Letters to the Editor of the Leitrim Observer

REACTION
The war in Ukraine
Dear Editor,
A silver lining to the shocking invasion of Ukraine is the sympathy and compassion for their plight being shown all over Europe, and, as last week’s letters page showed, Leitrim has stepped up and will continue to play its part.
Donnchadh suggests using the Shannon Key West Hotel, and there are many other (smaller) vacant buildings around. We do not know what resources we have until they are tested and, whatever the cost, I hope we will welcome and help as many Ukrainians as turn up here.
Tom Glancy’s prediction of 100,000 sounds plausible, especially if the war continues. And we all hope his prediction of a Russian withdrawal by Easter comes true.
In any case, we don’t get a say in what times we live in. At least we get to decide our reaction, and quite possibly find that, when trivial everyday concerns are stripped away, deep within is the best of all of us.
Yours sincerely,
John Haslette
Carrigeencor
Dromahair

Suffer little children
Dear Editor,
An adage of old states that a picture tell a thousand words and your front page story and wonderful photo of the Ukrainian family of Diana, Olga, and Bozhana and the sheer innocence and cuteness off their children arriving in Gorvagh was heart melting and very emotional.
Donal O Grady's interview with them on the subsequent editorial was spot on.
Since time began women and children always come out worst in times of war, famine and natural disasters.
Even in the 1916 Rising and the Troubles in the North dozens of innocent women and children were killed.
It took a photo image of a naked Vietnamese girl running with napalm gas on her to turn American opinion against the Vietnam war in 1972.
Jesus tells us to have patience with children - “suffer little children to come on to thee, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
And yes on this earth the world in the future belongs to children that should be cherished.
We are on this world to do our best for others and give children the best possible upbringing.
Your front page photo and related coverage of the Ukrainian crisis is the reason why the local press should always be supported.
Regards,
Tom Glancy
Carrick-on-Shannon

Ukraine contrasts
Dear Editor.
Amid the cataclysmic return of war to Europe I am struck by the dazzlingly sharp contrasts in human behaviour exhibited in the past fortnight: A power hungry dictator with his generals and advisers gathered around him in a sumptuous government building, planning his next eagerly anticipated move; a comedian-turned politician with his advisers in a city under siege, his own life at severe risk even as his beloved country is pummelled by missiles, bombs, and bullets.
Aggressors rolling into a land that isn’t theirs; and defenders willing to give their lives to safeguard the futures of loved ones and people they’ve never met.
War brings out the very worst and the very best in people. We hear of atrocities, of hospitals being bombed; of heartbreak beyond measure as the invasion takes its mind-boggling toll... but then we see the life-savers; non-combatants who rescue wounded soldiers from the battlefield and drive them away in their own cars to get them medical attention, the volunteers helping to ease the plight of the refuges from this war who, like those of previous conflicts, have been cast adrift from what had been normal lives into a world of fear and uncertainty, cut off from families and friends because a narcissistic politician wants to make an audacious land grab without giving a thought for the human cost of war.
Something else struck me too. I think we in Ireland can learn from the way Ukrainians treat their pets. I was just listening to a woman recount how she prioritised her cat over her laptop. She said she could always get another laptop, but her cat meant the world to her. The presence of all those frightened little cats ad dogs gazing bewilderedly from under the arms of so many innocent war victims contrasts starkly with how animals are casually discarded in this country, abandoned for the flimsiest of reasons.
I hope the Ukrainians, against all the seeming odds, can prevail in their life and death struggle. I also hope that, maybe, when this living nightmare for that proud and heroic nation is over, war will be consigned forever to the history books.
On past experience, though, I suspect that this won’t happen. It’s now, I fear, only a question of what the planet’s ultimate cause of death will be: war sparked by hateful, greedy humans...or human- generated climate change.
Like the Ukrainian cats, we are a species in immediate need of rescuing.
Thanking you,
John Fitzgerald
Callan
Co Kilkenny

JUST DO IT
Celebrate, Commiserate? Communicate!
Dear Editor,
International Women's Day came and went, in a puff of smoke, as it were! Female friends shared, forwarded and re-posted a myriad of lovely memes that typically 'go viral' to celebrate womanhood and to value who we women are.
At the same time, our TV screens and newsfeeds were, and are, awash with footage from Ukraine of mothers and children fleeing war. This, alongside urgent appeals for compassion for desperately vulnerable women and children. Who could not commiserate with their dreadful plight and tragedy?
The creators of the aforementioned memes don't, however, create too many memes that 'go viral' urging us to celebrate women and children from the moment of their conception!
We here in Ireland have a golden opportunity to do something positive, but the time is fast running out. April 1st is the deadline to communicate our opinions and suggestions re the upcoming Abortion Review.
There is ample advice, instruction, sample letters and ideas available on the websites and Facebook pages of The Iona Institute, The Pro-Life Campaign and The Life Institute.
Mother's Day is just around the corner. Let us do something kind for women experiencing crisis pregnancies. Sure, abortion was democratically legalised in Ireland in 2018, but we can still try to protect women, minimise numbers and mitigate the worst outcomes for women in distress. So there's no excuse, is there? Please don't leave it to somebody else to do. As the slogan goes 'Just do it'!
Yours sincerely,
Sinéad Tracey
Leitrim Village