Sunday read a lesson for us all
Sir — I read the Sunday Independent of November 17 and found the following messages.
1) Colm McCarthy is still the best commentator on Brexit;
2) If you want widespread favourable political publicity, make racist remarks;
3) But do not fall off a swing in a hotel and claim for injuries;
4) The Irish media are jealous that the UK media have a general election to cover. But they are working up an impatient head of steam at the possibility that will have an Irish one soon.
A Leavy,
Sutton, Dublin 13
School trip from RTE licence fees
Sir — I initially wondered who funded the trip to the Dail by a group of schoolchildren last week. Now I see it was RTE.
Of course it was. This is where our licence fee goes... along with sending various celebrities abroad to show us how to cook, or to teach us what life on a cruise liner is really like.
Incidentally, these young people might be interested to know that our generation (I am 68), did not cause these problems. We were not driven to school in high-powered SUVs, nor do we buy cups of coffee at the drop of a hat.
But as my nine-year-old granddaughter would say, good luck with that one!
Patricia Keeley,
Templeogue, Dublin
Sewage plant protest stinks
Sir — In 2003 a submarine pipeline to pump North Dublin sewage to Ringsend was completed without a murmur from the southsiders — which resulted in the system being overloaded, with serious consequences for the quality of water in Dublin Bay South.
We then rolled over for an incinerator, which also catered for NDers. Now the NDers have the cheek to want to block the new sewage plant — which is a fourth of the size of the Ringsend plant — dealing specifically with their own sewage.
Turning off the pump for a few weeks would soften their cough. Dr Michael Foley,
Rathmines, Dublin 6
Cutting out the middleman
Sir — I read with great interest your front page story last week about Sean Quinn writing to the Vatican to complain about his local parish priest.
But I did wonder why all the surprise at Quinn taking his complaint to the top? He didn’t become a billionaire without embracing the “cut out the middleman” policy.
Mattie Lennon,
Blessington, Co Wicklow