In this age of lies we need heroes more than ever

Brave Irish are highlighting the Yemen crisis

TWO brave and extraordinary Dubliners have in the past week helped bring the catastrophic situation in Yemen to world attention. Journalist Orla Guerin, who began her career in RTÉ in 1985, is the BBC correspondent in the war-torn region.

Kimmage born Alex Dunne is the Humanitarian Affairs Officer for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), one of the few aid agencies still operating in Yemen where it is reckoned over 10,000 people have been killed since the start of the civil war in 2014.

Both Guerin and Dunne have tried to focus world attention this week on the Saudi Arabianled coalition – including the US and UK – which is continuing its air strikes on Yemeni villages and cities.

Alex Dunne has just returned to Dublin and is highlighting the fact that MSF has treated 140,000 casualties in its emergency medical centres, as the health service in the Yemen has collapsed.

In her harrowing reports, Orla Guerin has highlighted Saudiled air strikes – Yemen has no airforce – including the bombing of a school bus in August which killed 40 children and 11 adults.

The fate of another journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, allegedly murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, has refocused world attention on the Saudi regime led by crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

But the indications are that countries like the US will continue to stand by Saudi Arabia – the world’s biggest oil producer – as Donald Trump revealed during his election campaign: ‘I like the Saudis, I made a lot of money from them.’

The US president also made it clear this week that there is absolutely no way he would jeopardise the $110bn in arms the US sells to Saudi Arabia, no matter how nefarious the conduct of the Middle-Eastern regime.

In truth, Trump has not only debased discourse – can you imagine how long Obama would have lasted in office if he called a woman ‘horseface’ in public, as he did Stormy Daniels – he has created an atmosphere of immunity for rogue states.

The White House is nonplussed about the despotic behaviour of Vladimir Putin and denies Russia’s obvious interference in other countries. This includes attacks on UK citizens and the death of 44year-old British woman Dawn Sturgess who inadvertently picked up a discarded bottle of the nerve agent Novichok.

Thankfully in a world dominated by the lies, dissembling and calumnies of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Mohammad Bin Salman, heroes like Orla Guerin and Alex Dunne stand tall.

When Orla Guerin was conferred with an honorary doctorate from Essex University (by the way she has never been honoured in such a way in her home town) the chancellor said: ‘Orla Guerin does not refuse to see the suffering on both sides. She makes it fresh for us each time and she tries to go further and to make us understand. In a world where television news can so easily trivialise, she rises above it as a powerful and compelling journalist.’

You can make a much-needed donation to Médecins sans Frontieres at msf.ie