EDITOR – We need to address the root causes of homelessness that exist in our economy to serve human dignity and the common good.

The continuing rise in the numbers of people seeking emergency accommodation across the island of Ireland was referenced in a report by the Bishops’ Commission for Social Issues and International Affairs during the Bishops’ autumn general meeting held in Maynooth.

This continuing crisis of homelessness in our society – North and South – is a blight on our society.

It is a failure of government and public policy at all levels for not providing one of the most basic human rights of people: the right to a home.

Just reacting to a crisis is both costly and ineffective. We need to address the root causes of homelessness, causes that have long existed in our economy, so that human dignity and the common good can be served authentically.

In the Republic, the number of homeless people accessing emergency accommodation in August 2026 reached a record 17,885.

This marks a 111% rise since the Housing for All plan was initiated in 2021 and a 169 per cent increase over the past decade.

Regarding Northern Ireland, over 90,000 people are applicants for social housing while more than 5,600 people are living in emergency accommodation.

Low social housing supply, coupled with higher demand, is causing this problem to accelerate.  The absence of a Budget in Northern Ireland is further exacerbating the problem and leaving authorities with only emergency accommodation as a response.

Catholic Bishops of Ireland.

With bated breath, we sat in wait ,

to have some barmbrack on our plate,

and watched as Mammy cut each slice,

to see what was in store that night,

each yearning for the band of gold

or silver tanner, not rag of old .

All Hallowtide had just begun,

a potpourri of fear and fun,

when, from the ceiling, hung with string,

a rosy apple, now did swing ,

with farthings scored and ha’pennies too,

a threepenny bit, or maybe two.

With hands behind our backs held firm,

we, like old Lannigan did squirm,

while trying to get a decent bite

and nab that tanner, shining bright.

Then snap apple played, in a dish full of water,

without fail, ended up, in a drenching disaster .

There was no going from house to house,

no trick or treating then,

no scary masks or costumes,

or gouged out pumpkin men.

For on this night the Spirits roamed,

and we held fast, within our homes.

On this great Celtic feast of Samhain,

we, to fair Summer, bade farewell,

then braced ourselves for Winter’s call,

before the distant breath of Spring.

Fond memories of those times still flow,

and of Oíche Shamhna, fadó, fadó.

Patricia Doyle,

Clonakilty and Douglas.

Rental reforms a dismal failure to provide stability

EDITOR –   The Government’s recent rental reforms have failed to provide certainty  and stability regarding no-fault evictions and are  instead contributing to rising  homelessness as record numbers are served by landlords with eviction notices to quit their homes and thousands of children remain trapped in homelessness.

We need to change all of this in favour of the renters and not the landlords who charge exorbitant rents.

Noel Harrington,

Kinsale.

Gravest of war crimes

EDITOR –  In the opening hours of the war against Iran, on February 28, 2026, the US military fired eight Tomahawk cruise missiles directly at a school in the southern city of Minab.

At least 156 people were killed that morning at Shajareh Tayyebeh school -120 of them were children and 26 were teachers. What happened that day will go down in history as one of the gravest war crimes committed by the American government since Vietnam.  Multiple direct air strikes, including with Tomahawk cruise missiles, hitting a school packed with children and teachers. Among the dead were also parents who had come to pick up their children. “The killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law,” the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation said in a statement a day after the bombing.

Daniel Teegan, Union Hall.