Published: Wednesday, 25th January, 2012 5:30pm
Letters to the Editor
Pic by==: 97
Tom Carron's Retirement
Madam,
Tom Carron in his retirement speech recalls his reporting of a Cavan County Council meeting many years ago when the late Eamonn Dolan, Fine Gael, referred to 'Fianna Fáil's rotten representatives'. Fianna Fáil councillors took umbrage and demanded an apology, which was not forthcoming. A number of meetings were adjourned and the matter was becoming embarrassing for Fine Gael. Eamonn had a guttural voice and two of the 'bright sparks' of Fine Gael met with Mr Dolan. They rolled the word 'rotten' around on their tongues and came up with the word 'roctus', which became Oireachtas. Fianna Fáil members accepted that Mr Dolan had meant Oireachtas and peace was restored.
That Tom's report was correct was confirmed to me by one of the two men who rolled 'rotten' around on his tongue.
Happy retirement Tom.
Yours,
Anselm Lovett, snr.
Somalia in crisis
Dear editor,
Mark Bowden, the UN's chief aid representative in Somalia, says that during the past year the Horn of Africa drought and famine crisis has claimed "tens of thousands of lives" in Somalia alone. Mr. Bowden estimates that the famine will last for at least another six or seven months, and during that time 250,000 Somalis will remain at severe risk of starvation.
While the over-stretched African Union is doing what it can in Somalia, with some success, to combat al-Shabaab and other terrorist groups and militias, it is neither properly equipped nor trained to manage the kind of meaningful relief effort required to ensure that as few as possible of those 250,000 Somali people succumb to starvation or related illnesses.
Only the United Nations is capable of mounting an operation on the scale required.
When one considers how many lives were lost across the Horn of Africa because the international community failed to react quickly enough to its own early warning system that famine was imminent, this would seem the least that could be done for the people of Somalia.
Yours sincerely,
John O'Shea
GOAL, PO BOX 19, Dun Laoghaire. Co Dublin
Clarification
Last week's star letter in the Celt concerning cuts in the HSE was incorrectly attributed to Siobhan O'Coinsigh. It was actually sent by Stiofain O'Loinsigh.
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