EDITOR – I read the article in The Southern Star about the Convent of Mercy in Skibbereen roughly a month ago, and John O’Neill’s comment that ‘in an ideal world, you’d have a museum’ really struck a chord with me, I couldn’t agree more! This building has incredible potential and deserves to be brought back to life rather than left to deteriorate further.

I’m a recent graduate with a First Class Honours degree in interior architecture, and my final-year design project focused entirely on the adaptive reuse and revitalisation of the Convent of Mercy. I’m very passionate about preserving its heritage, while giving it a new purpose for the community.

My work was recently recognised by the Institute of Designers in Ireland, where I won the Architectural Design and Interior Architecture and Design categories. I would love to share my research, drawings, and design concepts with anyone interested, if it would help lead to the restoration of this magnificent building.

Thank you for continuing to highlight stories that matter to Skibbereen, and for keeping the conversation about its heritage alive.

Kind regards,

Maryam Ewis

Midleton

Violent protests are misguided and harmful

EDITOR –  In recent weeks, we have seen the worst kind of violence and racism that stems entirely from ignorance. These so-called ‘protests’ use innocent people as an excuse to wage war, without being entirely aware of the facts or allowing justice to take its course.

It throws our sedulous gardaí into extreme turmoil and there are simply no words to describe the people who instigate and participate in this.

These people blame the gardaí for carrying out their duties and criticise their every move. They don’t for one second consider the families who cannot sleep at night worrying about their mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers who are out there on the frontline.

The innocent children who see the pain and frustration in their parent’s faces as they return from another shift riddled with violence and anarchy. If it is upsetting for people like me to read about this or watch footage of the horrific events unfolding, then I cannot begin to imagine how unsettling it must be for the gardaí and indeed the emergency services in general who are endeavouring to quell this chaos.

These are the people who are facing an uphill battle to control the ripple effect that this significant discord can have on innocent people’s lives. People who say ‘Not in my name’. People who want peace, and people who want the misinformed to be educated on the reality, that many of them are being used as pawns in certain people’s hidden agendas.

These are the kind of people who claim that they are protesting against an alleged crime against a child, while simultaneously putting innocent immigrant children in danger and also creating trauma for the children of the people on the frontline. I despair, and I know many hardworking, decent people echo my sentiments.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Brendan Hayes,

Bantry

We must remember to think for ourselves

EDITOR -  The death of Manchán Magan, is a sad death and of great importance to all. He held the key to our spiritual difference from others, a benign difference which we have from birth but incomers can learn from need.

Now, I feel compelled to speak about challenges faced by all of us but in particular the young. These challenges can be defined as the impact of those who speak loudly and assertively with the objective of moulding and controlling the behaviour of others.

The internet and social media may rightly be identified as the arena where such behaviours proliferate but I lack the capacity to be sufficiently brief to be impactful there.

It is essential to accept that no problem is ever solved by seeking to change the behaviour of the aggressor. Most solutions are simple to define even if difficult to implement. Here, recognising the potential for the internet and social media to have a negative impact is to name a symptom, but not the cause, of the potential harm. The true cause lies in a failure to think for ourselves.

The problem is a failure to develop heathy self-esteem. ‘Why’ is a question I happily leave to others, better qualified.

The solution, however, is simple even if difficult. We must learn and teach those around us to think for themselves, to question everything, and to form personal opinions after careful consideration of all available information, with the overriding acknowledgement that personal opinions are forever subject to review and seldom graduate to the status of fact.

The need to build this practice requires self-discipline, which in turn has other benefits.

Of course there is nothing new in these ideas but perhaps they have been obscured by the deluge of information we are subjected to daily.

Have pride in your ability, recognise your shortcomings, think for yourself, and be proud of the best person you can be, while expecting the same of others.

My sole purpose here is to prompt thought. Think for yourself.

Redmond D. O’Regan,

Skibbereen