Daredevils are putting rescuers in real danger
AS an experienced and long-serving crew member of the RNLI (retired), I get angry by watersport enthusiasts who claim to understand the sea.
That is just arrogance – nobody does. So when I read the comments by the spokesperson for the Irish Kitesurfing Association saying that a decision would have been made the night before they took to sea on Monday, I thought it just highlights the stupidity of some of these people.
At the best of times the sea can change her mood and no looking at a chart the night before will help you be safe – and when there is a hurricane heading your way, you are just being stupid.
People jumping off diving boards in Salthill need taking into care.
I once went out three times on a Sunday afternoon to get the same windsurfer. Eventually the gardaí were called and his board was taken off him. So I welcome the call for reckless people who enter the water during storm warnings to be prosecuted. Great idea.
MARTIN STRINGER, Barnacogue, Co. Mayo.
Power failures
AS a matter of national interest, can someone in EirGrid please explain what was happening with Ireland’s national electricity network during Storm Ophelia on Monday?
At the height of the very stormy winds over Munster, the amount of potential electrical energy being supplied from the array of wind turbine generators (WTGs) across the country was just half of the predicted power available (as indicated by EirGrid’s own computerised data) – which was shown as 1,400MWs versus 2,800MWs.
That was at around 10am. For the next six hours the quantity of WTG energy available to the National Grid had dropped to less than 600MWs – probably as the storm tracked northwards over Ireland. Then, as the winds were abating across the country, from 4pm until 6pm, the WTG generation went up to around 1800MWs (when I took a snapshot of the wind generation chart from the EirGrid website).
Was the reason for the erratic WTG power supply because many WTGs were required to shut down (for safety reasons) during the worst of the storm? If so, shouldn’t the public be informed about this situation in the future, rather than being kept in the dark? TOM BALDWIN, Midleton, Co. Cork.
...COULD the multitude of annual electricity outages that we are accustomed to be avoided by putting the power lines underground?
When the cost of repairing all the storm-related damage to overhead cables (not to mention the economic consequences of power cuts) each winter is factored in, underground cables might prove a much more sensible, reliable and cost-effective long-term option.
If our national electricity grid was underground, would Ophelia have knocked out the electricity supply to 360,000 homes? It’s just a thought, though I’m sure that underground may have its drawbacks – with flooding one that immediately comes to mind.
EUGENE CASSIDY, Co. Cavan.
We need the Eighth
THE one noticeable position held in common by those opposed to the Eighth Amendment at the Oireachtas Committee hearings is their non-recognition of the inherent right to life of the unborn.
At present, the Constitution recognises that the unborn of themselves have a right to life. This right is equally enjoyed by all in the womb irrespective of their state of health and life expectancy. If this right ceases to be recognised, any rights attaching to the unborn will undoubtedly become very arbitrary.
If abortion, even in limited circumstances, is accepted, life as a right of the unborn will be implicitly denied, and the pattern will be predictable: if abortion is allowable in situation A, why not in situation B? If B, why not C?
In contrast, the Eighth places the rights of all unborn lives on an equal and solid foundation. If it goes, we may as well draw a line in the sand as the tide comes in.
MIMI CASHMAN, Ballinacurra, Co. Cork.
Protect Christians
FIGURES released recently show that the greatest and most persistent levels of religious persecution in the world are perpetrated against Christians, primarily in the Middle East and Africa.
This takes the form of wide-scale genocide of indigenous Christian communities, and also discrimination of all types – frequently with the collusion of governments. Yet, instead of supporting these beleaguered communities, politically correct Western governments and elites are more concerned with socalled ‘Islamophobia’. What a ridiculous cop-out.
Thankfully there are a couple of exceptions. President Donald Trump has recently said his government will call a spade a spade. Unlike the previous Obama regime, which waffled with PC platitudes on this issue, the new government will call it as it is.
Likewise President Viktor Orbán in Hungary has bravely called attention to the problem and named and shamed Western governments for their moral cowardice on this matter.
One hopes that other politicians will follow the exemplary lead of these two men. ERIC CONWAY, Navan, Co. Meath.