Letters to the Editor, July 21st: On what political polls reveal, defending bedsits, and waking up to woke

Irish Times

2 days ago

Sir, – According to your recent poll, 25 per cent of voters are undecided, and 20 per cent of those who did express a preference said they would vote for an Independent candidate.
Doing the maths, this means that a total of 40 per cent of the electorate do not support any of the nine political parties in the Oireachtas.
Is this a record for your series of polls?
This suggests a truly extraordinary level of dissatisfaction with both the two main parties and with the various parties of the left, and that an unhealthy proportion of the electorate feel disconnected from our political system.This presents significant dangers.
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First, every single country in Europe – without exception – has at least one new party on the populist right which emerged over the last two decades, capitalising on a similar disconnect among voters, and which now enjoys at least 25 per cent of the vote.
Do we think that Ireland is immune from this trend? All that's needed is the emergence of a party with credible leadership which has broad appeal to urban and rural voters.
Second, the ground which any new party might seize is that same ground on the centre right which has been completely abandoned by both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil over the last decade, and whose combined total support continues to plumb historic depths in your opinion polls as a result.
If one or both of these parties doesn't return to this political ground, then they may find – as establishment parties have in Europe – that they will have the electoral rug taken out from under them. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.
Bishop Eamonn Casey removal
Sir, – Credit to the Galway diocese for taking the absolutely correct decision in removing Bishop Eamonn Casey's remains from the crypt in Galway Cathedral.
I was sure they would play the long game and hope it would all be forgotten about.
Well done to the decision makers. – Yours, etc,
JOE HARVEY,
Glenageary,
Dublin.
Medical consultation fees
Sir, – Regarding Niall H Doyle's letter about a GP consultation fee hike to €90 (July18th), my GP is also in Rathfarnham and charges a far more reasonable ¤60.
I'm now alarmed that he may be an Irish Times reader! – Yours, etc,
ANNETTE QUINN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – Your writer to The Irish Times asks if €90 is a record for a GP consultation fee.
I can confirm an extraordinary fee paid to a local chiropodist – €90 some months ago.
When I stated the fee was more than I would pay to my doctor, the chiropodist reply was that she was the senior chiropodist.
I considered the charge was outrageous and did not avail of the service again. – Yours, etc,
MARY McCARTHY,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Local property tax increases
Sir, – I was disappointed to read 'T
he Irish Times view on the local property tax
,' July 15th.
The editorial took a clear stance that 'homeowners can pay a bit more' and criticised the decision taken by myself and my colleagues on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to maintain the 15 per cent reduction in the LPT rate for next year.
Surprisingly, the editorial made no reference to the revaluation of properties for LPT purposes that will take place in November.
This revaluation, taking into account the significant property price increases since 2021, will result in all homeowners paying a bit more in 2026. It is estimated that this revaluation will see homeowners in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown contribute an extra €10.85 million to next year's council budget.
This will facilitate significant expansion of the council's budget for 2026, well ahead of inflation.
In this context, I do not see how we could justify imposing further tax increases on local homeowners. – Yours, etc,
CLLR EOIN O'DRISCOLL (FG),
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown
County Council,
Dublin.
Minding children
Sir, – I refer to your letter from Siobhán McDermott regarding long summer holidays (July 19th).
Teachers are educators, not childcare providers. Schools are educational establishments, they do not exist to mind children while parents work.
Deciding to have children means that you take responsibility for them and care for them regardless of how inconvenient that might be for your working life.
Let's look at the workplace. – Yours, etc,
KATHY CURZON,
Co Cork.
Sir, – To all those young parents sitting in cafes and parks busy on their phones and devices while ignoring their toddlers and children, I suggest a listen to the song Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin would be useful. He describes so well how; fast forward 10 or 15 years, your children may be less interested in chatting to you than they are now. Enjoy it while you can. – Yours, etc,
DAVID S KELLY,
Dublin 16.
Waking up to woke
Sir, – As a plus -70 year-old grandfather I've only become aware of the word 'woke' lately.
I hear it being used as a term of derision by various individuals on radio and social media.
It seems to this old geezer that to have empathy with people who are suffering or downtrodden is a symptom of wokeness. To be accepting of LGBTQ folk and other ethnicities is also a sign that you might be inclined to be woke.
To be on the side of the women and children in Palestine would definitely qualify you. I personally tick a lot of the boxes to be labelled a woke oul fella.
And I'm'm proud of it. – Yours, etc,
PAT BURKE WALSH,
Ballymoney,
Co Wexford.
In defence of bedsits
Sir, – Many years ago, I spent some quality time in a bedsit in Clontarf in Dublin. It was on the third floor of a large period house shared with four other bedsits on the same floor.
In modern day estate agent parlance, it would be described as comfortable, in a highly sought after area, good value for money in the current challenging rental market, ergonomically compact with modern conveniences and nice sea views.
In reality, the single bed was jammed up against the wall and took up over 75 per cent of the room.
The wardrobe consisted of a length of coarse twine hovering over the bed, one end tied to the curtain rail and the other attached to a six-inch masonry nail partially hammered into the door frame.
The cooking facilities included a two-ring camping gas stove balanced precariously on an orange box advertising sun-kissed oranges from Seville.
There was a small corner sink by the window. The sea could be viewed by exiting the building and walking down the road towards Dublin Bay.
Crucially, the main convenience, the toilet, was located on the landing and shared by all and sundry, often resulting in slow moving queues, particularly bothersome when nature was pressing,
Of course, a bedsit wouldn't be a bedsit without at least a couple of resident mice, but I had at least four. We coexisted for the while as I didn't bother them and they didn't bother me.
The real convenience, not to be underestimated, was that, such was the proximity to everything, all the conveniences could be operated without getting out of bed in the morning, like putting on the kettle, brushing your teeth and turning on the cooker with your big toe to make the porridge, thus gaining an extra 10 minutes shut eye before going to work.
In retrospect, the experience wasn't all bad, but like the banks and the financial system and everything else at the time, the much-maligned bedsit suffered from light touch or, more accurately, zero regulation, but surely the resurrection of the modest bedsit could make substantial inroads into the current homeless and housing problems. – Yours, etc,
JOHN LEAHY,
Wilton Road,
Cork.
Revenue hours
Sir, – The contact hours for Irish revenue are 9.3 0am–4.30pm.
If only the rest of the working population had these terms of employment. – Yours, etc,
MARY GARDINER,
Co Wicklow
In praise of Fintan
Sir, – Fintan O'Toole's moving and disturbing account of the 'non-resting place' at the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby home in Tuam (July 15th) is typical of his eloquence, knowledge, research and insight.
I am inclined to say that there is really no one in my own country quite his match – or I would be if we didn't have the good fortune of being able to read him regularly in The New York Review of Books. – Yours, etc,
VICTOR LUFTIG,
Virginia,
United States.
Garda check point
Sir, – I was startled today by the headline, '
Garda revokes more that 900 speed camera fines on stretch of N25 due to human error,
' (July 18th).
To my great relief, the headline did not reflect the article's content.
A single garda had not taken unilateral action to cancel hundreds of fines. It was actually the organisation – An Garda Síochána – which had taken action. What a relief! – Yours, etc,
S NESTOR,
Co Louth.
Carry on writing
Sir, – Little did I realise that a casual decision to write to another national newspaper would trigger a flurry of correspondence about how to be published in this newspaper.
I can assure you and your readers that it was not a migration, merely akin to a midweek break.
I decided to unmask myself as to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, there is only one thing worse than being written about and that is to be written about anonymously. – Yours, etc,
DAVID LOUGHLIN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – As regular letter writers to The Irish Times have attested, most letters don't get published.
The limited available space cannot accommodate all the submissions. The editor is left with the difficult job of choosing only a few.
Far from this being seen as a problem, most letter writers don't seem to mind, and many probably enjoy that it is difficult, as it then seems more of an achievement if a letter does get in.
Overall, this tried and tested system of selection and curation, used by many newspapers and magazines, works well.
The typical letters page contains a diverse range of opinions, politely conducted arguments, praise and dispraise of people for their actions or views, and plenty of good-natured debate and disagreement.
The same cannot always be said of forums where everything gets published. – Yours, etc,
COLIN WALSH,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.
Sir, – I share the frustration of your many letter writers whose efforts are not acknowledged in your pages. I too have written innumerable letters . . . to the Ephesians, Thessalonians, Corinthians, Timothy et al. To date I have not received one reply. –Yours, etc, (Paul)
TOM McGRATH,
Ashford,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – I didn't realise that the easiest way to get a letter published is to write one about a letter being published. May I have one too? – Yours, etc,
DR MARIA O'BRIEN,
Bayside,
Dublin.