RATHCORMAC SCHOOL

Dear Editor,

When did we lose our entitlement of being known as the island of saints and scholars and become more like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Like the decline of the Roman and British Empires, the rot set in gradually, lack of good leadership by both Church and State. As the quality of both deteriorated and corruption became rife, it was only a matter of time before we hit rock bottom.

Businesses, both old established ones and new ones, are closing down but there is no shortage or fear of closure of “Goff” shops. The meeting of the PTA in Rathcormac on Tuesday night was a similar repetition of ones held to discuss and remedy the lack of schooling facilities in the village 5, 6 or 7 years ago.

The number of times that we were informed in the parish newsletter of the progress that was being made. Were the people being fooled? Way back throughout the early 2000s ugly rumours were rife concerning “favours” being asked in turn for assistance in getting land zoned for development when the opposite should have been in full swing.

The parish council could have objected to further planning permission being granted until a new school and proper water and sewage systems were in place.

It is absolutely risible that someone from the present council should suggest that the parents of the children attending Rathcormac school, already burdened with the cost of school books etc and possible unemployed, should fork out money to build a new school when there is money going a begging provided you qualify from the Lottery. This could be accepted and requested in the form of a loan to be paid back when the Education Minister had the funds.

Free education is disappearing fast and the curriculum may need pruning.

Why has religion to be included, especially the RC, to be paid for by all denominations of taxpayers. Religion should be paid for by the churches and conducted separately in Sunday or Saturday schools.

Internationally wise we are being exposed as a unilingual nation, too much time and money is being wasted by our teachers on Gaeltacht and religious teaching which are useless assets career wise.

Year after year we hear how poorly the children have done in maths and science and nothing is being done about it.

No one should be allowed to become even a primary school teacher unless they have passed maths at GCE level and have a reasonable conversation vocabulary of some European language such as French or German or Spanish etc. This is time for doing and not talking about it.

You only need to look at our government ministers to see how poor that our education system has been.

Thank you,
Richard Prendergast,
Mondaniel,
Rathcormac.

BREAK OPEN THE NEW TEA BAG!

Dear Minister,

- The following is the text of a letter submitted to the Minister for Finance -

Joy in our house this week ... we took out a new tea bag. There is no end to the sacrifices we will make to save your ass and ours as we wait for green shoots (sic) to appear.

Our clothes are threadbare, but know that the sacrifices we make are made with a heart and a half and that we bear (sic) them with fortitude and resolution come what may.

Know that we will gladly pay off the banks, the builders and the bloated politicians, pay higher taxes, higher service charges and higher civil servants, receive lower wages, lower services and (more) lower public servants, and we pledge that so too will our children and our children’s children, because we trust that you oh wise leader know what you are doing.

We will follow you to the ends of the earth, err... we may have to emigrate there sooner rather than later.

Those iodine tablets may come in handy so we will bring those with us too. We will leave the voting machines and bring the auld peann-luaidhe ... they’re a wee bit more reliable not to say transparent, and we’ll send you our vote in the post. They’ll cut our carbon footprint to boot, so that will keep us Greens happy.

Those green shoots are coming, I can feel it in my waters, so we will hang on a bit longer, and, to celebrate this decision, we will open a second tea bag this week (Barry’s of course because we’re doing our ‘patriotic duty’ like you said and supporting Irish).

Yours sincerely,
Kevin T Finn,
Kingston Close,
Mitchelstown.

LISBON TREATY

Dear Editor,

I would like to ask your readers to think carefully before voting for the Lisbon Treaty. Don’t listen to any member of that pack in the Dail or their lapdogs. They remind me of the actors in the film ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’.

We are told about guarantees they got in Brussels. They said they got cast iron guarantees. Now cast iron is the most brittle substance I can think of, it can be broken easily and at anytime.

Every time you open the paper or look at the news, we are told about all the new taxes that are on the way - carbon tax, property tax and water tax, while Ireland is fit to float away in water. What next will they tax, the fresh air?

We all left infants’ class a long time ago, we are not babies anymore. We are now living in dictatorship and are on the brink of World War III whether people realise it or not.

It’s high time to grow up now and tell this lot where to put the Lisbon Treaty.

Yours faithfully,
John P. Walsh
Kilcoran,
Cahir.