section 110 companies. – Yours, etc,
JOHN TURNER,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – Can the Irish Anti-War Movement (Letters, March 11th) write one letter which, without apportioning blame or deflecting the issue, simply asks Russia and President Putin to halt the catastrophic war which they started in Ukraine? – Yours, etc,
ROBERT LAIRD,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – If Jim Roche argues that we should have a considered debate about changing road names because of various conflicts abroad, then surely it is also well past time that the misleadingly labelled “Irish Anti-War Movement” also reconsidered its title considering its relentless focus on certain conflicts to the disregard of others. – Yours, etc,
KARL DOYLE,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
A chara, – The proposal to rename Orwell Road holds an undeniable irony when these lines are considered: “Every statue and street building has been renamed . . . nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” George Orwell, 1984. – Is mise,
EOGHAN Mac CORMAIC,
Cill Chríost,
Gaillimh.
Sir, – Couldn’t they just change the section with the Russian embassy to “Orwellian Road”? – Yours, etc,
LORCAN KENNAN,
The Hague,
Netherlands.
Sir, – The Russian embassy in Ireland called the recent protest demolition of its front gates “senseless and barbaric”. What words will they find to describe the deliberate bombing by Russia of a children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol, which maimed pregnant women and sick children, burying many of them under rubble?
Words are not adequate to define this level of depravity and horror. – Yours, etc,
EMER HUGHES,
Moate,
Co Westmeath.
Sir, – The absurdity of our much-vaunted “‘triple lock” mechanism (a UN Security Council Resolution, a formal decision by the Irish Government and approval by a resolution of Dáil Éireann) that underpins the deployment of our soldiers on peacekeeping or peace enforcement missions, must be subjected to close scrutiny now that Irish defence policy, including the type of Defence Forces this country can afford and the politics of our neutrality, are, in the extraordinary circumstances of the war in Ukraine, likely to be subjected to a long-awaited, honest and comprehensive review.
With Russia having a veto on the UN Security Council, it can therefore veto our international peace deployments.
Do we want a warmonger to dictate when and where we serve the oppressed people of our world? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GANNON,
(Colonel, retired),
Kilkenny.
Sir, – Sometimes words cannot express the stomach-churning shock, horror and emotion felt when one looks at a photograph. Such was how I felt on viewing the photograph by Lynsey Addarioin Friday's Irish Times of the dead bodies of Tetiana, Mykyta and Alisa Perebyinis and church volunteer Anatoly Berezhnyi killed by Russian mortar fire as they tried to evacuate Kyiv. I hope this photograph will be reproduced all over the world to bring home the horrors of war to the world. – Yours, etc,
TONY CORCORAN,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – I read with bemusement the recent letters to this page questioning Ireland’s neutrality. While I too am concerned by the alarming events in Ukraine, there seems to be mass hysteria from people stating that we should start to invest large sums in military spending and “demanding” that we join Nato as a matter of urgency.
These two options seem ridiculous to anybody who is looking at these prospects rationally. Even if we decided to invest the fantastical amount of 20 percent of our GDP into military spending, we would still be unable to defend ourselves from any large military that wished to attack us.
The often floated alternative of joining Nato would mean becoming a staging area for Nato, meaning we would effectively be painting a target on ourselves.
It is with sheer blind luck that Ireland is located where it is on the globe. We do not need to make ourselves a target for nefarious world powers or fall for vested interests who would like us spend funds on weapons of war, funds that could be better spent on the myriad real problems that face Ireland today. – Yours, etc,
IAN COURTENAY,
Ballinteer,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Given the degree of persecution Putin is prepared to inflict and the resultant refugee crisis with women and children streaming across Europe’s borders in search of a safe haven, it begs the question, how long more can Ireland postpone a robust debate on our country remaining neutral? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CULLEN,
Sandycove,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Why would you want to seize a land that you have bombed to smithereens, whose citizens have fled in large numbers, whose economy is trashed? If you win then many of those residents that have stayed in their homeland will have been maimed, and psychologically damaged, such that they will be much less economically productive as a result of war, for years or decades to come. Almost all of them hate your presence and will not co-operate with you, except under duress. What, on earth, is to be gained from a hostile invasion? – Yours, etc,
HELEN GALLAGHER,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – A nuclear explosion doesn’t differentiate between who is neutral or not. – Yours, etc,
KEITH NOLAN,
Carrick-on-Shannon,
Co Leitrim.
Sir, – Vladimir Putin purports to be a practising Christian and is regularly seen at high-profile Russian Orthodox events such as Epiphany and Easter, often in the company of his new best friend Patriarch Kyrill, who has recently justified the invasion of Ukraine as a “struggle against sin”. It is sad to see that the Russian Orthodox church, having emerged from several decades of persecution by Putin’s predecessors, has now sold her soul to the devil. – Yours, etc,
CHARLES DALY,
Dungarvan,
Co Waterford.