Letters to the Editor: New speed limits need buy-in from everyone

While Garda speed detections prior to Christmas stood at 600 with 101 arrests for driving under the influence, the fact is driver behaviour comes down to one thing, the driver. No amount of legislation, education, detections, or arrests will change the attitudes or behaviours of the few but a worrying aspect is when it comes to court the lack of consistency between judges who adjudicate on matters such as speeding.

I refer to a report whereby a judge in Portlaoise Court struck out 32 speeding cases because he claimed that GoSafe vans were “deliberately targeting an unjust speed zone” in the townland of Clogheen in Co Kildare on the R445. It was, he described “shooting fish in a barrel”. The judge cited a Supreme Court decision where the prosecutions can fall short of the constitutional administration of justice. 

It was, he stated, “little to do with road safety” and “driven not by safety but by targets, statistics and finance”. This judgment, and this is not the first time judges have criticised speeding prosecutions, will concern other agencies like the Gardaí, RSA, and even the Department of Justice, who have no leverage when it comes to the administration of justice.

The courts are a separate independent pillar of the State but if they are not willing to buy into speed limitations imposed by councils then where does that leave those who enforce our laws or those who legislate for it?

Should this not worry us, or should we accept the fact that certain roads, even those where fatalities occur, don’t have correct speed limits?

Christy Galligan (retired AGS), Letterkenny, Co Donegal

Keep up all the good work

I have subscribed to the Irish Examiner for some time and read “de paper” daily on my ‘phone. The News Review of 2024 is like nearly all your articles, first class and a reflection of the turbulence and uncertainty of the world. It is an excellent reminder of monthly events as another year ends. 

Our family now includes a son and two of our grandchildren (both born in Cork) now living in West Cork. We travel regularly there and see for ourselves the education, sport and lifestyle they enjoy through community participation as well as contributing to that through the hospitality sector. 

Please continue to include articles on local and rural issues so a wider audience can read about the benefits and lifestyle they enjoy in Co Cork.

Andrew Kershaw, Anglesey Park, Killiney

Nurses should not have to pay for their uniforms

A family relative has just completed nursing training and is due to start as a new graduate staff nurse. I was dumbfounded to discover that all new nursing graduates have to fund all their uniforms, which are mandatory in the workplace. Why? 

Surely the HSE could provide workplace clothing, as do the majority of other service providers. If it can waste innumerable thousands on defective PPE from abroad, would it not be obvious that equipping those at the coalface of healthcare provision in Ireland is a no-brainer?

Aileen Hooper, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7

Weather warnings could help prevent damage

Alan O’Reilly of Carlow Weather speaks the truth when he says better “forecasting systems and communication of changing weather warnings as storms quickly approach and change” are urgently needed.

The recent catastrophic flooding in Listowel and its hinterland during Storm Bert is a case in point. Intense rainfall in parts of Cork, north Kerry, and west Limerick together with melting snow created an almost tsunami-like effect between Abbeyfeale and Listowel along the river Feale, where a yellow weather alert was in operation. 

The five-arch ‘Big Bridge’ in Listowel was unable to take the sudden flow of water and burst its banks on the north side, creating a wave of water that then flowed up the main thoroughfare, where it flooded almost 70 houses, that incidentally are built on a floodplain.

It is by pure chance and the speedy actions of the local community, including agricultural contractors and farmers, that nobody died.

Michael Healy-Rae hasn’t been seen in Listowel since the floods. Perhaps the “four-legged stool” that he talks about on the new government formation should first include an acknowledgement that he underestimated the effects of his “anti-green” rhetoric and that better weather warnings are urgently needed.

Tom McElligott, Listowel, Co Kerry

More willing to come forward to report abuse

According to the Garda National Protective Services, the number of people who contacted gardaí in relation to domestic violence has increased.

So far this year, gardaí have responded to 61,000 domestic abuse-related contacts, which is a 9% increase from this time last year.

I suppose that shows that people have trust and confidence in members of the gardaí to come forward and report these crimes. Let’s not forget that many of these offences are crimes that they have endured for months, years, or decades. 

We all know how unacceptable such abuse is and that it just will not be tolerated. It’s inspiring to note that individuals are now being prosecuted for the new offences of non-fatal strangulation and stalking. This effectively widens the net in terms of prosecuting domestic violence.

John O’Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary

Time to focus on those suffering in Gaza

As I sat in Charleville Church on Christmas Day thankful to be listening to the beautiful voice of Bernadette Dick singing ‘O Holy Night’ at the end of mass, a voice that so many generations of Charleville people have enjoyed, I thought of the misery and starvation that is visited on Gaza by Israel.

On Christmas in Gaza, three babies froze to death and five journalists were assassinated in a press van. Five health personnel were killed in an Israeli attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital and other innocent civilians were targeted and killed by Israel aircraft in tents housing displaced persons.

We are bearing witness to humanity’s worst possible crimes, supported by the US, Britain, and many European countries.

I salute Simon Harris and President Higgins for speaking out against the barbarity and I hope 2025 will bring peace to the world despite the United States’ best efforts to have the world at war.

Sheila O’Riordan, Charleville, Co Cork

Kurds have suffered greatly in Middle East

The deliberate chaos that has been inflicted, mainly by Western wars of aggression and local allies on the wider Middle East since the end of the Cold War, has caused a multitude of victims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Palestine. The genocide that is ongoing against the Palestinian people and the breaches of international laws are encouraging other states to take advantage of this chaos to commit further crimes.

The Kurdish people who have been denied a state of their own have been the victim of betrayal and brutal repression in each of the four countries where they have been located for centuries. The betrayals began with the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 which promised autonomy to the Kurdish people, but this treaty was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which made no provision for the Kurdish people.

There are an estimated 36 million Kurds. Eighteen million live in Turkey, eight million in Iran, five million in Iraq, two million in Syria, with about two million diaspora in the rest of the world. 

Having been misused as proxies and betrayed in regional and international wars multiple times, they are once again at serious risk in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. In Syria, they played a vital and courageous role in the defeat of Isis terrorists, many of whom are now in control of those parts of Syria that are not illegally occupied by Turkey, the US, Israel, and others. 

These Middle East wars have likely cost the lives of over five million people and endangered all of humanity. It’s time to stop the killing.

Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Limerick