Letters to the Editor: Long live Rory Gallagher’s musical legacy
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I am happy that Rory Gallagher’s iconic Strat is staying in Ireland and hopefully some time in the future it will come to Cork.
On listening to national and local radio stations in the run-up to the auction in Bonams, and interviews with family and fellow musicians, the radio presenters in my opinion were talking a load of rubbish, as if they personally knew Rory, his music and stage presence.
When the Joe Bonamassa concerts were announced for the Marquee 2025, radio people in particular were in attendance at the launch again talking about Rory, I would hazard a guess that, only for the information received in their ear-piece, they would not know very much about Rory’s life.
As for myself, I have seen Rory in concert at clubs, halls and festivals on over 50 occasions, both in Ireland and Europe. From 1970 in the City Hall Cork to his final Cork gig in the Regional College in 1993.
I also met him in person on one occasion, and — as everyone that met him said — he was a gentle, sincere, and humble gentleman.
When he took to the stage he transformed into a lion.
Long live the memory of Rory in our hearts and minds.
Terry Prone is a person everyone respects. I love her column in your paper.
She took a cheap shot at David Quinn and Rónán Mullen recently. And said “they have lost every argument”.
These two guys, Rónán Mullen and David Quinn, have stood up to be counted. They have spoken their truths to power. They have stuck to their guns when the tide of majority opinion rolled against them. Maybe they’re wrong. Maybe they’re right. One time not so long ago a fella told me that the Earth was flat. He said “everyone knows that”. Another time a fella told me the sun moves around the Earth. He said “everyone knows that”. Recently a fella told me that euthanasia is working out very well in Canada and in the Netherlands. He said “ everyone knows that”. Rónán Mullen and David Quinn aren’t so sure about that.
I respect Terry Prone enormously. She knows far more than me. But I respect Rónán Mullen and David Quinn enormously too. They know a lot too. They’ve been around. They are serious people who are seriously invested in the national conversation concerning serious issues. I disagree with these guys a lot of the time. But Terry Prone’s gratuitous, unnecessary disparagement smacked of arrogance and lack of humility.
Ajit Niranjan’s recent article, ‘Tax on Europe’s frequent flyers could reduce emissions by a fifth’, is indeed timely. The only proviso I would make is that business travellers should be allowed to claim tax relief. The emissions from the aviation sector are growing at an alarming rate each year. The airlines throw out a few nuggets like higher efficiency engines and sustainable airline fuel and the media lap it up. The cost of these so-called green fuels will be considerably more expensive than the conventional fuels. There are also reports that many of these so called existing biofuels are based on imported palm oils rather than indigenous waste sources. The emissions from air travel are only stated as a lowly 2% of total CO2 emissions but fail to take account of the combined noxious effects of particulate matter, NO, and contrails. The aviation industry today is based on charging non-sustainable low prices for unfettered air travel. There needs to be a reckoning here — whether its tax or caps.
The glacial pace of change within the HSE and our long overdue digital transformation is to my mind the essence of dilatoriness and tardiness. In 2018, Martin Curley was appointed the HSE’s Head of Digital Transformation and he soon found that the HSE was not fit for purpose. He quit the HSE in January 2023.
Following his resignation, Prof Curley told RTÉ Radio 1’s Drivetime that there was significant resistance to change within this organisation.
One recalls the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly recently launching what was referred to as Digital for Care.
This is a model of health and care delivery where the devices , services and interventions used are designed around the patients specific needs and their health data is shared in a manner that allows the patient to receive care in the most proactive and efficient way possible. Mr Donnelly’s estimate of €1.8bn in completing this change over was contested by Prof Curley, who, in a recent social media video, claimed that a cutting-edge phone based electronic system could be implemented at a fraction of the figure provided by Mr Donnelly. I would like to remind the minister that this is taxpayers’ money and if this project can be carried out at a fraction of the cost, one then wonders, has Stephen Donnelly looked into questioning the pricing of this estimate?
Ireland has lagged significantly behind its European counterparts in providing electronic access to its citizens’ medical records. It’s hard to believe that the medical records of Irish patients’ are still largely paper based and access to physical records can be an arduous process. The HSE is not a nameless organisation. I would like to ask who are these men and women in the HSE who are on exorbitant salaries and whose responsibility it is to expedite and provide their imprimatur to this digital transformation. This antediluvian way of doing things has to be consigned to the bin. Actions always speak louder than words. It’s incumbent on these executives to do the job they have been tasked with, otherwise may I suggest stepping aside so as that capable people can step in to accelerate this digital transformation.
The American social entrepreneur Bill Drayton once uttered the following words which I find apposite to the above: “Every successful organisation has to make the transition from a world defined primarily by repetition to one primarily defined by change. This is the biggest transformation in the structure of how humans work together since the Agricultural Revolution.”
A year on, it is abhorrent that Israel has not been called to account for the atrocities it is perpetuating on an unarmed civilian population on a daily basis. On Friday, Israeli forces killed Ibrahim Hussam Idris Abu Safiya, the teenage son of Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza. The head of paediatrics had refused to abandon the hospital and leave his patients despite Israeli orders and threats and was detained by the Israeli military. After the Israeli military withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital he was released and returned to the hospital. However, upon his arrival he was met by the lifeless body of his son murdered by Israeli forces. The Israeli military wanted to break this man, one of the last surviving doctors in Northern Gaza because he was a humanitarian.