Villagers: Letters to the Editor 2006-11-02

We are still discussing and trying to deal with sexual abuse of children going back 50 years in institutions run by church and state. It appears, in light of the Leas Cross nursing home scandal, that we now have further abuse to deal with – physical abuse of our elderly. Shame on the Health Executive: they buried their heads in the sand in spite of prior warnings.

Where is the accountability where programme managers at the old Health Board decided not to take action when alarm bells were ringing? These same individuals have been awarded big managerial positions at the new Health Executive – salaries of up to ?107,000 plus travel expenses of ?25,000 (which I discovered through a Freedom of Information request).

This 'cosy cartel' must be exposed and heads must roll. Leas Cross is not confined to Dublin. Perhaps we have similar if not worse situations in Kilkenny and other parts of the country, but how many whistleblowers will it take to get action? We must question how our elderly are cared for in psychiatric hospitals.

Anne Ryan, Kilkenny Advocacy Team, High Street, Kilkenny

Letterfrack: Letterfrack was Ireland's Dachau

Peter Tyrell's book Founded on Fear serves as another reminder of the savagery of Ireland's industrial-school system. It also shows up the catastrophic effect of the cosy and profoundly detrimental relationship between church and state that existed then, and how each connived with the other to wreak havoc on the lives of so many Irish people.

The men and women of God dictated the agenda, and the state towed the line.

Tyrell's memoir reads like the autobiography of a Gulag survivor or a survivor of a concentration camp. It leaves striking and unforgettable images of "carers" and "teachers" enforcing a military regime in Letterfrack.

The beatings seemed to go on forever. You could be whacked for not sleeping, for being awake, for looking to the left instead of to the right while standing in line. Terror stalked the place.

The notion that people who lived in the vicinity of industrial schools "didn't know" what went on is unconvincing when you consider that mothers often reprimanded wayward children by saying, "If you don't behave, I'll send you to Letterfrack." German mothers in the 1930s and during the war used a similar threat to get children to behave: "If you're bold again, I'll send you to Dachau."

I suggest a twinning arrangement between Letterfrack and the town of Dachau in Germany. The crimes perpetrated in the first one of these two hateful places may differ in character and magnitude from what happened in the concentration camp, but both sets of violent abusers destroyed lives – simply because they could – and black was the colour of their working clothes.

John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co Kilkenny

al Qaida in ireland: Why is the Dáil informed by the US?

RTÉ reported that declassified US State Department documents showed al Qaida cells to be operating in Ireland. The usual law-and-order parties in the Dáil explained this was 'profoundly worrying'. They will probably use it as an excuse sometime to push through even more restrictive legislation on civil liberties, none of which will have the slightest impact on al Qaida but will serve to make life increasingly oppressive for democracy's long-suffering citizens.

However, since the reports date back to 2003, we can probably breathe a little more easily as nothing very untoward has happened here yet. Perhaps al Qaida hasn't noticed how Shannon is being used by the US and CIA on a regular basis, and how the opposition in the Dáil are doing their bit for national security by keeping very quiet about the whole business.

Billy Timmins (Fine Gael) called for more resources to be made available to the Irish Secret Service (ISS). But since the US State Department documents were based mainly on Garda intelligence, the cheapest option would obviously be to share Garda intelligence with the ISS, ensuring they are kept at least as well-informed as the US State Department.

If Billy Timmins wished to express 'profound worry' over any issue, he need look no further than at how the Dáil has to hear of declassified Garda intelligence from the US State Department rather than from the government itself. And if Fine Gael are really as troubled as they claim about al Qaida targeting Ireland, they could show their sincerity by making the use of Shannon for US troops and CIA 'rendition'/torture flights an election issue.

Nick Folley, Carrigaline, Co Cork

Immigration policy: It's time to break away from Britain

Once again, because of the common travel area, we have to slavishly follow Britain's policy of limiting migrant workers from our new European partners. It is now time to treat the UK as the foreign country it is and introduce passport control so that we can pursue totally independent policies with external affairs and decide on our own freedom of movement.

I hope our Bulgarian and Romanian partners will understand this government's pathetic response to the great European vision!

Keith Nolan, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim

Changes to legal rights: Will FF give up its right to silence?

So Minister for Justice Michael McDowell proposes to review the rights of the accused in criminal trials. Specifically he is questioning the right to silence and the withholding of the accused's criminal record from the jury.

How ironic that this comes at a time when the government has granted similar rights to itself.

Their reaction to recent events suggests that criminal-court standards of proof are now required in matters of public probity. If it cannot be demonstrated that favours have been done in return, it is now acceptable for politicians to fill their pockets with cash from personal benefactors.

Indeed, any suggestion of impropriety is met with charges of an unacceptable intrusion into the personal life of the recipient.

Bertie Ahern and his supporters demanded the right to silence, and the past record of Fianna Fáil in this area was not deemed to be admissible. Both avenues of escape will, in future, be denied to the accused if Michael McDowell has his way.

Peter Molloy, Glenageary, Co Dublin

Electronic voting: Time to pencil-in a reality check

Our Taoiseach seems to think little of the humble pencil or indeed of people admitting that they are wrong and changing their minds.

Last week in the Dáil he made the astounding statement that our "silly old system is outdated", that we should "correct the software and move forward" and that we are a "laughing stock with our silly old pencils".

In September 2005 an article by Tim O'Brien in the Irish Times reported: "In what could only be taken as a reference to the Kildare bypass – where a rare snail's habitat was discovered – and the proposed M3 in Co Meath which passes through an area of significant archaeology, Mr Ahern said: 'In other countries they just get on with things. If you take a pencil and account for things like snails and archaeology you will never do anything.'"

Our Taoiseach also faulted the opposition for changing their minds on the issue of electronic voting – unlike him, they had the sense to listen to the experts.

Finally, in other countries they do not "just get on with things". In Gran Canaria, when the route of a major highway unearthed a Guanche graveyard containing 1,000 skulls, the Spanish government moved the road.

This government should put its hands up and admit that a monumental planning mistake has been made or put their trust in those great voting machines and hold an e-referendum on the round-the-bend route of the M3.

Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin, Maynooth, Co Kildare

The US in Iraq: 'Only Saddam can save us'

Screaming from inside an ambulance, a Muslim Shia woman (who hated Saddam Hussein), roared, "Only Saddam can save us and stop brother killing brother!" A car bomb had just brought the daily market to an abrupt end.

Last Tuesday, BBC2's This Week programme showed a documentary made by a doctor before he left Iraq. It told of the work of one of the few surgeons in a Bagdad hospital whose poignant comment was: "If you can find 20 people smiling in Iraq out of a population of 20 million you are lucky."

RTÉ, the acquiescent agony aunt of current affairs, should show this documentary. Somehow I doubt it will, as it does not want to show up the government's blind support for this blunder, now a massive civil war. Since RTÉ received a doubling of its license from this government, it is safely in its pocket.

To be fair to ex-US president Bill Clinton, when a US soldier was dragged from a lorry through the streets of Mogadishu he immediately withdrew the army – they were just not wanted by the people.

The extraordinary thing about this documentary is that it is such a rare film in these times of instant communication technology. It may yet become known as the ghost of the third world war.

Peter Kennedy Sutton, Dublin 13

Road safety: Education would reduce road deaths

With each intensely tragic death comes more talk of changes. The Road Safety Authority's (RSA) suggested measures include learner drivers driving cars with smaller engines, curtailment of speed limits for learner drivers and quicker punishment under the penalty-points system.

The implementation of all measures to reduce road deaths should and will be warmly welcomed by all in our country. The Road Safety Authority Act 2006 and its implementation is important. Gay Byrne's appointment was equally important, maybe a PR coup for some but a bold, positive step even it smacks of clever marketing.

However – and this is just the opinion of one – surely education is the best way forward. Educating drivers, people from the age of 17 upwards, is a hard task. The older the person gets, the harder it is to learn new, better habits. Is it not feasible that as well as shock-advertising, there might be further ways of educating drivers, young and old?

Driving at speed, driving without due care and driving under the influence of alcohol is learned behaviour. Reconditioning our behaviour is the only way to turn around road safety. A fine will not stop a speeder from speeding. Maybe enforced voluntary attendance at physical rehabilitation hospitals, brain-injury wards or even time in the company of group bereavement classes might open people's eyes instead of hitting them where it hurts least – their bank overdrafts – with forgettable fines.

Our young, our drivers of the future, must surely be shown the error of our generation's ways and educated with more sensitivity, intelligence and clarity.

Brian Strahan, Rush, Co Dublin