LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Important to report on local environment issues

EDITOR – I read with interest and concern your leader regarding the decline in species in Lough Hyne.

That the IFA should disagree with a 30-year study is interesting. But the concern expressed by the scientists was not in any way accusatory to farmers. It was a scientific suggestion based on actual findings.

Excessive nitrates entering Lough Hyne from coastal waters can only come from two places – agricultural runoff and sewage outflows. This cannot be disputed.

If we also bear in mind that the United Nations has issued an urgent plea for serious consideration to be given to the global loss of soil biodiversity and the consequent fall in global soil fertility, which use of chemical fertilisers exacerbates, then surely we must accept that this is an issue that has to be examined and acted upon?

Farmers have to tread an extremely finely tuned path between rising costs, and increasingly stringent and awkward rules for them to be able, like any other business, to make a living; as well as ensuring we are supplied with food.

Add in to that the rising costs of chemical fertiliser, of feedstuffs, of equipment, and of fuel, none of which are likely to reduce in the future.

And then add in to that the pressure that the environment is being put under – the very environment upon which farmers, and us, rely – by climate change, loss of biodiversity, invasive species, pollution of various sorts, and public access. As a recent international biodiversity reported stated, we are facing an existential crisis. 

So we have some enormous problems that need serious consideration.

It is clear that farmers, and the rest of us, need to think very strongly for themselves, and work alongside the IFA, EPA, Teagasc and whoever else is relevant, to find not just causes, but ways to work through problems that are not going to go away.

I am reassured to some degree that this was accorded the front page headlines, ensuring environmental issues are given great prominence.

Robin Lewando,

Rearahinagh,

Drimoleague, Cork.

Clonakilty 1798 journal now being republished 

EDITOR – As your readers will know from reading The Southern Star last June, a sub-committee of  Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage, organised a very successful week of commemorative events to remember the 225th anniversary of the Battle of the Big Cross, which occurred between Shannonvale and Ballinascarthy, on June 19th 1798. 

It is believed to have been to only military engagement between the United Irishmen and Crown Forces in the whole of Munster during that historic and bloody year. We thank you for the pre and post publicity of the June 2023 events.

To conclude our work, the Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage sub-committee is currently working on the re-publication of the 1998 Battle of the Big Cross journal, published 25 years ago as part of the bicentenary commemoration of the battle. 

As well as re-publishing the original 1998 journal, there will also be a number of new chapters which will include accounts and photos of the recent June 2023 commemorative events (225th anniversary), and also any other articles/photos relevant to the Battle of the Big Cross and participants not previously published. 

It is hoped to have this ready by the end of October and printed and on sale by mid-November.

As it’s unlikely that there will be any other published work on the battle for several years to come – possibly not until the 250 anniversary in 2048! – we are now appealing to anyone who has any information that could be included in the upcoming publication, to make contact as soon as possible to ensure the associated articles can be written up and prepared for the 2023 re-published and updated journal. 

Information such as participants in the battle (both sides), folklore passed down about it, songs or poems, photographs of past commemorations, copies of newspaper articles from the past, etc will all be considered by the editorial committee. However, submission of any item is not a guarantee of publication.

One item which would be of particular interest which we would like to include would be an account of the monument at the Big Cross itself, which was unveiled in the 1960s. It seems very difficult to find any written or newspaper accounts or photos of this and it would be great to include in the upcoming journal. 

Please contact the undersigned on [email protected], send a message via the dedicated Facebook page
www.Facebook.com/BigCross225 or phone 086-2202029 (after 7pm), not later than  October 15th.

Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin,

PRO,

Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage,

Clonakilty.

Taoiseach taking a courageous stance

EDITOR – I admire the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for his views on the future of Ireland, and the vacuum in Northern Ireland, where the parties are failing to come together.

They are failing to give the people a government that will be responsible in implementing the programme of measures to help people who have been deprived of having their own government, and implementing policies and providing essential services for the people in Northern Ireland. 

The Taoiseach is quite entitled to express his own personal view on how he sees Ireland in his lifetime, and expressed the natural aspirations of the people living in the Republic of Ireland, that they would aspire to a United Ireland.

And, being a young man, Mr Varadkar, says he could see a United Ireland in his lifetime. 

The views of the North’s secretary of state Chris Heaton Harris are difficult to comprehend. Does he realise and understand articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution – our wish to have a United Ireland? 

I like the courage of An Taoiseach to answer a direct question put to him in relation to the future of a United Ireland, and what is wrong with that?

John O’Sullivan,

Innishannon.