EDITOR – I think May 2025 has been a month of light to no light, a memorable month. The 80th anniversary of VE Day of the end of WWII in Europe and a new Pope on the same day, May 8th. The feast day of the ‘Apparition of Michael the Archangel’. The weather was good with long sunny days.
May 2025 was also the time of Israel’s decision to try and take over Gaza completely for security reasons with the possible aim of forcing Palestinians to leave.
We don’t forget the attack on Israel on 7th October 2023 by Hamas with over 1,000 people brutally killed and the taking of hostages into Gaza. Israel’s reaction has been punishment in the extreme on Gaza’s 2.2m people from October 2023 with over 55,000 people killed.
It is the opposite of Leo XIV’s hope on his election of shining a light into dark corners of the world and in his first speech to the waiting, joyous multitude in St Peter’s Square: ‘May peace be with all of you’.
There seems to be little hope Gaza can be saved for the future of the Palestinian people. One of the most pitiless wars in modern times.
Oliver Cromwell’s invasion in 1649-50 of Ireland was similar in ways. The population was 1.5m. 10,000 to 50,000 Irish people were shipped to tobacco and sugar plantations in the Caribbean. It is debated by historians if they were indentured servants or slaves. Probably were both. Others were forced from their lands to elsewhere in Ireland. Others who could afford to, fled the country. One of many traumatic invasions.
Wars can erupt at any time, like a possible war between India and Pakistan, thankfully stopped for the moment. Russia’s war in Ukraine from February 2022 is not over in spite of when elected in Nov 2024, US President Donald Trump’s hopes he could end it quickly.
Mary Sullivan, Cork.
Pope Leo was elected in May, while Israel has made clear its intentions in Gaza.
Noisy neighbours and No Mow May
EDITOR – No Mow May seems to mean nothing anymore. Over the bank holiday weekend I was trying to sit in my back garden but was constantly annoyed by hedge strimmers and lawn mowers and other noise paraphernalia. Why do people do this on sunny days when they know so many of us work and sometimes this is the only time we have to enjoy our own back gardens. Not to mention all the dandelions and other flowers that they are destroying when there is also no rain for weeks now. I wish people would remember that they have neighbours, and that wildlife needs to be left alone too.
David Kelleher, Bandon.
Our government is failing Palestine
EDITOR – As the Gaza ‘siege’ grinds on children starve and die, hospitals are destroyed, patients die, people of Gaza are denied basic food items, first responders are killed, and unarmed women and children killed on daily basis.
Yet, the so called free and democratic world stands by and does nothing. Representatives of the government of Ireland tell us they are attempting to get a ‘unified’ response from EU.
I ask how can that be achieved when many EU states provide military assistance to Israel and therefore in my opinion may well be complicit in what is considered by many as ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people? We are now told of Israel plans to expand the so called war and relocate the Palestinian people from Gaza.
So I ask the Taoiseach and Tánaiste: ‘will you wait until the last Palestinian is dead before you take any action?’ Brave men and women gave their lives for Irish freedom and end oppressive occupation. I wonder what they would think of the actions/inactions of our government in relation to the Palestinian people of Gaza and West Bank.
Michael Moriarty, Rochestown.
Is this bone-rattling for our own safety?
EDITOR – Will someone please tell us what is the story with the road out of Skibbereen, that last week’s article called ‘bone-rattling’? I understand that budgets are stretched, and the council can only do so much but surely to god that piece of road must be one of the worst in the country. I wonder how it got so bad in the first place – I’ve been down boreens in Connemara that were less frightening, and they left my teeth in my mouth too.
Although I have to admit that it does keep me in check when it comes to my speed and I like my tyres to last as long as they can, so perhaps there are two birds to be hit here with one stone. Save money on the road repairs, because it sure as hell slows people down.
Emma Mellors, Ballyvourney.
