
Patrick Freyne and the empathy crisis
Returning home from Chad, I feel there's a glitch in western empathy
, Opinion & Analysis, April 24th). I am not surprised to read that Patrick cannot stop thinking of the Sudanese people that he met. Most of us who travel regularly to different developing countries are the same. We cannot stop thinking of those whom we have met and their human stories sometimes describing the unthinkable things that human beings can do to each other. This is what drives us humanitarian and development workers, despite the empathy crisis which Patrick describes so well. – Yours, etc,
PAUL O'BRIEN
Chief Executive Officer
Plan International Ireland
READ MORE
Dublin 8

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Irish Times
6 days ago
- Irish Times
US calls off Sudan peace talks after post-war power dispute
The US has postponed a meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the war in Sudan because of a dispute over the wording of a proposed joint statement, according to people familiar with the matter. US secretary of state Marco Rubio was scheduled to host the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in Washington on Wednesday. The discussions by the so-called Quad of countries were aimed at advancing peace talks between two Sudanese generals who have been at war for two years. The failure to proceed with negotiations came after Egypt disagreed with the wording of a planned communique that stated neither the Sudanese Armed Forces nor the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group should have a leading role in a postwar transitional government, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn't public. Egypt historically has strong relations with Sudan's army-backed government, while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been accused of backing the RSF – an allegation it denies. READ MORE Further talks by the Quad may be rescheduled for the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York in September, one of the people said. The Egyptian foreign ministry and the US state department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Conflict erupted in Sudan in April 2023, when government forces failed to agree to a power-sharing accord with the RSF. The two sides jointly carried out a coup against a civilian-led government in 2021. At least 150,000 people have been killed since the start of the war, according to US estimates, while millions more have been forced to flee their homes in what the United Nations has called the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. Both sides have announced rival governments, raising concerns that the North African nation could split in two – similar to the situation in neighbouring Libya. Washington's involvement in the talks forms part of a wider push by US president Donald Trump's administration to promote peace in a string of conflicts including in Ukraine, Gaza and the Democratic Republic of Congo. While the US brokered a tentative deal in eastern Congo between its government and the M23 rebel group, it has been less successful in other arenas. Under president Joe Biden, the US failed to forge peace in Sudan through the so-called ALPS group that included Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the African Union and the United Nations. The UAE has repeatedly called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the North African nation, as well as the resumption of a political process that leads to a civilian government independent of military control. – Bloomberg

Irish Times
19-07-2025
- Irish Times
It will be an ‘insult' if Fianna Fáil don't enter presidential race, says Mary Hanafin
Fianna Fáil should run a candidate in the presidential election , and it will be 'an insult' to the office if the party does not enter the race, former Fianna Fáil minister for education Mary Hanafin has declared. 'I firmly believe that the largest party of the country, which is the largest at local level, largest at national level, should be running,' said Hanafin, who has made clear her desire to be the party's candidate. Speaking at the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, Ms Hanafin said: 'First of all, I think it's an insult to the office of president if you're willing to run for everything but you won't run for the office of president. 'Secondly, I think you have an obligation to give the people of Ireland a choice. Because it is the politicians who give you that choice,' said Hanafin, who has yet to receive public support from senior Fianna Fáil figures. READ MORE Saying that the theme of her campaign, if nominated, will be resilience, she said: 'I think my life experience is such that a word that actually has come up an awful lot here tonight is something that I would bring as my platform, which is resilience. 'I think I have been lucky enough, despite all of the knocks that we all experience, to bounce back each time,' said Ms Hanafin, who emphasised the 30 years of experience she has had as TD, minister, councillor. People in Northern Ireland should not be allowed to vote in presidential elections, she said: 'Not yet, and not in isolation. I think there's not enough understanding between communities within Northern Ireland and North-South.' Pointing to controversies during last week's Orange Order bonfires, including the burning of effigies , she said: 'There's still a journey to go before we get any kind of real understanding and real political understanding.' The Government's Shared Island programme, which bids to improve North-South co-operation, should be progressed 'to break down the boundaries', she told the Patrick MacGill Summer School. Saying that President Michael D Higgins is 'loved' by the public, Ms Hanafin said: 'The Irish people of all ages love their president, love their president, and that starts because they voted for their president. 'There is that sense of ownership. Even younger people under the age of 35 who could never get to be president until they're 35, just look at the way they love Michael D, particularly, and they respond to him,' she said. Continuing, she said: 'He pushed the boundaries in talking about world problems, but he didn't go beyond it. He didn't go beyond his constitutional role, and I think that the next president, or any president, should not start where he has finished. 'You bring it back to the start again and push your own boundaries. Because times change, issues change, problems change. The debate that you want to generate, the campaign that you're quietly launching can be done within that Constitution.' However, the next occupant of the Áras should not conflict with the Taoiseach and the Government: 'I think there is a wisdom in not overstepping the independence because you do not want to have a Taoiseach and a president in conflict about where a country stands.' Meanwhile, Seán Gallagher, who twice ran for the presidency, said his legacy will be that no other presidential candidate will be treated by RTÉ in the way that he was treated in 2011, when his campaign was derailed in the final stages by a false tweet. Ruling himself out of the race , he said his life had moved on, but he expressed concern at the reluctance of so many to come forward because they feared they would be 'annihilated' in a campaign that has become bruising in recent years. Mr Gallagher declared, to applause, that: 'The thing that frustrates me is negativity. I hate negativity because I want to say to people, 'Stop running down our country. Let's talk about the good things.' 'Let's stop being victims in our own lives. What can we do with our own careers, our own families, our own communities, our own country? Why are we afraid? Because we're inhibited by this Irish psyche that says, 'Don't get notions. Don't get above your station.' 'I say to hell with that. Get above your station. Be the best that you can be,' he said, 'there is a mentality in Ireland, and it is to take us down, to take each other down rather than build each other up.' The next president should take the lead in selling Ireland abroad, said Mr Gallagher: 'We could have a president on the stage attracting foreign direct investment into Ireland.' Equally, the winner of the election later this year could lead Ireland's effort to attract tourists and students to come to Ireland, 'or tapping into the 40 million Americans and the global diaspora'. Pointing to his experience of watching Mary McAleese in Shanghai, he said: 'The power when the president walks into a room of business leaders in China is beyond anything that you would experience here because we are so close to the president.' Referring to his first run in 2011, Mr Gallagher said: 'It's not lost on me that ... 14 years later one of the greatest challenges the country has is from a president who is an entrepreneur, a TV personality and in real estate.'


The Irish Sun
12-07-2025
- The Irish Sun
Britain faces war with Putin's Russia within next five years, warns ex head of British Army
BRITAIN faces war with Russia within the next five years, the previous head of the British Army has warned. Former Chief of the General Staff General Advertisement 2 Former Chief of the General Staff General Sir Patrick Sanders said the UK must accept that armed conflict with Putin by 2030 is a 'realistic possibility' Credit: Alamy Gen Sir Patrick, who retired from the military last year, cautioned that the Army is currently too small to survive more than the first few months of such a war. And he added that he did not know how many more "signals" ministers needed to realise it must strengthen the nation's defences. He said: 'If Russia stops fighting in Ukraine, you get to a position where within a matter of months they will have the capability to conduct a limited attack on a Nato member that we will be responsible for supporting, and that happens by 2030. 'I don't know what more signals we need for us to realise that if we don't act now and we don't act in the next five years to increase our resilience … I don't know what more is needed." Advertisement Read More on UK News The former rifleman fell out of favour with the Government while leading the Army for being seen as too outspoken against troop cuts. It was announced under the previous government that the Army would be reduced from just over 80,000 personnel as of October 2020 to 72,500 by 2025. Gen Sir Patrick said: 'At the moment, the British Army is too small to survive more than the first few months of an intensive engagement, and we're going to need more. 'Now the first place you go to are the reserves, but the reserves are also too small. Advertisement Most read in The Sun Exclusive "Thirty thousand reserves still only takes you to an army of 100,000. "You know, I joined an Army in the Cold War that was about 140,000 regulars, and on top of that, a much larger reserve.' Nato jets scrambled as Putin launches one of war's biggest attacks in Ukraine Gen Sir Patrick said he was disappointed the Strategic Defence Review published last month 'didn't touch on this at all'. Chancellor of the Exchequer Advertisement And PM But Sir Gen Patrick said that during his time at the head of the Army there had been unsuccessful 'conversations' with the government about building bomb shelters for civilians and underground command centres for the military to prepare for an attack. He said: 'It always came down to a conversation of it being too costly and not a high enough priority and the threat didn't feel sufficiently imminent or serious to make it worth it. 'Finland has bomb shelters for 4.5 million people. It can survive as a government and as a society under direct missile and air attacks from Russia. We don't have that." Advertisement Despite the biggest threat coming from Russia, Gen Sir Patrick also warned that Iran could act through proxies 'to attack British interests in the UK'. 2 UK faces war with Putin's Russia within the next five years, the previous head of the British Army has warned Credit: EPA