Letters to the Editor: Veganuary could change your life
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Veganuary, the month-long pledge that has resulted in millions of people becoming vegan for the month of January, is here again. Established in 2014 in Britain, it has already become the most important event in the global vegan calendar, with an estimated 25m people worldwide signing up for the 2024 Veganuary pledge.
Anyone committing to the pledge will avoid all animal products (flesh, milk, eggs etc). They will also ensure that any products they are buying (cosmetics, clothes etc) do not contain animal products nor have they been tested on animals.
People worldwide are waking up to the devastating effect of animal agriculture on climate change in addition to the excessive degree of suffering to the animals, the devastating impact of animal agriculture on biodiversity, and the lightbulb realisation that we do not need to eat animals to survive.
Veganism is now a truly global phenomenon — culturally, socially, and environmentally. If you haven’t tried a plant-based diet but would like to, Veganuary is an excellent place to start. It could, quite literally, change your life.
Gerry Boland
Keadue, Roscommon
Using the justice system as a tool
The death of Paddy Hill, one of the men wrongly convicted of IRA attacks on pubs in Birmingham in 1974 which resulted in the deaths of 21 people, once again raises the question of a public inquiry into the atrocity ("Man wrongly convicted of Birmingham pub bombings dies at age of 80", Irish Examiner, December 30).
The era of the Birmingham bombings was one which saw Giuseppe Conlon, an innocent man, die in prison.
It was also a time when the Guildford Four, Annie Maguire and her children, and Judith Ward were conspired against by many in the British legal system.
The allegations of conspiracy against the Birmingham Six was so overwhelming, even former Northern Ireland secretary of state Merlyn Rees and Cardinal Basil Hume of Westminster — hardly fellow travellers of the IRA — campaigned for their release.
Most damning of all, however, was the statement by judge Tom Denning, then master of the rolls, when interviewed on the conspiracy theories surrounding the Birmingham Six case said: “That it was preferable that some innocent men remain in jail than the integrity of the British judicial system be impugned."
Mr Denning’s view was: If the six men win, it will mean that the police are guilty of perjury, that they are guilty of violence and threats, that the confessions were invented and improperly admitted in evidence and the convictions were erroneous ... This is such an appalling vista that every sensible person in the land would say that it cannot be right that these actions should go any further.
He further stated that: “We shouldn’t have all these campaigns to get the Birmingham Six released. If they’d been hanged they’d have been forgotten and the whole community would have been satisfied”.
Tom Cooper
Templeogue, Dublin 6
Tributes too late
By the earnestness of worldwide tributes being paid to him on his death, but even more so by how he lived his life, Jimmy Carter was one of humanity’s very best.
A number of these tributes, particularly from some of his fellow citizens, the masses of whom did not give him a second presidential term, are — to say the least — disingenuous and very irritating.
I am reminded of a quote attributed to Jimi Hendrix: “It’s funny how most people love the dead, once you’re dead, you’re made for life”.
Michael Gannon
St Thomas’ Sq, Kilkenny City
An Post pains
I would like to bring attention to my experience of An Post’s basic postal service.
I subscribe to the Guardian weekly news chronicle. This costs me €75 a quarter which I feel offers concise, relevant, and timely information, and is great value for money.
The only problem is with An Post’s delivery schedule. If purchased in a newsagent, the publication — which is produced on a Friday — is available on a Saturday in an Irish outlet. On occasions, this is delivered by An Post on the following Monday. My recent experience is that an issue dated December 20, 2024, was delivered on December 30, 2024.
This is an isolated incident, but delivery on Thursday or Friday of the following week is common.
On another occasion, I ordered eight second-hand books from an Amazon third party provider. None arrived on the due date. I waited approximately a further month before claiming for either a substitute copy or a monetary refund from the third party agent.
Approximately six months later, all eight original books were delivered on the same day in two parcels each containing four books. I was amazed, but really felt that An Post should have been the organisation paying for the refunds.
In my opinion, CEO David McRedmond should concentrate on An Post’s basic service operation and ensure the efficiency of same. It would be interested if others had similar experiences with An Post.
Tommy Curran
Retired from DCU
Shoplifting battle
I found it quite shocking to learn that, over the past year, more than 8,000 suspected shoplifters have been arrested as part of an operation targeting a rise in shoplifting.
Ostensibly, gardaí have been focusing on a number of organized crime gangs that steal around the country and are selling goods back in to retail. Operation Táirge was launched over a year ago and was set up by gardaí in response to retail crime sprees.
Although those 8,000 arrests are not 8,000 individuals, they are still 8,000 arrests. It seems a person may well have been arrested four, five and six times (repeat offenders) and this appears to be one of major problems apropos to shoplifting.
I found it rather emboldening to glean that both gardaí and the Department of Justice are taking this crime seriously. I believe that they have got to keep up their good work.
They have got to ensure that these criminals are brought to justice. It appears that the individual stores are suffering too. The staff of these stores often face violent abuse, misogynistic insults, as well as racist abuse. Shoplifting also eats into the profits of supermarkets which, in turn, can cause concern as to whether these stores can survive.
It seems to me that we are in the grip of a shoplifting epidemic. It’s akin to organised looting and it must be tackled with a zero tolerance by law enforcement.
John O’Brien
Clonmel, Co Tipperary
New tools used for brutal genocide
The Washington Post published this article on December 28: “Israel built an ‘AI factory’ for war. It unleashed it in Gaza”.
It explains how artificial intelligence (AI) is being used by the Israeli military in its genocidal attacks on the Palestinian people and its military aggression in the wider Middle East.
It describes how the military are using an artificial intelligence tool known as Habsora to quickly generate large numbers of additional targets.
These targets include occupied residential buildings, schools, hospitals, and refugee camps that have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of women and children.
The military says its assessments of collateral damage adhere to the law of armed conflict. The article states that, in 2014, the military's “acceptable” civilian casualty ratio was one civilian for a high-level terrorist, and that in the present Gaza war, the number has grown to about 15 civilians for one low-level Hamas member and “exponentially higher” for mid and high-level Hamas members.
The civilian casualty rate in Gaza in 2014 was far too high and was in breach of the laws of war.
Many acts of genocide used basic and brutal methods to kill the victims. The use of AI and other modern technology, including exploding mobile phones, has enabled Israel to commit war crimes and genocide more efficiently, taking advantage of the impunity and support provided by the US and others, who should be acting to stop these crimes.
Edward Horgan,
Castletroy, Limerick