Why do I buy a TV licence to watch repeats?
THE contents of some ads on the radio and television can be quite irritating.
None more so than the one in which the people not possessing a TV licence are warned of the terrible consequences which could befall such unfortunate folk.
The voice of a ‘talking down’ man tells us: ‘It’s the law [to have a TV licence]. But he conveniently overlooks the seemingly endless stream of repeats being screened by our national broadcaster. FRANKIE FALLON,
Kells, Co. Meath.
Defending a tax dodger
‘HERE is a man who is locked up in our prisons because of a financial irregularity. People who have committed rapes and murders are walking the streets,’ says Minister Finian McGrath (Mail, Thursday) after visiting a constituent of his in prison who has committed a tax fraud of €100,000 and now also owes €200,000 in penalties. Minister McGrath thinks the 16-month sentence is too severe.
Judge Martin Nolan in sentencing Dr Bassam Naser described him as ‘morally reprehensible’.
Minister McGrath thinks such a fraud is a ‘financial irregularity’.
Does the minister even consider white collar crime as an offence? Is Finian McGrath suitable to be even a TD not to mind a Government minister?
DENNIS DENNEHY, Dublin.
Don’t risk heroes’ lives
IT was great news from northern Thailand that all the boys and their coach had been rescued from the cave. It was nothing short of a miracle.
The monumental work that went into this operation was the biggest since the Chilean miners rescue in 2010. Great praise must go to the Thai authorities and all the skilled divers involved from various countries.
A very special mention to the Thai diver who lost his life.
This man came out of retirement to take part in the rescue operation to do what he could and he died a real hero.
Lessons should be learned from all of this that adults should never take children to places that put their lives in danger and also risk the lives of the members of rescue teams. NOEL HARRINGTON,
Kinsale, Co. Cork.
Civil War hypocrisy
WHEN we recall our War of Independence, it is generally referred to as being bloody and fearsome.
Yet when broaching the subject of our more appalling hate-filled short Civil War, we attempt to pretend that while people died from bomb and bullet it’s as if the deceased hardly felt it, or death and injury were more unfortunate ‘accidents’.
This latest coy revisionism has now been applied to Michael Collins not being shot deliberately in the head. I read this recently. It appears the story now is that it was just a ricochet and not really deliberate, despite the outcome in the heat of battle.
I heard the same fate befalling folk on both sides of the conflict happening all over Cork.
Could it be that it’s only in this county that all this unintended slaughter took place, as men who went out to commandeer bicycles and/or cans of petrol – and were then chased by State forces, let fly at each other?
It reminds me of a brawl whereby when someone is downed, blood spurting everywhere, there are immediate calls of: ‘Ah lads, lads, lads – take it easy... there’s no need for that kind of thing – sure we all know each other!’
We forever have heard these tales of horrific acts being viewed as events which might not be as tragic if we forget about them now or call murder and conflict something else.
The ‘real’ war was against the British, and the stuff that happened later was less gory and horrendous by comparison, that view appears to now find favour through lack of truthful history. It’s as if the Irish did not really bleed and suffer and die when they did it to each other in the name of Ireland. Less real than the violence of the naughty British, perhaps. ROBERT SULLIVAN, Bantry, Co. Cork.