Just ignore EU directive supporting killer Dwyer
IN his excellent article in Saturday’s Mail, Philip Nolan went into detail about the case of Graham Dwyer who was found guilty of murdering Elaine O’Hara.
This case would never have come to trial had it not been for the sheer professionalism, diligence and hard work of a team of dedicated gardaí and detectives. Forensic examination of phone records linked Dwyer to Ms O’Hara at different times and locations, enough for the jury to convict him of her murder.
Now it appears that an EU directive says law-enforcement officers are not allowed to use historical phone records.
What absolute balderdash, as far as I am concerned. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Our Appeal Court and our Supreme Court should ignore the EU directive in cases such as this, as it is against natural justice.
The idiotic directive from the EU is one of the reasons why I agree with Britain calling Brexit, the British legal system has been in operation for 700/800 years, yet a shower of unelected judges in Europe can override a decision by the sovereign British Supreme Court, utter nonsense. The EU, as a matter of urgency, must repeal this stupid, illogical directive.
JOHN FAIR, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
Ada right to be offended
POLITICAL correctness exists precisely because people like John Donohoe (Letters, Thursday) just don’t get it. Yes, it can be toxic and pernicious but in the situation where Ada the footballer was asked to twerk, it was very necessary that the DJ be called to account.
Twerking is a disgusting type of movement whether performed by man or woman but especially by a woman.
It was grossly offensive in this instance because the male DJ was understood to be implying that as a female it was somehow her function to entertain the masses in a very demeaning way, and it was totally removed from the sport she excels at.
When Fuzzy Zoeller made his infamous remark some years ago to the effect that Tiger Woods, who happened to be black, would order fried chicken for the champions dinner, people of intelligence understood instantly why it was so politically incorrect and so incredibly ignorant.
Racism and sexism are two sides of the same ugly coin
JOAN GRENNAN, Co. Sligo.
Curb the cycle lanes
THE madness has got to stop. At 12.30am on Friday in Dublin I was stuck in a traffic jam for 40 minutes on Dame Street, heading towards O’Connell Bridge. I’m sitting there thinking, ‘has there been an accident?’. But no, the problem was caused by the road narrowing to one lane at the Bank of Ireland.
There is a bus lane that runs from the end of George’s Street to the bank. This lane is full of buses and taxis which have to force their way out into another lane of traffic. The result is mayhem. God forbid if there was a crash, we could kiss the night goodbye.
Why does a bus lane disappear? It’s because a bike lane is in the way... and not one bike lane but two; one lane is running contra flow and just stops, and the funny thing is, there is not a bike in sight. I think a reasonable request would be that these bike lanes be suspended at the weekend at 10pm until 6am. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There is no reason to strangle the city.
LARRY HIGGINS, by email.
The cost of kindness
PHILIP Nolan’s piece (Mail, Friday) on ‘donating’ to charities/ call centres is exactly my experience. Unsolicited, I sent €250 to a well-known charity. They phoned me to say ‘we prefer a steady donation, by direct debit, not just one ‘donation’. Then came a call from another charity to ‘adopt a child’ – this was €25 a month from my credit card. I did this for three years.
After sending parcels to the child in Africa which she never received, I phoned the charity. They couldn’t ‘locate the child because of ebola’. I stopped the donation but they continued taking it from my credit card. Not only did these charities ‘look a gift horse in the mouth’, they threw a saddle on it. Never again! PHYL KENNEDY, Bohermore, Galway.
End Church influence
VERY serious questions are being asked about the Sisters of Charity’s continued role in our National Maternity Hospital.
Religious orders have no place in modern-day medicine. This is unacceptable in the 21st century and a breach of women’s human rights.
The Catholic Church will continue to impose its tyrannical rules and ‘ethos’ upon patients and Irish citizens in our Statefunded hospitals.
All out taxpayer-funded hospitals need to be secular and publicly owned and not by the Sisters of Charity. Remember what happened to Savita Halappanavar? This should never happen again. Women’s lives matter, in any civilised and democratic society
The Catholic ‘ethos’ should be removed from all taxpayer- and State-owned buildings on this island. This country has a very toxic relationship with the Church. We need to deal with the separation of Church and State now.
ANN BRENNAN, Kilkenny.