Letters to the Editor: US air drops a cover for Gaza failings

Israel could enable full aid access by road throughout Gaza, but instead it has reduced the number of trucks going into Gaza by 40% in the last month and blocked humanitarian access to Northern Gaza, where children are now dying of starvation.

Opening fire on hundreds of desperate people as they rushed to get aid from trucks on February 29 was nothing short of a massacre.

Israel said the majority died in a crush, but the UN has confirmed that most died of gunshot wounds.

As long as the US continues to fund Israel’s military, Israel will continue to ignore the demands of its closest allies and the International Court of Justice to protect civilians.

Airdropping aid does not make the US any less complicit in the war crimes happening in Gaza. In fact, it simply compounds the hypocrisy.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar must deliver a stark message to US president Joe Biden on St Patrick’s Day, for the sake of the over 30,000 already dead in Gaza and the 2m still barely clinging to life.

Caoimhe de Barra, CEO, Trócaire,

Maynooth, Co Kildare

Broken Irish better than clever English

The Irish language has deep spiritual roots in our psyche as a people. It is more than words can articulate. I have to agree with Tommy Tiernan, who said he believes there is a heart and mouth connection as with no other language — "Retain status of Irish to keep language alive" (Irish Examiner, February 29). 

I think it is more than the bit of craic and humour it evokes though; there is also a connection with history, heritage, and culture that still has a pulse and a story to tell. There are voices of the past that can live on through Irish speakers on this Island.

Julian De Spáinn is on the button with his comments too, no doubt. Let us not deprive our children and children’s children of the wonderful privilege and the right they have to study Irish up to Leaving Cert level. 

At the same time, however, emphasis on the spoken language should be cultivated, not only at school but in every household, and in businesses and communities in general, not just in the Gaeltacht areas. Not compulsory, but enticingly. 

For example: €10 per month off your shopping if you order weekly in Irish. The pop-up Gaeltachts are great and should happen more frequently with more, large outdoor céilís where all ages and nationalities could join in, but to have the Irish language on signs and the speaking and singing of it encouraged and/or enjoyed.

Lastly, Ireland has many different languages besides English, which brings vibrancy and opportunities to experience other languages and cultures. We need to embrace Seachtain na Gaeilge and speak our few, or many, words during this time. 

Scaoil amach é, as the saying goes, let it out. You might be surprised. That someone in the newsagents might be able to speak too and you might have little conversations here and there as Gaeilge.

It is often said that we Irish hold back, I think that is unfortunately too often the case. We don’t want to seem like we’re showing off, so we hide our lights under our shamrocks, leprechauns and pints of Guinness.

Is fearr Gaeilge briste ná Béarla cliste — broken Irish is better than clever English, is a good proverb to rattle off if in the highly unlikely event anyone should happen mock your cúpla focal.

Marguerita Sampson

Drogheda, Co Louth

Society needs truth recovery process

The rejection of key elements of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act by Mr Justice Colton in the Belfast High Court last week, the conclusion of the £40m Kenova investigation without producing one case that meets the requirements for launching a credible prosecution, and the failure of the last "supergrass" trial to produce any convictions in the trials into the murders of Eamon Fox and Gary Convie, are just the latest cruel demonstrations of the inability of the courts to secure truth and justice for victims in so many cases; let alone promote reconciliation.

It is really time for politicians who have told us privately they believe the truth recovery process offers a better way forward, to have the courage of their convictions and say so publicly.

Nobody, particularly victims and survivors, should have access to the courts to pursue truth and justice curtailed. But neither should those who wish to do so be denied the possibility of finding out what happened, and why, through other means.

The truth recovery process is based on conditional amnesties that would be offered where:

• Victims and survivors agree to such an option;
• The process would be subject to oversight by the British and Irish governments;
• Victims and survivors would still be compensated by the state;
• Former combatants testimony would be subject to verification;
• Former combatants could not incriminate others;
• Mediation would be the basis of engagement, not the legal arena;

Reconciliation would be the objective.

It was this approach, based on reconciliation, that led to the successful conclusion of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.

Finally, one of the issues the Legacy Act does not address is how it would proceed in cases involving former combatants now in the Republic whom it believes have a case to answer.

Will the Irish Government, State agencies, and the courts co-operate with British legislation when that legislation is the subject of a Member State case to the European Court of Human Rights on the basis that it contravenes Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights?

It is time for an honest review of how we investigate the awful atrocities of the past, on all sides, with the aim of not alone addressing the needs of tens of thousands of people affected, but society as a whole.

Padraig Yeates

Secretary, www.truthrecoveryprocess.ie
Dublin 13

Educating pupils with special needs

As a recently retired teacher with 35 years experience, I can honestly say there are not enough support hours for pupils with special needs. 

While there may be more Special Education Teaching posts than ever before, there are also more pupils with special needs and these pupils need adequate support to enable them to access the curriculum — so they and the other pupils in their class have the best possible opportunity to achieve their full potential and become productive members of society.

If the Department of Education and the National Council for Special Education were genuinely interested in supporting pupils with special needs, then they would listen to schools and accept more detailed data concerning the specific needs of the pupils.

Catherine Murphy

Goresbridge, Co Kilkenny

A brazen attack on motherhood

Our Constitution rightly places the family in the penultimate position as a "moral institution". It enjoys "inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law"; its power is above the power of Government to govern even. That is rarely mentioned to the general public. I wonder why?

We have a fabulous Constitution and it protects its citizens, including every woman and her womanly status.

I see each one of these two proposed constitutional amendments as a "brazen" attack on motherhood.

Motherhood is heroic — it develops through anguish and heroic effort to bring children into this world.

Mothers automatically gravitate to supporting and lovingly caring for each child (a future citizen, a future contributor to the wellbeing of society) often to the neglect of their own health.

Mothers tend to put themselves last and, therefore, they are a precious gift to society and every mother needs protection as she grows older.

The 40th amendment gravely disrespects every woman, her unique status as the first builder and educator of men and women and, as such, is a profoundly important contributor to the wellbeing of society. What is that “superior reason” for her removal from her honourable position in the Constitution? Has she failed us?

Mothers’ positions with their families are being replaced by “other durable relations”; what are these other durable relations? Which ones have proven themselves over time to be more durable than mothers (now to be deleted)?

What a Pandora’s box of tragedies are set to befall us. I am voting no, no.

Gerard Ó Conchubhair

Manister, Co Limerick