RTE has a long journey back to regain our trust
MANY law-abiding citizens of my age who have contributed, in good faith, to the financing of RTÉ over many years feel cheated and upset by the recent disclosures confirming that our trust and good will have been taken advantage of.
Hardly a day passes without a repeat negative release concerning another sizable lump of RTÉ cash paid out under questionable circumstances. The only good news is that the Revenue Commissioners are now taking an interest in those matters.
My hope is that An Garda Síochána will also become involved and expedite a root-and-branch investigation into all aspects of this institution stretching back at least 30 years. Until such time as confidence is restored, through the investigation by an outside independent body, RTÉ will have huge difficulty in attracting adequate funding.
DENIS O’HIGGINS, Monaghan.
We must vote No
CONSTITUTIONS exist to protect people from their state. In Ireland, amendments are sometimes proposed to protect the State from its people. ‘Woman in the home’ must be such an amendment.
In its wording, the crucial difference between what exists and what is proposed is neither the deletion of ‘woman’ and ‘mother’, nor the insertion of ‘care’. It is the crux: the replacement of the positive word ‘State’ by a vague word, ‘society’.
The State currently cherishes ladies who contribute to the common good. Implicit in its cherishing of these ladies is the State’s acknowledgement of debt to them. Happily, the State puts money where its mouth is, but sadly, not for all ladies. Only for damsels in distress does it make allowances: unmarried mothers, prisoners’ wives, deserted wives, and widows.
Calls were made for an allowance for every woman in the home. This allowance would cost serious money. That may be why the amendment proposes to get the State off the hook, and, inexplicably, place society on the hook.
Everyone knows society has no funds. It cannot pay existing allowances, much less an allowance for every woman in the home. The proposed wording aims simply to protect the State. We had best vote ‘No’.
CATHAL ASHBOURNELOFTUS, by email.
Don’t waste your talent
THE career of a professional footballer is very short – maybe they start at 17 but, by the time they are 34, or even earlier, they are past their best. So it’s difficult to understand why players such as Dele Alli and now Marcus Rashford are throwing away what should be the best playing years of their careers. Maybe it’s because they have been too well paid and want to live it up, instead.
If this is the case, they should step aside and let other players come forward. Clubs should have a clause in their contracts, so they can drastically reduce their wages if they go off the rails.
ARTHUR YOUNG, by email.
Can’t pick who you love
LOVED the article by Emma Heathcote James regarding her falling in love with a woman while being married to a man.
Emotions are things you cannot control and you do not choose who you fall in love with. Many people marry for convenience. They never find real, deep, true love, but they find something that works for them and they build a happy home and a stable family. Other people search for love, and hurt others on their journey to finding it.
I have found love three times in my life. Firstly with a short-lived marriage, secondly with an illadvised affair with a married woman, and finally with my now long-married ‘till death do us part’ second wife. It’s easy to think you are ‘in love’, but with other girlfriends I realised afterwards that was not the case.
The picture of Emma and her wife Sharon should not carry any label of gay or lesbian love. It is simply two beautiful human beings who have found love with each other. They are living their true lives and loving everything about it. Good luck to them.
DAVID PATRICK MOORE, by email.