Letters to the Editor: Phones should not be banned in schools
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It is with great concern that I see Norma Foley is planning to ban smartphones from secondary schools.
I did my PhD thesis on student perceptions of social media in education. Social media networks via smartphones are a fantastic resource of information and education.
If correctly administered apps such as X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok can be a great classroom assist.
In these days of increasing tech development, it is folly to remove it from the hands of eager students who are already heavily invested in a potential learning tool.
We are in an era of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and neural networks.
If you remove devices, future students may be outclassed and risk becoming uncompetitive compared to societies that embrace and integrate smartphone technology in the classroom.
If you ban smartphones, then you must ban smartwatches, smart glasses, e-readers, tablets, fitness devices, and anything else connected to the internet.
Also, teachers won’t be allowed to have smartphones either and how is anyone going to police this? Are they going to be searching students going to class? Or have a guard with a metal detector at the school door?
If anything, there should be more technology integrated into the classroom and every student should be given a free smartphone or pad.
A letter from Niall Meehan (‘ Time restrictions of redress scheme’, August 23) is a wake-up call to Church of Ireland members.
I am a retired physician and was commissioned as an evangelist by the Church of Ireland post-retirement. But our bishops are very clearly asleep at the helm.
The scale and chronicity of abuse cover-up within our Anglican Church tradition is astonishing. We have notorious scandals emerging involving multiple senior figures. An internet search on any of these names exposes the scale of the difficulty: Canon Mike Pilavachi, Rev Jonathan Fletcher, Bishop Peter Ball, John Smyth QC.
Furthermore, look up the late ‘Canon WG (Billy) Neely’, a deceased Belfast child abuser, who the Protestant Diocese of Down and Dromore still appear shamefully scared to name.
This remains the case even after one deceased victim (the late Eddie Gorman) secured a 2023 compensation settlement. Shameful clerical abuse was cynically covered up for close to 50 years.
As a medic (and a member of the judiciary) I am disappointed at the serial failure of our leaders to fix up formal and independent inquires into glaring abuse problems. The Canon WG Neely case has clearly been an open sore for a very long time. I was alerted to it on the fringe of an academic meeting, many years before the media finally broke the story in 2022.
I have been approached by a number of victims or their advocates, all utterly frustrated at the way the Church of Ireland hierarchy has failed to actively uncover abuse. There are compelling reasons for the Archbishop of Armagh to convene an independent inquiry into evidence of horrific disciplinary lapses in the Belfast-centred Down and Dromore Diocese.
As regional tensions rise and the humanitarian situation in Lebanon deteriorates, the nightmare of Gaza is unbelievably getting worse. The population is starved, diseased, and traumatised.
Humanitarian aid agencies are facing rising pressure and restrictions on our operations, leaving thousands of lives at risk.
The Palestine NGOs Network, PNGO — a partner of ActionAid — is facing heavy bombardment around their office and humanitarian hub in Deir Al Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Blocks adjacent to them have received evacuation orders from the Israelis.
And an ActionAid partner that supports women, WEFAQ, has already been forced to evacuate from Deir Al Balah as Israeli tanks close in. WEFAQ is a crucial source of support, especially for women and families displaced by the ongoing bombardment.
This evacuation critically impacts on their ability to deliver essential services to those in need.
Humanitarian workers should be safe, and aid should be available to a population in dire need. These forced evacuations likely constitute war crimes.
There must be sanctions against Israel, and Ireland must take action if the European Union will not. There are actions we can take — the Occupied Territories Bill, the Divestment Bill and pushing the EU harder on the EU and Israel Association Agreement.
ActionAid demands an immediate ceasefire, an end to the blockade on Gaza, release of all hostages and the full protection of all humanitarian personnel so they can work delivering critical aid unimpeded. This is an atrocity unfolding in real time. The world cannot continue to stand idly by. Tragically, every time we think things can’t get worse, they do.
After reading Esther McCarthy’s story on her dog Shep, it brought back a flood of memories about growing up in Midleton in the 70s and 80s.
The family dog always had a favourite ‘owner’ but we all basked in fun and games and loyalty.
It taught responsibility to an age that otherwise wouldn’t have known it.
Living in Australia now, 35 years later, I still have a dog — an Australian cattle dog/blue heeler called Buddy. Buddy is a far cry from Eno, a golden cocker spaniel, but Esther’s story made me smile as only moments before settling in to read the paper, I asked Buddy ‘what are you doing, want to come outside and read The with me?’ and his response was to jump up and head to the door with a look of ‘come on then!’
Not close to calling the kids for lunch but still a heart warmer.
As the completion date for the new national children’s hospital draws near, albeit at a snail’s pace, it is surely time Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and the Government embrace public opinion and name the hospital after Kathleen Lynn.
In 2017 the Government selected the name ‘Phoenix Children’s Hospital Ireland’ but abandoned it in 2018 due to legal threats from the Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Arizona, US. The name was also judged to be inappropriate by the medical boards of the three existing Dublin children’s hospitals.
We in this country have been very fortunate with the calibre of citizens who, on the premise of volunteer participation, gave sterling service to assist the poor, the sick, and the marginalised and are worthy of recognition by the State.
Dr Kathleen Lynn is one who would surely fall into this category. Dr Lynn was chief medical officer of the Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 Rising and was the first female doctor to work at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital when she was appointed in 1910.
Subsequently, she went on to establish the volunteer St Ultan’s Children’s Hospital.
Dr Lynn, a distinguished medical graduate, feminist, suffragette, trade unionist, politician, and comforter of the poor, set high standards of care for the less well off and destitute among us at a time when the nascent Irish Free State could not cope.
Along with her lifelong partner Madelaine ffrench Mullen, they were major contributors to the shaping of modern Ireland, leaving a rich legacy of cultural influence on Irish society.
I listened with interest this week to radio programmes outlining unsocial behaviour in Dublin city centre and how dangerous our capital city has become.
It is my perception that Cork City has also become very dangerous and a virtual no-go zone from early evening onward.
There are very few gardaí patrolling our streets and the city is now, in my opinion, overrun with addicts and louts on every corner.
My neighbours have mentioned they are afraid to visit the city centre after 5pm which is a very sad indictment of our beloved Cork.
I am unsure what solutions can be put in place to remedy this dire situation but live in hope that we can once again take pride in welcoming all safely to our lovely city by the Lee in the times ahead.
For now, this most certainly is not the case.