EDITOR - During the holy season of Christmas and New Year, I heard many messages from politicians and church leaders of many persuasions and the chord that they all reverently touched on was, ‘The Homeless’.

It was not that they didn’t all proclaim to feel very sad for the homeless, but none of them offered a solution to help, which they could, especially for the season that was in it. In Ireland today we have many closed churches that could have been used to give people a roof over their heads for the night, and a bit of safety as well.

In the United States of America back in 1929 during the crash, the Catholic Church fed and watered tens of thousands of people and allowed them to sleep on the church seats by night, as at that time they had no work, no money, or no place to stay.

The church stepped up to the plate. I ask, why cannot that be done today here in Ireland?  I’m very surprised that Pope Leo and the Taoiseach haven’t shown leadership in this.

Leadership is a service, not a possession. No Pope owns the church: it belongs to the people. Likewise, the Taoiseach doesn’t own our schools: they are owned by the public and could also have been brought into use. The late Bishop Willie Walsh in Limerick set the tone with the Travelling community. It doesn’t stand to reason why men, women and children are sleeping rough on the streets, when temporary accommodation can be made available reasonably cheaply.

It is actually frightening to think how far governments, politicians, and the hierarchy are removed from reality today in this beautiful country of ours.

Michael O’Sullivan,

Allihies, Beara

Our letter writer wonders at the silence of the country’s faith leaders.

Hunters hiding behind the mental health tag

EDITOR -  Mental health is the new gluten. The slings and arrows of living a life allows anybody to name tag ‘it’s my mental health’ when life’s road gets congested. On the mental health charabanc, Irelands’ bloodsports community has come aboard.

As a defence for their abusive activities, hunters claim that hunting wild animals to death helps to recalibrate their mental health and provides emotional stability in their lives.

A day out on the countryside inflicting distress, injury and death on an animal is a self-prescribed mental health tonic.

Any political interference by way of a ban on hunting would impact on them accessing a rural Prozac pick-me up.

Sigmund Freud would have choked on his Almdudler lemonade on hearing this pound shop psychoanalysis of the human condition.

Claiming that abusing animals is a vital outlet for mental health stability is an insult aimed at those with genuine mental health issues.

Having seen how mental health has become a self-help industry and an e-commence outlet, while non-tribulations are draped in mental health livery as a convenient cop-out for those lacking an upward motion of a boot to their posterior, the last thing a person dealing with a mental health issue is an offer of a snake oil ‘cure’.

Getting involved in animal abuse by way of membership of a local hunt and joining those with fractured mental health in pursuit of an animal kill is not mental health friendly.

Needing to be involved in taking the life of an animal is not normal human behaviour.

The urge to torture and kills animals for fun is no more normal than the desire to inflict physical, mental and sexual abuse on a human victim.

The mental health defence being used by animal killers has a barrel-floor scraping echo.

Like a gluten-free diet, it removes an essential element from the hunting argument: the truth.

John Tierney,

Campaigns Director,  Association of Hunt Saboteurs.

Palestinians continue to suffer displacement

EDITOR -  As 2025 ended, Palestinians face one of the most dangerous moments in their history. In Gaza, the civilians face and resist ongoing genocide, starvation, siege, and mass destruction, now compounded by a US-Israeli colonial plan to impose illegal foreign control and a post-genocide order without justice or accountability.

Across the West Bank, raids, mass arrests, and settler militias acting with impunity continue to terrorise communities and displace families off their land.

Recently, President Trump met with Benjamin Netanyahu and openly endorsed the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. He called it ‘voluntary’ even as Israel enforces a medical siege, blocks food and fuel, and leaves children dying of hypothermia in flooded tents.

‘More than half of Gaza will leave if given the opportunity’, Trump claimed, suggesting Palestinians would choose to abandon their homeland for ‘a better climate.’ He praised Israel for ‘living up to the ceasefire plan 100%’ even as authorities have documented 969 Israeli violations over 80 days, including 418 Palestinians killed and 1,141 wounded since the so-called ‘ceasefire’ began.

Mainstream media has largely ignored this monumental moment: a US president openly supporting ethnic cleansing while Israel weaponises humanitarian deprivation to force migration. Trump is encouraging Israeli ‘normalisation’ with Arab regimes, which under these circumstances, can only be perceived as a ‘reward’ for genocidal Israel, and instead of sanctions and accountability, governments rush to rehabilitate a rogue apartheid state.

Daniel Teegan,

Union Hall.