Stanley reveals Jekyll and Hyde nature of Sinn Féin

Their attendance at the funeral of Bobby Storey, a committed hardline republican and terrorist, during Covid restrictions shows this party and its band of followers do not obey the norms and rules of society they so often demand of others.

For too long this mouthpiece for the Provisionals has tried to brainwash the electorate with its tainted ideological and warped sense of history.

Their adulation for PIRA terrorists who died on “active service”, some who murdered with impunity, highlights the inextricable links between both organisations that remains strong even today.

Time and time again we see their mask slip.

Christy Galligan

Letterkenny, Co Donegal

 

Hearts and minds won’t be won for a United Ireland

So how many votes for a United Ireland were lost by Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley TD, and what does it say about the groundwork being done by Sinn Féin to win the hearts and minds of the Unionist community without whose votes the United Ireland that I, and many others, aspire to can be achieved?

Declan MacPartlin

Enniscorthy, Co Wexford

Co-living housing used to squeeze out more profit

Dr MichaelFoley complains that co-living has been banned too hastily (‘Minister banned co-living without seeing if it works’, Letters, Irish Independent, December 1).

Co-living is nothing new and indeed most people experience it in one form or other when they first venture from the family home.

But in the vast majority of cases, this arrangement is seen as a stopgap.

The huge concern here is that these co-living developments are being proffered as an answer to the dire housing shortage.

These massive structures are really nothing other than warehousing for people – and it must be said that in most cases, for “other” people, not the ones who are developing them.

They choose to live in bigger spaces with plenty of privacy.

It is obvious the thinking behind these developments here in Ireland has much more to do with squeezing maximum profit from a piece of land rather than any ambition to meet the housing needs of people.

It is also obvious that given a choice, the vast majority would opt to live in a space that offers a level of privacy and room to accommodate a relationship or even a family. In short, a home.

Jim Sullivan

Rathedmond, Co Sligo

Coney Barrett’s vote goes against teaching of her faith

One of the first decisions newly-appointed United States Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett participated in was sanctioning execution by lethal injection of Orlando Hall.

He had been sentenced to death in 1994 for kidnapping, raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl.

The appeal to the Supreme Court was his last chance to live.

Despite being a Catholic – whose teachings oppose capital punishment – Justice Barrett sided with her conservative colleagues and sent Hall to his death.

Eric Conway states Ms Barrett “has displayed eminent common sense in helping to overturn the draconian (arguably sectarian) measures imposed by the Democrats in New York city” in limiting the number of worshippers attending service there to protect them from Covid-19 (‘Court bulwark now in place to stop Democrat lunatics’, Letters, Irish Independent, December 1).

It would seem Mr Conway’s view of common sense is anything but pro-life.

Tom McElligott

Listowel, Co Kerry

 

Viral predatory stalker is no laughing matter

If you had told me at the start of the year, you wouldn’t be allowed go to work, leave the country or go to the pub, because there was an invisible predatory stalker at loose in our green and pleasant land, I’d have said: “You’re having a laugh.”

What a difference a year can make.

Ed Toal

Galway City