Letters to the Editor: New stretch of greenway is a welcome boost to our wellbeing
Eventually Of Valerie Of Cork The The Junior Jack Brian Youghal The Minister Reach And Mayor Chambers, Of Lougheed O'sullivan, O'flynn County Officially Will Cork To Midleton Which County Opening Section Mogeely Greenway Council Picture: Frank Ceo
As a senior citizen with free travel I am delighted with the opening of the first phase of the Midleton to Youghal greenway — from Midleton to Mogeely. As the greenway begins where the Cork to Midleton train ends, it has brought spring closer to my home.
Places from childhood, which had become accessible only in memory I can now see to sketch and paint again: Cahermone Castle, Ball’s Rock and House, the old ‘Shanty’ level crossing, and the Roxborough river, to mention only some. For me, the colours and moods of east Cork’s pasture and wetlands broken by woodland sanctuaries is a landscape to delight in all seasons.
The wide tree and shrub-lined greenway with its well-placed seating, toilets, and level gradient is welcoming for all ages and abilities. The bird and mammal boxes, woodpiles for habitation and winter hibernation, animal-pathways, and loose stone riverbanks (not concrete) show care and concern for preserving and promoting the original flora and fauna of this old railway line.
Already along the way, primroses, furze, and daffodils are in bloom and wild-teasel, foxglove, and mullein are beginning to peep above ground after the winter frosts.
Along the way vehicle noise is at a minimum, except for tractors. If you come early, you will hear spring lambs bleating and calves lowing at their morning feeding time — as I did last Sunday.
If you need a spring break or want to experience again a safe walk through the fields or simply a ‘day out’ — hop on a train or bus to the greenway.
Those concerned with mental health and wellbeing for all age groups will welcome this haven and be grateful, like me, to all who worked hard to make it possible.
Much media attention has been rightly devoted to Cillian Murphy and his well-deserved Oscar. However, much less attention has been give to his acceptance speech, in which he dedicated his Oscar to “peacemakers everywhere”.
In contrast, little media attention was directed to the moving event in Shannon Airport last Sunday, when the lives of the children killed in Gaza were remembered.
It will take the political parties a long time to recover from the belt of the crozier, which was delivered with aplomb by the Catholic bishops at a strategic moment before the referenda. Two beautifully constructed reader-friendly sentences provided the clarity and leadership which the public was crying out for and cost the referenda the Catholic vote and many more votes besides.
The proposed family amendment to the Constitution, they said, “diminishes the unique importance of the relationship between marriage and family in the eyes of society and state and is likely to lead to a weakening of the incentive for young people to marry”. The care amendment, they added, “would have the effect of abolishing all reference to motherhood in the Constitution and leave unacknowledged the particular and incalculable societal contribution that mothers in the home have made and continue to make in Ireland”.
Suddenly, the incomprehensible was crystal clear to me as I listened to the priest at Mass the week before the vote. The referenda were a definite no-no for me.
In addition, the Government scored a spectacular own goal by bizarrely holding the referenda on International Women’s Day, two days before Mother’s Day when the “incalculable societal contribution of mothers” was the talk of the town. Mná na hÉireann responded by delivering a fatal knock-out punch from which there was no recovery.
The unlikely alliance of Catholic Church and Mná na Éireann scuppered the two regressive referenda and has politicians behaving like rats deserting a sinking ship to confess that although they canvassed for yes yes, they voted no-no.
The care referendum result is confirmation by the electorate of the contempt in which the political establishment are held when it comes to the provision of support for those with special needs and their carers. No amount of political rhetoric will substitute for the failure of successive governments to put meaningful and worthwhile resources in place to enable those with special needs and their carers to live a dignified lifestyle. Carers in this country are actively discouraged from caring for a loved one; giving up employment to provide full-time care 24/7 and then realising that they are penalised by the state for their efforts. This situation is best illustrated when you consider that a carer giving up a job to provide full-time care will receive the statutory support of Carer’s Benefit — but only for a two-year period, despite no change whatsoever in the circumstances being experienced by both the carer and the person being cared for.
It is not surprising that in a environment that is so hostile to the caring profession, where our politicians lack the desire or the ability to prioritise the necessary resources for same, that the electorate when given the opportunity through a referendum, express their frustrations with a resounding no vote to the proposals made by the political establishment.
A few things are clear, the people were not confused, the issues were not complicated, and the Government was arrogant, stupid, and out of touch with the people.
The process clearly showed how undemocratic, unrepresentative and badly governed the various NGOs and disability and care representative groups are, when a few executives at the helm can dictate their misguided, unrepresentative, and wayward view over the will of the ordinary majority membership. The Charities Regulator too has been shown to be majorly ineffective in ensuring proper, open, and effective governance of the sector.
How out of touch is a taoiseach who can compound such a disaster with an even bigger and more shocking and disgusting catastrophe by flying west to shake the hand of US president Joe Biden who is aiding and abetting the torture, starvation and murder of many thousands of innocent children and parents in Gaza.
Shame on the Government, to try and weaken the Irish Constitution with the recent referenda.
Our Constitution, which is old, beautiful, and strong, is the basis of our democracy. However, by omission, the Coalition has given the people the clear opportunity to strengthen our identity,
For years, poll after poll has shown that the Irish people choose that Ireland values neutrality as a vital part on our identity, And now is the time to provide the public with the opportunity to vote on neutrality and copperfasten it in our Constitution by referendum
The proposal by Uisce Éireann to take water from the Shannon river catchment, to make up the shortfall of potable water supply issues facing Dublin, will not in the short term mitigate the water deficit supply problems that Dublin is facing.
What is at issue is the provenance and state of the water supply transmission infrastructure, much of it dating back to the Victorian era, and which is responsible for the high leakage loss on transmission. Potable water loss from water supply utilities worldwide ranges from 5% to 10% within the transmission networks of well managed systems, while up to 40% to 60% of potable water is lost from systems in poor condition, and where there is a history of long term under investment in transmission network maintenance.
It is the latter scenario that relates to Dublin and in particular the high leakage rate of potable water from the transmission system. Until the leakage situation is rectified, there is little point embarking on a project of the scale proposed by Uisce Éireann, which to all intents and purposes is absurd from a cost benefit analysis point of view.
Production of potable water is expensive, whether it is from a conventional water treatment facility or a desalination plant. But putting that potable water into a transmission supply system that has a high leakage rate, as is the case in Dublin, simply beggars belief.
The estimated cost of the proposed west to east pipeline venture is circa of the order of magnitude of €1.3bn, and which could very well turn into a farce similar to the construction cost overruns for the National Children’s Hospital.