Tragedy of Savita was twisted in campaign
IS it really too much to hope that we could have a brave journalist outline the facts regarding the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar, which involved three independent inquests confirming that she died due to sepsis and horrific medical neglect?
It is despicable that her death has been used to promote abortion here. How can investigative journalists stand over the lies being used regarding her death?
Have we really no one who can look at the facts without bias and finally lay to bed the claim that the Eighth Amendment caused her death?
I live in hope that the truth will prevail.
MARY STEWART, Donegal town.
The debate continues…
I AM delighted at the referendum result in the Irish Republic.
Sanity reigned and no longer will thousands of women have to flee to Britain for an abortion. Exporting women to have abortions is inhumane and uncivilised.
This issue should open the door for that other contentious issue: assisted dying/suicide for those who wish to end their lives with a modicum of control.
SARA STARKEY, Kent. …WAS the referendum verdict the result of years of women’s frustration at ‘man-made laws’ coming to the surface?
Whatever the reason, it is what it is and we have to live with a new outlook on where life begins and how it may end. No doubt there are investors already eyeing up possible sites for private abortion clinics before the votes were counted.
Simon Harris will no doubt have the responsibility of cutting the tape on the first opening of such an amenity in the country, to hail it as a creator of employment, and a great step forward in women’s healthcare.
No one speaks for the baby. Its life is balancing on the scales and can tip either way, depending on circumstances that may vary from age to financial standing, or not coinciding with a planned holiday
JAMES WOODS, Dún na nGall. …WATCHING the hectoring and bullying performance of Mary Lou McDonald on Claire Byrne’s show, I knew it reminded me of something. Then it dawned – the image of an extreme Orangeman telling the ‘Taigs’ to know their place.
On this occasion, David Quinn was the ‘Taig’. This show, along with a large part of the Together for Yes campaign, was full of irony, the main one being the fact that it united Provos and Blueshirts.
It’s strange the causes that unite some people. A bit like the Hitler/ Stalin pact. From my perspective, a marriage made in hell.
ERIC CONWAY, Navan, Co. Meath. I WOULD say to Ireland: be careful what you wish for. When the law was changed to allow abortions in England, we were told it would only be to save the life of the mother, where the baby was unable to live and in cases of rape.
Now, it is believed one in five pregnancies end in termination and some women have had several. Is that what Ireland voted for?
SUE SAXON, Lancashire. …THE question of abortion laws in Northern Ireland is a matter for its Assembly, not Westminster. Would Westminster interfere in a devolved matter in Scotland? The majority in Northern Ireland don’t want abortion. The referendum has no more connection to Northern Ireland than one in France.
G. S. DICKSON, by email. …NOW that the referendum campaigns are over, with reflective claims of the whole thing being carried out with wholesome civilised rivalry culminating with champagne and dancing in the streets for the victorious.
Being a man of reasonable discernment, I am at a bit of a loss as to the truth of what I saw as a vicious war of words with graphic posters telling us we are killing babies and touchy-feely opposing ones telling us that it is the right thing to do, in flowery liberal-speak.
I decided not to vote (the first time in many decades) because it is about what women want and that is not my decision to make for them or against them.
Like the last referendum, the young came home from foreign parts by the plane-load to vote in what is best described as a ‘populist-political’ issue.
I hope that the enthusiasm for the ballot box extends to taking the trip home when voting in a general election, because the wider national issue of vital and grinding politics deserve equal attention. ROBERT SULLIVAN, Bantry, Co. Cork.
Leave busy parents be
IT is depressing to read (Mail, yesterday) that so many people think parents in a restaurant with a crying child should just leave so as not to disturb everyone else.
Have none of these complainers ever had to take care of a small child? It can be really hard work. And small children can throw tantrums for no good reason; it’s certainly not the parents’ fault, most of the time.
Life is a constant struggle when minding a small child, and you can’t just lock yourself away indoors with the child all day.
Grumpy diners need to give us parents a break.
MARIA DUGGAN, Ratoath, Co. Meath.