Our ‘liberal’ country got President it deserves
‘MODERN, liberal’ Ireland is fast becoming a parody of itself.
Personally, I have always found Michael D Higgins’s speeches, and general world view, problematic, at best. Like many of the liberal/ left persuasion, it seems his views have never really evolved since adolescence. Also like most people who share that world view, there is a massive disconnect between the views he espouses and the reality of his life.
The American writer Peter Schweizer, in his book Do As I Say (Not As I Do), pointed out the same contradictions in the lives of prominent US liberals, such as Hillary Clinton, Barbra Streisand, Michael Moore, and many others. However, I suppose a country gets the leaders it deserves.
And it cannot be denied that Michael D encapsulates perfectly the contradictions/inconsistencies/mediocrity of ‘modern, liberal’ Ireland.
ERIC CONWAY, by email.
Reach out, Michael
AS someone who didn’t vote for Michael D Higgins I wish to congratulate him on his re-election. In his acceptance speech, he spoke about being a President for all, including those who didn’t vote for him, which was 44% of those who cast their votes.
He also needs to reach out to the 56% of the electorate who didn’t think it worth their while to go to their local polling station; it was the lowest turnout in a Presidential election in the history of the State. In Jobstown, where water protesters clashed with the Labour leader of the day, Joan Burton, in 2014, turnout was reported as just 9%.
Further reports of Learjet trips to Belfast and Kerry or €3,000-anight foreign trips certainly will not endear him to these disaffected people. TOMMY RODDY, Galway.
Casey is no hero
HMMM, the ‘squeezed middle’, ‘the get up early birds’, the ‘we pay for everything brigade’, or the merely ‘disgruntled rural dwellers’ – plus the drive of disaffected Sinn Féin voters – will all give their paltry excuses for voting for Peter Casey.
They avoid, in the aftermath of the election, mention of undiluted hatred of Irish Travellers and Irish welfare citizens as the main reason so many believed in Casey’s message of disgusting intolerance. Those who voted for that unmannerly oaf are welcome to him.
At least he was politically correct enough to not disparage refugees and immigrants who have come from overseas to our country – this time, anyway.
He is on safe ground attacking the weak and the vulnerable, but only as long as they are Irish. The true mark of an ‘honest’ Irishman. Ugh. ROBERT SULLIVAN, Bantry, Co. Cork.
Television torture
I OBJECT most strenuously to the irresponsible and extremely dangerous exploitation of families by RTÉ in the height exercise on the Ireland’s Fittest Family programme.
Nobody involved appears to have given any consideration to the mental impact being forced onto a great height has on the human mind. Numerous people battle mental disorder all their lives from trauma experienced in such situations.
I fear some of those exploited will suffer nightmares and trauma for years. Even some people watching the programme will be traumatised by seeing untrained people at such height.
RTÉ must be condemned and censured by enticing competitors through such trauma. There may be grounds for suing RTÉ for placing people in this situation.
The show deserves to be suspended immediately. Watching people being mentally traumatised in such a fashion is not entertainment. Endangering mental health is no joke.
PADRAIC NEARY, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo.
Remember war dead
AS IT is coming up to Armistice Day, my son-in-law and daughter, took my wife and I to visit the HMS Caroline, now decommissioned and moored at Belfast. The Caroline is one of only three major warships remaining today that fought in the naval battle of the First World War.
It has been made into a very impressive tourist attraction. Tourists can visit every part of the ship and listen to a verbal description of its purpose, from the ship’s wheelhouse on the bridge, to the engine room, the commodore’s quarters, the galley, the mess rooms, and even the crew’s toilet.
On entry to the ship, each visitor is given a set of headphones, and a hand-held pointer that they use to access the aural commentary at each stop along the way.
However, the most impressive part of the tour has to be the reenactment of a naval battle, as if it were happening right before your eyes. In between the thunderous noise of bombs exploding one after the other, there were notifications of the loss of ships appearing on the screen. Yes, there was also recordings of German naval ships suffering similar fates.
I found this part of the tour deeply emotional, but at the same time driving home the importance of Remembrance Day hit home, reminding me how much is owed to those who gave all. They must never be forgotten. HARRY STEPHENSON,
Kircubbin, Co. Down.