EDITOR - The ongoing bombings and killings of Palestinians continues unabated in Gaza despite there being a supposed ceasefire, bringing the death toll now to over 75,000.

Israel has been accused by the UN of war crimes and genocide in Gaza and warrants have been issued for the arrest of Netanyahu prime minister of Israel.

The situation continues to be horrendous for the people living there, lacking even the very basic essentials for human existence after the near total destruction of Gaza.

In the West Bank the situation is also critical with Israeli settlers intensifying attacks on Palestinians, robbing life stock, burning and evicting people from their homes, and farm lands. Weekly protests have been held in Skibbereen and all over West Cork for nearly two and a half years now to highlight and express our solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Practical help has also been provided through fund raising activities of all kinds, with a substantial amount being forwarded to Gaza to help alleviate the suffering.  The Skibbereen Palestinian group also promote the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) where people are asked to stop purchasing products produced by Israeli companies.

We recently learned, that the wrap, film and netting used in hay, straw and silage bales is the product of an Israeli company, the Tama Group. Tax revenue from this large Israeli company go to funding the Israeli war machine.

We would appeal to farmers and contractors not to use this product from the Tama group and for the Co-ops to withdraw it from their stock if they have it for sale. There are several other alternative products available which are manufactured in Ireland and elsewhere.

Sometimes we may feel powerless in the face of war, ethnic cleansing and genocide, but each of us has power as a consumer.

Donnchadh Ó Seaghdha

(West Cork for Palestine)

Come on Sinn Féin, your day has come

EDITOR -   I see that two competing motions on foxhunting are set to be debated and voted on at the upcoming Sinn Fein Ard Fheis later month, one in support of it and the other calling for its abolition.

I hope that reason and compassion will prevail and that the party will give resounding thumbs-down to a practice that, apart from being intrinsically cruel, was introduced to Ireland by the very people that Sinn Fein and the broader Republican movement have always excoriated as oppressors…our former colonial masters. When Ireland was in the throes of famine and mass emigration aboard the infamous coffin ships, foxhunters were out in the countywide as if nothing was amiss. The jolly hunting folk rode to hounds across a devastated landscape, past emaciated people who lived from hour to hour on whatever scraps of food they could get their hands on.

I’m not suggesting that we should reject every pursuit that originated outside Ireland, There’s a place for all forms of culture and recreation…but the “tradition” of hounding a wild dog, one that has a central nervous system like any other canine- until its lungs give out and exhaustion delivers it to the pack, is NOT harmless fun. When voting on the two motions, I hope that the party members will remember Padraig Pearse’s evocation of our verdant Irish countrywide and its wildlife. He penned a poem that captured the horror of stag hunting and alluded in another composition to ‘little rabbits, playing in field at evening, lit by a slanting sun’.

Latter-day Republicans could do worse than emulate the respect for nature and wildlife evinced one of our greatest patriots, a man that all Sinn Fein supporters claim to honour in their political journey. When they gather for the big event in Belfast later month, let them say to the long-suffering foxes of Ireland: ‘Your day has come!’

John Fitzgerald, (Address with editor)

It’s pouring: now’s the time for rainy day fund

EDITOR -  The government created two rainy day funds  in 2024, incorporating the previous National Reserve Fund created in 2019. The combined value today is approximately €17 billion. The economic rain is pouring, and the fund should be used to alleviate the worst effects of the rise in the cost of fuel. The average price of diesel before the war on Iran began was €1.70/litre, of which the government take was €1.02.

The government could therefore add this to the current raw cost of fuel at €0.92 = €1.94/litre without losing revenue. The cost of the subsidy = €2.30 - €1.94 = €0.36/litre.

Ireland uses approximately 4.7 billion litres of diesel a year (including marked diesel) and one billion litres of petrol, so the annualised cost of both would be 5.7 x €0.36=  €2.05 billion or 12.1% of the €17bn rainy day funds over a full year.

The figures for home heating oil are 1.2 billion litres, €0.43 billion, or a further 2.5% of the rainy day funds or 14.6% total for all three.

This is not only doable but the right and sensible thing to do. Everything else being equal we could do this for 6.8 years. Instead of an affordable €2.48 billion, the government has allocated a measly €0.75 billion subsidy to hard pressed hauliers, bus drivers, farmers, home owners and the general public, leading to the collapse of many businesses.

This is madness especially ad this fuel crisis may only last three to six months with consequent halving or quartering of the annual cost. Yet again this government has shown itself to be completely out of touch with the will of the Irish people.

Kevin T Finn,

Mitchelstown.