Irish Times letters page

An exchange has begun between school children in the letters page.

On Saturday the Irish Times published a letter from a twelve year old bemoaning the mask mandate in primary schools. ‘The government says it’s a recommendation, the school says it’s a requirement, I say it’s a farce … Even though we can’t vote, as children, we have a voice.’

Today, an eleven year old hit back. ‘As a primary school student, I think that all schools should have made masks compulsory … While some work from home because of the pandemic, others are out in the public system…’

Perhaps I am underestimating the political engagement and articulacy of children these days, but I don’t think the IT should be publishing correspondence from parents writing in their child’s name.

Group of fifty writers say Eavan Boland achieved ‘every bit as much’ as James Joyce and WB Yeats.

‘At the moment, there are three permanent exhibitions celebrating male Irish writers in Dublin – the Seamus Heaney exhibit at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, the James Joyce commemoration at MoLi, and the WB Yeats exhibit at the National Library of Ireland.

And yet nowhere is there space for a centre that would celebrate the achievements of this Irish woman writer who has achieved in her own life and work every bit as much as these rightly celebrated men.’

Painfully overwritten.

It has come as a surprise to me the extent to which some on the left in Ireland tacitly support Russia in the current confrontation with Nato

A joint-letter from representatives of the the Irish Anti-War Movement says, ‘The indisputable fact is that the current Ukraine crisis has been festering due to relentless Nato expansionism – mainly driven by the US – which the Russians claim threatens its security.’

For balance, Vladimir Putin is disparaged in a sentence, but it is American-led Nato and western media that are the target of their ire.