Why TV licence fee is a relic of a long-gone era
HOW can one talk of a television licence increase (‘New series of Dancing With The Stars “hinges on licence fee hike”’, MoS, March 24) when that concept is of another age?
It cannot be justified in the modern era of multichannel and satellite TV. We don’t need RTÉ and an army of TV licence inspectors, but we do need a public bus service, water service, and electricity service.
Richard Russell, Passage West, Co. Cork
Vindictive RTÉ
AFTER viewing Ireland’s excruciating encounter against Gibraltar last weekend, I have a suspicion RTÉ programme planners are a vindictive lot.
To heap more suffering and misery on the lives of innocent folk, they had the spite to show the Fine Gael party conference as a prime Saturday evening listing, which was just as painful and full of wind as the game itself.
Time for a reduction in television licence fees on humanitarian grounds, I think?
Vincent O’Connell, New Ross, Co. Wexford.
There’s hope yet
WELL done to Mick McCarthy and the Ireland soccer team for the engaging display of footballing skills in the Ireland/Georgia game on Tuesday evening.
The way they controlled the ball and moved around the pitch reminded me of the open football played by England in the World Cup last year.
If they continue to play like this they will earn more fans and put themselves in pivotol position to qualify for the Euros next year.
Tommy Roddy,
It’s not Mum’s Day
FOR Mother’s Day, it is surely appropriate to put forward the suggestion that more use be made of the six-letter word for the female heads of families.
Mum appears to be the ‘in’ word these days and according to my Collins English Dictionary, it is an informal term of British origin and a child’s term for mother.
But here in Ireland ‘mammy’ has long been the most popular term for children to use.
Mum is obviously handier for newspaper headlines but I would wish for more use of the traditional terms of endearment of mother and mammy.
Eric Rice, Navan, Co. Meath.
Balance, please
I WAS most disappointed at your extensive coverage of allegations against Bishop Casey last Sunday.
As he is dead for some time now and unable to defend himself, surely a balanced report would at least have pointed out the good he did in his life – Trócaire, working with the Irish in Britain, his years working in Africa, etc.
Mary Stewart, Donegal town.
Extinction threat
A QUARTER of our species in Ireland (birds, mammals, insects and wild plants) face possible extinction. Birds like the corncrake, skylark, curlew, and yellowhammer have all but vanished.
The Irish hare has been in decline for the past 50 years due to loss of habitat resulting from modern farm practices and urbanisation.
And how do our politicians respond to the plight of these creatures that enhance our own lives even as they battle for survival? The National Parks and Wildlife Service, which works so hard to conserve and protect Ireland’s diverse flora and fauna, receives state funding of just €11m a year…while €16m of tax payers’ money is granted per annum to the greyhound industry and a jaw-dropping €64m a year goes to horse racing.
Successive governments have accorded a higher priority to these activities than to the conservation of endangered wildlife and vulnerable habitats. In the case of the Irish hare, our leaders do worse than merely fail to cater for its preservation as a species; they allow the capture of thousands of these inoffensive creatures every year for use in a cruel blood sport.
I saw one of these animals earlier this month: a ‘mad’ March hare frolicking in a sunlit meadow. A happy scene, but I couldn’t dispel the image of the same animal crisscrossing a muddy field in winter, dogs snapping at his heels. John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
EU’s cruel mindset
THE mindset of EU bosses Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker toward the UK is staggering.
We have Juncker telling the world that the sovereign parliament of the British voters is more mysterious than the Sphinx, and haughty Tusk saying the British people wished to be European rather than leave the EU.
He bases this on the alleged figure of there being six million people signing a petition online to remain, and the hyped figure of one million marchers in London who, like the EU, wish to ignore the majority in the real poll of 17.4 million voters to leave, and have everyone go back to the drawing board until Brussels gets the ‘right’ result. Sound familiar?
This is what faces Britain and Ireland going forward.
Robert Sullivan, Bantry, Co. Cork.