Protecting the West Bank
Sir, – Speaking on behalf of Irish Quakers and others concerned in this country, the Irish Government needs to stand up firmly and demand that Israel does not further consider the annexation of the now already illegally-occupied West Bank (“At least 30 killed in Gaza City as Israel reportedly considering annexing parts of West Bank”, World, August 31st).
Were this to happen, it would put the nail into the reality of an independent Palestinian state, which would naturally include the West Bank. – Yours, etc,
DENIS J HALLIDAY,
Former UN assistant secretary general (1994-98),
RM Block
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
Essential school staff
Sir, – The strike by school secretaries and caretakers exposes a serious injustice in our education system. These vital staff are still denied basic entitlements – pensions, sick leave and bereavement leave. It’s unacceptable.
Schools depend on these workers every day. Secretaries manage medical needs, maintain records and act as first responders in emergencies. Caretakers handle fire safety, hygiene and building security.
Without them, schools can’t operate safely – and in many cases, not at all.
To deny these workers fair conditions puts children’s health and safety at risk. We cannot talk about safe, caring schools while treating the people who protect those environments as invisible.
As a retired teacher, I know schools are held together by the work of these professionals. It’s time to treat school secretaries and caretakers not as “support staff” but as the essential workers they are. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN DOHENY,
Retired secondary schoolteacher,
Renmore,
Galway.
Sir, – This week 50 years ago I started my career of 44 years as a teacher and ultimately principal in the Irish post-primary school sector. During all those years I was supported and befriended by secretaries and caretakers. Without their professionalism and hard work I could not have done my job.
Now as chairwoman of a board of management I see all too clearly the essential role these workers play in the complex ecosystem of a school.
Secretaries and caretakers deserve to be treated justly and paid a fair wage with full pension rights. – Yours, etc,
ETHEL REYNOLDS,
Clonmel,
Co Tipperary .
Tradwives and home-makers
Sir, – Since Fintan O’Toole mentioned me in dispatches (“Ireland was once the tradwife capital of the world. Worse, they were happy”, Opinion, September 2nd), I may be allowed a further comment on the issue of the Irish housewife.
Many Irish women of my generation did indeed rebel against the restrictions placed on women’s roles, and especially on archaic attitudes to married women; but I think our endeavours were intended to open up more opportunities not to disparage women who were home-makers or, in that somewhat patronising word, “housewives”.
Nor should women who managed the home and raised families be disparaged retrospectively. Forty years of marriage taught me that someone has to keep the home fires burning, and it’s an accomplishment to do it successfully.
Ireland in the 1990s and 2000s produced a terrific generation of educated and clever young people who enabled the prosperity of modern Ireland. This flowering of a high-achieving Irish generation was often made possible by the dedication of mothers at home who prioritised education and provided encouragement and stability. I heard the late Christina Murphy, education expert at The Irish Times, say it was the mothers’ energetic pursuit of education that drove standards.
Newspaper items about “happiness” surveys are often somewhat superficial: “by their fruits ye shall know them” may be a better guide. – Yours, etc,
MARY KENNY,
Kent,
UK.
Trump ’s corporatism
Sir, – While criticising US president Donald Trump and former president of Argentina Juan Perón, David McWilliams references “Mussolini’s corporatism” (“A panic in Washington DC will have untold consequences throughout the global economy”, Opinion, August 30th).
Corporatism is an approach to the management of the economy where trade unions, employers and the state co-operate through an institutional framework to set regulations and working conditions for each sector or industry.
Corporatist approaches to political economy have a venerable pedigree beyond their association with the Italian dictator and deserve a fairer representation than the short shrift given here by Mr McWilliams.
Partly inspired by Catholic social teaching on the dignity of workers and the importance of subsidiary institutions for protecting their interests (like trade unions), corporatist practices have been implemented in a variety of European democracies including Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland.
Irish industrial relations are often characterised as standing in the “voluntarist” tradition inherited from the United Kingdom but institutions like the Labour Court, Joint Labour Committees and the practice of social partnership show clear corporatist tendencies. Mr McWilliams’ denigration of corporatism is by comparison with “Roosevelt’s liberalism”, but it is widely recognised that in the New Deal former US president Franklin D Roosevelt actively embraced corporatism. The National Recovery Administration was the clearest example, bringing together unions and businesses into “modern guilds” to agree codes of fair practices in economic sectors. Its successor, the National Labor Relations Board, continues to facilitate collective bargaining and punish unfair labour practices by employers, and is a remaining vestige of Roosevelt’s corporatism in the otherwise (neo) liberal US economy.
The critique of Mr Trump’s assertion of control over the Federal Reserve could equally apply to his dismissal of National Labour Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, which has left the board unable to function.
Meanwhile, there is a case involving Elon Musk’s SpaceX company before the US courts, which may see the NLRB struck down altogether. This calls to mind recession-era cases where the Irish courts similarly declared our long-established corporatist bodies unconstitutional, a stance from which they have since resiled – acknowledging instead that co-operation between trade unions, employers and the state in regulating economic life is part of the common good. – Yours, etc,
ALAN EUSTACE,
Assistant professor,
School of Law,
Trinity College Dublin.
Supports for artists
Sir, – The Basic Income for the Arts pilot, while historic in scale, rests on an untested and oversimplified assumption: that income support alone is sufficient to meet challenges faced by artists.
Last year I proposed to the Department of Culture the inclusion of a second control group – one that would receive structured mentorship, professional development and wellbeing supports, but no direct financial aid. This would have allowed the pilot to assess the relative impact of economic versus non-economic supports on creative lives. The proposal was not taken up.
As it stands, the scheme is testing a universal basic income model for possible wider application – not meaningfully evaluating the needs of artists. These needs include creative autonomy, access to space, community, long-term support systems and pathways to public relevance. To focus purely on financial impact is to treat symptoms, not causes.
If the Government is serious about cultural policy, future iterations of this scheme must include qualitative research and non-monetary supports. Artists don’t just need money – they need dialogue, care, infrastructure and understanding. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT BROWNE,
Rathcormac,
Cork.
Israeli war bonds
Sir, – Your editorial welcomes the news that the Central Bank “will no longer authorise the sale of Israeli bonds in the EU” given that “the agency raising the funds had linked them with financing the war effort in Gaza” (Editorial, September 2nd).
While it is true the Coalition Government and the leadership of the Central Bank “will be relieved at the turn of events”, two of the concluding recommendations of the Joint Committee on Finance’s Report on the Israeli Bonds Programme still stand as unfulfilled duties.
The committee’s report calls on the Government to “engage at EU level with a view to amending the EU Prospectus regulations to permit each individual European Central Bank to refuse to act as a Competent Authority”. It also calls on the Central Bank of Ireland to “engage with other EU central banks to develop a mechanism whereby an individual central bank can refuse to process any new prospectus certification request”.
With sales of Israeli bonds continuing across the EU, and “authorised by the Luxembourg authorities”, this matter is far from over; human rights campaigners in Luxembourg will surely now take up the baton.
Our Government, and the leadership of the Central Bank, must fulfil the outstanding recommendations of the Joint Committee on Finance, and engage with their EU partners to demand legislative and administrative procedures that cut off this stream of funding for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Only when they do so will Ireland have stepped on to the right side of history. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN Ó ÉIGEARTAIGH,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
Long summer holidays
Sir, – The debate about shortening school holidays seems less concerned with child development and education, and more on keeping working adults chained to their desks in pursuit of ever-increasing productivity.
Instead of trimming holidays, perhaps it’s employers who should rethink how they can better support working parents, especially since the Government has long abandoned any pretence of doing so.
Long, carefree summer holidays are part and parcel of an Irish childhood, not a scheduling inconvenience. – Yours, etc,
GERARD REYNOLDS,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Tricolour for all?
Sir, – The recent controversy over the removal of Irish Tricolours from public spaces strikes me as unnecessary and divisive. Instead of seeing our national flag as a problem, why not turn it into a unifying symbol?
One simple solution would be for the State to provide every household with an Irish flag and flood State property with it. By doing so, we make the Tricolour something we all share and own. Rather than a source of tension, it could become a visible reminder of our collective identity, history, pride and future together.
Surely embracing the flag together is a better path than trying to take it down? – Yours, etc,
GREG McCONKEY,
Dartry,
Dublin 6.
Climate crisis coverage
Sir, – I agree in principle with Ger McNamara (Letters, September 2nd) that housing and health are more pressing concerns than the presidential election. However, I believe the priority for media attention must be the climate emergency.
Without urgent action, the worsening impacts of climate change will overwhelm every other area of public life including housing, health and the economy.
This summer heatwaves in southern Europe, North America and Asia claimed thousands of lives, and displaced millions through wildfires and drought.
The increased likelihood of the collapse of the AMOC system (colloquially known as the Gulf Stream) will leave Ireland with a climate akin to that of Labrador or Newfoundland in Canada with all the consequences for housing that will follow.
Unless we face this crisis head-on, such disasters will only intensify, leaving all our other social priorities impossible to address. – Yours, etc,
JAMES CANDON,
Brussels,
Belgium.
Germany must champion peace
Sir, – Derek Scally has highlighted the striking contrast between Germany’s leadership of the past and its current trajectory (“Angela Merkel’s legacy under scrutiny in a Germany gripped by distrust and a rising far right”, World, August 29th).
Whereas Germany once stood firmly on a pacifist, morally elevated platform, its present leadership now seems ready to forsake that legacy in favour of a military build-up.
Angela Merkel’s 2015 immigration policy opened Germany’s borders to desperate people fleeing war and invasion. Her humanitarian leadership made her a beacon of sanctuary and hope for countless vulnerable migrants. She also worked to forge a diplomatic accord between Ukraine and Russia through the Minsk process, though her efforts were ultimately undermined by other international actors.
For decades Germany has been among the world’s leading donors, taking on a major share of aid to the Global South and Africa.
Given Germany’s economic strength within Europe, it is imperative it provide moral and inspirational leadership on the world stage.
Germany must once again champion peace and reconciliation, whether between Ukraine and Russia, or between Israelis and Palestinians. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL MULVIHILL,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
‘Magic Bus’ experience
Sir, – As a woman who, over the last few years, has travelled to many places referred to in Shakespeare’s plays, I can attest to the “Magic Bus” experience described by Colm Keena on the trail of St Paul in Greece (“Lesson of St Paul – Colm Keena on one benefit of being a lapsed Catholic”, An Irish Diary, August 31st).
I have felt depths of gratitude, joy and wonder from simply being present in sites that resonate with the imprints of our culture and civilisation.
These transformational moments have “unlapsed” me from doubts about life’s meaningfulness and I am forever thankful. – Yours, etc,
ROSEMARY LOUGHLIN,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
