Letters to the Editor: Utter chaos at Dublin Airport arrivals

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

On Thursday, July 24, I flew from Reus-Barcelona to Dublin. The flight arrived on time, but the contrast between the proficiency of the flight and the confusion outside Dublin Airport could not be greater.
To say that it was utter chaos is an understatement. Other flights had arrived at the same time, and there were hundreds of people of all ages looking for information on how to complete their journey.
There were plenty of signs for Aircoach and Dublin Express, but no signs on how to get Bus Éireann into Dublin City.
There was a double-decker bus at a stop without a number or a destination displayed. This generated a huge interest, so much so that I estimated about 150 people stood around the bus. About 25 of us spoke with an official, but nobody understood what he said.
As the crowd grew around him, another official shouted that we should clear the footpath for a group of people getting on an Aircoach. We did so, but it was an effort with heavy bags. There were certain loud comments from the people at the bus stop.
A few minutes later, the number 16 appeared on the double-decker with the destination: 'Dublin City Centre, via O'Connell Street'. There was great rejoicing, but it looked as if three double-decker buses were needed. There was sheer pandemonium as people struggled to get on with heavy suitcases.
Once seated, there was a great relaxation as people remarked on the distress caused. Where I sat, there were five different nationalities, and all remarked on the lack of visual and verbal guidance on how to find the best and cheapest way to their destination.
We had fun too, as we were told that if it was our first visit to Dublin, we had to leave our rooms at 4am to dance with the leprechauns and then drink three pints. This was a great stress reliever, and we parted in O'Connell St the best of friends.
There is a great urgency to make people's arrival in our country as easy as possible.
Tom Grufferty, Knock, Co Mayo
Cleary disappoints as football manager
It appears that the re-appointment of John Cleary as Cork senior football manager following the expiry of his three years contract in charge this year, is a done deal.
Cleary was a great Cork footballer in the late 1980s when he won back to back All-Irelands. However, he has been a big disappointment as manager.
Cork football has been stuck in Division 2 for the last 10 years. They haven't beaten Kerry in a championship match in Killarney for several more years. The under performance of the Cork senior football team is nothing short of a disgrace. A county like Louth, the smallest county in Ireland, now beat Cork regularly.
The first thing that should be done in Cork is to have separate hurling and football boards.
Secondly, if an outside manager needs to be appointed so be it.
I am a Corkman living in Donegal and the view in Ulster is that Cork football is a laughing stock. There was a time when the Cork senior footballers were feared and respected.
Cleary has done his three years. Cork are still stuck in Division 2, and almost went to Division 3 a number of times, only escaping by a whisker. Cork footballers need to try first and foremost to be a Division 1 top eight team. More of the same is not an option. A total clearout of management, a county wide search for young new footballers who have passion and talent, as well as a new outside management team is urgently needed.
If something doesn't happen soon, Cork will end up in Division 4. If Cork fairweather football supporters don't want to follow the senior footballers good riddance to them.
One hundred and fifty committed football players and staff can bring back Sam to Cork. Supporters don't win All-Irelands.
Remember, the Cork football All-Ireland in 2010 is more recent than the hurlers in 2005. Bring Cork football back to where it rightly belongs — and become serious contenders to win Sam any year.
I am tired of hearing that Cork is a hurling county. Maybe it is, but Cork also have fine athletic footballers as well. Pity they are treated as the poor relation. Time for a new football board.
Joseph Kiely, Letterkenny, Co Donegal
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We must not invite the scourges of war
To reinforce Rory Rohan's meticulous case for Irish neutrality — 'A rules-based order — but who makes the rules?' (Irish Examiner, July 22), Ireland's continuous place near the top of the Global Peace Index (GPI), in contrast with many better-armed countries, is hardly a coincidence. Launched in 2007, the GPI ranks 163 states and territories.
To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, if we fail to prepare, for the preservation of this benefit, we prepare to fail, and lose it, inviting all the scourges of war.
Likewise, in psychotherapy, those wishing to change behaviours are trained in the practice to 'act as if'. If we act as if we're a nation willing to get involved in war, we jeopardise safety and security in society, along with associated blessings of low crime rates, minimal incidences of terrorist acts and violent demonstrations, harmonious relations with neighbouring countries, a stable political scene, and a small proportion of the population being internally displaced or refugees.
In her poem, The Work of Happiness, May Sarton asks 'for what is happiness but growth in peace?'. So no peace, no happiness, no growth.
Let us be very careful. Two, or 20 wrongs, do not make a right. Let us be still in the right place when the world returns to its senses.
Caroline Hurley, Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary
AI a misnomer for artificial knowledge
I read with interest Jennifer Horgan's important article — 'Casual consumption could allow AI to forge its way into the arts' (Irish Examiner, July 18).
I suggest there is a fundamental error in this whole emergence of 'artificial intelligence' and this simply involves the constant repetition of a misnomer.
What is involved here is AK not AI, artificial knowledge not artificial intelligence. Hopefully, the following conveys a poetic sense of the fundamental difference between knowledge and intelligence.
In a city in Japan during the Meji era, there was a very renowned professor teaching at a university. However, he kept having a sense that he was missing something.
One day a colleague at the university told him of a very wise man called Nan-in. The professor went looking for Nan-in and eventually found the small cabin Nan-in was living in.
Nan-in invited the professor in for tea, but when Nan-in started pouring tea into the professor's cup he continued pouring even after the cup was full to the top. The tea then started pouring all over the table top and then down onto the professor's pants.
The professor pointed out that the cup was overfull and no more tea would go in.
Nan-in replied that the professor was full of his own opinions and speculations, going on to say that he was so full of knowledge that there was no room for Nan-in's wisdom.
Not being as wise as Nan-in, the only thing I can contribute is to point to the fact that if Jennifer Horgan told a joke to the most advanced AI machine and to me, I will be the only one who gets the joke. Humanity 10; the machine 0.
The story I relate above is taken from the book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, by Gary Zukav.
Eddie O'Brien, The Thinking Centre, Clonmel, Co Tipperary
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Casual approach to energy demands
Are David McWilliams and I the only two people who publicly deplore Ireland's casual attitude to our serious lack of a sustainable, low carbon, energy policy?
While onshore wind farms now supply about a third of our electricity, we are aiming for more than adequate offshore wind energy to reduce our carbon emissions hugely by 2030.
As we presently haven't a single port capable of the provision of ongoing support for an offshore wind farm this seems to indicate that the endless government boast of Ireland's boundless offshore wind energy will not be fact any time soon.
Several of the small modular reactors coming on stream are likely to be the most important response to the increasing difficulty in guaranteeing a supply of clean and affordable energy.
Of course, the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 prohibits 'the use of nuclear fission for the generation of electricity' but, we must start looking beyond immediate needs to answers that may take decades to achieve.
Anne Baily, Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary
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Letters to the Editor: Blurred line between right and wrong