We need to have a real race for the Presidency
NOW that President Higgins has stated that he will seek a second term in office, it is vital we have an election, not a ‘coronation’.
Mr Higgins has been a successful and very popular President. However, it is an affront to democracy if there is no election. It also devalues the role. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have stated they will not be putting candidates forward. That shows the low opinion they have of the role; it’s not worth their while contesting.
Anything you easily get in life you do not respect. That is why it is so important that Mr Higgins puts in the graft if he really wants a second term.
Whether you are a supporter of him or not, for all our sakes it’s imperative we have an election. The winning candidate, whoever that may be, will have earned the right to be there.
TOMMY RODDY, Galway.
Defending the Church
AODHÁN Ó Ríordáin is pushing to get religious instruction taken out of schools. Is this in Catholic schools or all schools?
Ó Ríordáin did not do well when he was a TD and got booted out at the last election.
Is he now trying to make a name for himself?
The Catholic faith is being tested right now, as are Catholics.
Politicians will never get rid of the Catholic faith and the Catholic Church, or of God. They can try all they like. MAUREEN MASTERSON,
by email. ...THE time has come for every Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) in Ireland to categorically state publicly and on their website that, as members of the Church, they uphold Catholic teaching and doctrine and unequivocally support the right to life of the unborn.
If the PPC itself or some of its members are not prepared to do this, they should resign immediately or be asked to resign.
Depending on either scenario above, either a new (alternative) PPC should be founded or new members should be sought.
The Pastoral Council should then ensure that all those who participate in Mass are prepared to uphold these principles, and if not, they should also be asked to resign or be replaced.
It’s time for the laity to rise up and take responsibility for our Church and our faith! JOHN BURKE, Clontarf, Dublin 3.
Farming concerns
AS IRELAND bakes, ‘ignite’ is an apt word to describe the need to fire up the debate barbecue to discuss the impact industrial farming is having on our water resource.
The fact that there is more livestock on this island than humans shows the intensive production drive of the Irish farming industry. A hands-off approach by the Government allows Irish farmers to produce livestock in numbers that ignore the environmental impact on natural resources.
Irish farmers are wedded to livestock production without any environmental brake to limit live- stock numbers entering the farming system. When a spell of intensive hot weather occurs, which leads to water supply issues, farmers are caught out with no system in place to ensure animals receive an uninterrupted water supply.
Industrial farming, for want of a better word, soaks up volumes of precious water. Our sympathy reservoir is dry when we hear farmers bleating that reduced water supply on their farm is impacting on production, when they don’t develop an in-farm water supply.
Are farmers ignoring the fact that technology and systems to harvest rainwater exist so that this sky-produced resource can be utilised when drought’s dry hand grips the land?
Starting a debate on the sustainability of intensive livestock farming and its environmental footprint might just be a welcome by-product of this heatwave, apart from obtaining a farmer’s tan.
JOHN TIERNEY, Waterford Animal Concern.
Punish heinous crimes
THE mayor of Brussels recently renamed a square after Patrice Lumumba [the late former prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo] and carefully worded apologies were issued.
Such apologies and token acts are cheap and are often attempts to avoid proper accountability.
It is impossible to bring the millions of dead Congolese back to life, but it is possible to calculate the resources that Belgium exploited from the Congolese people and to estimate what level of exemplary reparations Belgium should be forced to pay.
Belgium is not the only country that has failed to adequately compensate the victims of crimes against humanity. There is not enough space in this letters page to list the offences of all the countries who committed crimes against humanity.
Crimes against humanity continue to occur because most of the countries that committed such acts are never properly held to account and are seen to have benefited substantially.
Crimes against humanity are now occurring in Yemen, Palestine and Myanmar without effective response from the international community, including the UN.
The lessons that should have been learned from Cambodia and Rwanda are already forgotten. If the UN is prevented from acting in such cases, by one or more of its permanent members, then it may need to be replaced. .
EDWARD HORGAN, Limerick.