Letters: After a bit of a panic and an Uber trip, I discovered there are still good people

Irish Independent

4 days ago

However, with a few calls to my missing iPhone by a friend, I discovered it was alive and well and in the possession of a lovely lady in Tallaght who had found it when leaving the stadium and took it home with her, waiting for someone to call.
I had to get there, and that was where Jimmy came in. A staunch Dublin GAA man who was now aware of my problem, he rang an Uber for me and paid for it from his own acc­ount. I refunded him with what cash I had, but it didn't meet the full cost of the taxi. That was the least of his worries – he just wanted to help.
So, a trip to Tallaght and a meeting with the lovely Antoinette, who waited at home until I got there, even though she was heading out for the night, and I was reunited with my phone. The relief was tremendous – there is just so much dependence on phones now, not least for the tickets for the two games on Sunday.
We hear so much bad news, so I just want to share that there are still a lot of decent people around and I had the pleasure of meeting two of the very best on Saturday night.
So, thank you Antoinette and thank you Jimmy. Up the Dubs, Donegal for Sam, and Antoinette and Jimmy, I owe you a few drinks if you want to join me for the celebrations in Tír Chonaill.
Jimmy Kavanagh, Letterkenny, Co Donegal
EU needs to follow Ireland and ban Jewish settlement goods across the union
The continuing scenes of Jewish settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank while their brethren in Gaza are being starved, shot and killed needs a worldwide response from all countries that believe in the sanctity of human life and the right to peaceful existence.
Last July, the International Court of Justice proffered an advisory opinion that declared Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were illegal.
While it advised all nations to take 'effective measures' that included refraining from any financial, mili­tary, technological and economic aid to the state of Israel, it seems the world, or those countries that signed up to the UN Convention on Human Rights, ignored that opinion and wilfully looked the other way.
That is, until an Irish senator, Frances Black, upped the ante by introducing the Occupied Territories Bill that would ban Jewish goods and services being sold to the Irish market.
Thanks to her crusade, the Govern­ment has published the general scheme of the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Imported Goods) Bill, which hopefully will make its way through the Dáil and Senate without too much opposition. But it needs to be in compliance with EU law. The EU, of which Ireland is a member, must now grab this thorny issue and stop obfuscating.
It needs to bring forth comprehensive legislation that will ban Jewish settlement goods from entering the EU while sanctioning and restricting members of the Knesset or members of the Israeli armed forces involved in acts similar to what has been done with Putin and his Russian acolytes.
Christy Galligan, Letterkenny, Co Donegal
All the blame is on Israel, but it takes two parties to bring peace to the table
In reference to your editorial ('Netanyahu must be stopped, and only the US has the power to do it', July 1), all the blame for the war in Gaza seems to be on Israel.
Hamas started this terrible campaign by killing over 1,200 innocent Israelis, including over 300 young people at the Nova Music Festival. They still hold 50 hostages, of whom less than half are believed to be alive.
The war could be ended tomorrow if Hamas released the hostages and let the Palestinian people rebuild their lives.
Peace needs two sides to want it to work, not one calling for destruction and promising to repeat October 7.
Anthony Costello, Galway
Why is definition of hate speech determined by the US, UK and Israel?
I note a strange discomfort in 'official' Ireland, as if when we speak of people like Kneecap or our Northern brothers it's as 'the other'.
Keir Starmer has bent over backwards to salve Israeli outrage over certain words uttered by Kneecap.
Should Johnny Cash's song about shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die be banned?
Or is outrage confined to the Jewish community alone?
Recently at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow a large banner was unfurled with a picture of a shotgun seeking the death of Irish people.
Outrage and charged with hate crime? No.
Interestingly, Taoiseach Micheál Martin commented on Kneecap, but is silent on the Ibrox banner.
This month, we will have marching bands extolling the deaths, knee-deep in blood, of Fenians. In other words, us Irish.
Has Mr Starmer, or indeed Mr Martin, a view on this? Hate speech, incitement to hatred, or is all hate confined towards what the UK, US and Israel term hate?
John Cuffe, Co Meath
If J1 students don't like the 'bad food' in America, it's not Donald Trump's fault
I refer to the headline on an online article on Monday ('It's just bad food. Meat is completely different. Dairy too. I miss the butter': the reality of life as a J1 student in Trump's America).
First, if the poor things think the food in Trump's America is bad, they should get on the next plane home so that their mammy can butter their toast and tuck them in at bedtime.
Second, your paper's bias and Trump derangement syndrome (TDS) is disgusting as you tie one person's whingeing to all of America, specifically Trump's America.
You couldn't resist taking a poke at the guy, as if since the day he took office the recipes have all changed, no matter that some of the foodstuffs were probably harvested and packaged during the Joe Biden era, like butter.
I don't expect you to publish this as it goes against your editorial TDS bias. If a foreign student made the same complaint about the food in Micheál Martin's Ireland after consuming a greasy burger and chips on the way home from a night in the pub, you'd be up in arms.
What has happened to Ireland?