EDITOR – The Irish Open is one of the best attended golf events in Europe, if not the sorld.  It is an opportunity to welcome high-spending sports-tourists to Ireland, and to showcase the country to a worldwide audience via TV and Internet coverage.

Great trouble and expense is taken by golf clubs to design and maintain golf courses, and great pride is taken in how they are ranked.

I am sure that over the next few weeks we will hear the American President’s view that his course in Doonbeg is the best in Ireland, if not the world. This opinion is not shared by those with a more critical eye.

The Irish Open was first played in 1927 in Portmarnock, County Dublin. Although there have been breaks, during the Second World War, and for much of the 1950s and ‘60s, over the last 99 years, the competition has been hosted in Leinster, in Munster and in Ulster.

As if it were not bad enough that tourists and professional golfers are going to be pouring their money into Trump’s ravenous pockets, we are also being kept on tenterhooks as to whether the president himself is going to attend. 

I do not relish the spectacle of Mr Trump and his entourage making themselves at home in County Clare. The gardaí having to distinguish golf fans from foreign assassins and legitimate protesters, is the last thing that the Government wants. It’s an absolute security nightmare.

If Mr Trump does come to Doonbeg, I hope that he takes some time to engage with the ordinary, good people of County Clare. I hope that he takes the time to learn why people might be exercised about his visit. They are angry about fuel prices, which have spiralled because of his unnecessary war of aggression in Iran, they are angry about the ongoing genocide and ill-treatment of the Palestinian people by his closest allies in Israel.

 Senator Nessa Cosgrove

Kindness of strangers is alive and well in West Cork

EDITOR - I feel I must write and express how well the people of West Cork supported a distressed lady.

I was with my family having lunch in 'de Barra` coffee and kitchen in Bantry. It was a very busy lunch and a group of adults entered who had support workers with them.

There was nowhere for them to sit, so they turned to leave. One lady became distressed. The cause of her distress appeared to be a step required to exit the facility.

She was supported by a very patient man who spent at least half an hour trying different strategies to enable them to leave.

As the lunch rush lessened, a member of staff also supported. During the next 20 minutes they worked together to enable the lady to leave without force of coercion. 

However it is also important to note the silent support the clients of the restaurant gave by not trying to push past but to patiently wait until the exit was clear.

In London I am a head teacher, and was able to recognise the skill that the support workers used to enable the situation to be resolve.

What a wonderful inclusive community you have in West Cork.

Gill, John and Niamh Crowley

Visiting family in Kilronan, Dunmanway from London

Ferry livestock decision a victory for animal rights

EDITOR - Brittany Ferries’ decision to end the live transportation of farm animals on their Rosslare to mainland Europe service is a victory for animal welfare over commercial interest.

Farm animals are rounded up for export to European countries and non-European countries. Following their arrival on European continent, the young animals endure long road journeys to their final destination.

Their removal from Irish dairy and beef farms operates within EU animal welfare regulations. But spare a thought for Irish cattle with a one-way tickets as they set sail for countries like Algeria, Turkey, Libya, and Egypt.

The sea journeys are too long to guarantee a satisfactory level of animal welfare, and conditions in destination countries are often far below the minimum legal standards required in Ireland or the EU.

Most animals in the Middle East are not stunned – rendered unconscious – before slaughter.

The live farm animal export trade, in which profit is placed above animal welfare and respect for the law, should be consigned to farm animal trade history.

John Tierney
Chairperson
Waterford Animal Concern

The Community Orchard

When he was a wee lad he
played at Granny Smith’s
place, a little arboretum on
the periphery of his hamlet.

At harvest time when ripe
foliages were deciduously
preparing for The Fall, a
crosscut woodman came.

A red apple which he was
forbid to pluck until nature
let it go, was prematurely
aborted from a laden limb.

Little Isaac protested but
his pleas fell on deaf ears,
and so, gravity was never
ever invented to this day.

This is why butterflies are
unable to fly in straight lines,
why Dandelion seeds smoke
and Sycamore Samaras updraft!

Finn Mac Eoin
Friars Gate
Kinsale