Irish drivers are in the dark about basic road safety

A letter in last Sunday’s edition of the MoS, ‘Left in the dark’, prompted me to write about my experiences on the road regarding lights or the lack of them.

I am an international truck driver and it’s sad to write that many Southern Irish drivers have no regard for the use of lights on the vehicles.

First of all, along with faulty lights at least four out of 10 drivers use their fog lights, which is illegal. Some drivers fail to put on their lights in dark or foggy conditions, many farmers and contractors who tow trailers have no regard for the law regarding the trailer lights, again at least three out of 10 drivers don’t have trailer lights and at least six out of 10 don’t have number plates on their trailers.

Another scourge is farmers and contractors driving their tractors and trucks onto the public road with mud on their tyres. This is a danger to other road users.

Elsewhere in Europe, including Northern Ireland, all the above practices would not be tolerated and they would face the rigours of the law. Brian Mulvaney, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo.

Job for Red Cross

Time to bring in The Red Cross to save our sick hospital patients. Cutback after cutback has been enforced in hospital services, which means going into one is death by a thousand cuts.

It’s quite extraordinary to have a health minister bemoaning the fact that his own department is in tatters. From being a Third World health nation, we are now relegated to the fourth division.

What next? Bring your own sleeping bags? Why not run crash courses in self operations so you can remove your own organs and sew yourself back up again, thus sparing that poor consultant the indignity of having to work on a medical card holder when he would prefer to be operating on the lucrative cash customer?

The ‘jobs for the boys’ syndrome is still evident by the executives on the boards, favours returned for political lackeys who play the game at election time.

Bring in The Red Cross. What we have now is a humanitarian issue unfit for Government. Anthony Woods, Ennis, Co. Clare.

Christy’s a hero

Over the past 50 years, some wonderful singer-songwriters have come out of Dublin to fill us with joy and resolve as we’ve grown up with them, and it was such a privilege to see the great Christy Dignam of Aslan on the Tommy Tiernan show on RTÉ this week. Even the name of his band is gentle and melodic.

Christy’s beautiful voice and his very grounded attitudes to life, much of this brought about through adversity and illness, is inspirational.

All he wishes for is that those he leaves behind – hopefully in a time far off – will be secure in certain ways.

I have no doubt his extremely wealthy contemporaries will have his best interests at heart, and it is never too soon to let someone know they are loved and will be taken care of.

Ireland has been constantly uplifted by the music and lyrics of Christy Dignam,and truth to tell the last time I sobbed was when we learned first of his very serious illness.

But, as he says himself, the music goes on.

Robert Sullivan, Bantry, Co. Cork.

The anti-drinkers

A few years ago, journalist Con Houlihan suggested there is too much ridiculous talk about drink in this country. An incident at a recent children’s Christmas show reminded me of the great writer’s comments on the subject.

After the concert, there was a raffle with a good number of prizes. Near the end of the prizegiving the compere on stage noted that with a few bottles of wine unclaimed, there must be no alcoholics in the audience.

Anyone who has a small understanding of alcohol consumption would realise that not all consumers of strong drink are alcoholics. But obviously not the self-righteous person who made that foolish remark.

It is hardly any wonder that Con Houlihan said that there are some of the anti-drink people around nowadays would have insisted that the wine be changed back to water if they had been present at the feast of Cana. Shay Coogan, Navan, Co. Meath.

US election shock

The result of the US Presidential election sent a shiver down my spine and leads me to doubt the collective sanity of the US electorate.

How on earth could such a vile candidate as Hillary Clinton convince so many gullible fools to vote for her? Very, very scary.

Eric Conway, Navan, Co. Meath.