Letters to the Editor: Cobblers are the epitome of sustainability
Drop in a pair of shoes to a cobbler, a reader urges.
It is said about local shops that, if you ignore them, they will go away.
I had thought that the skill (or interest) in repairing shoes had long gone.
However, on Princes St in Cork City, I was astounded to see a small shop called Shoestrings.
“Hello,” I said. “There aren’t many of you left.”
“All the others are dead,” he explained.
I suggested, for all that, he looked well and I gave him three pairs of much-loved shoes in need of repair and a suitcase with a troublesome zip.
On my return, I collected my fully repaired, old footwear friends and the suitcase — all for €70.
As I left, a young lady was collecting three pairs of resoled high-heeled boots. This service is not just for old fogies like me, I thought.
Don’t let this skill die.
So much time is spent banging on about recycling in grandiose abstract terms, yet cobblers are going out of business.
Drop in a pair of shoes tomorrow — and no, I’m not related, just grateful.
It’s paradoxical, but in the world of social networks we are increasingly more alone.
It’s an epidemic in Western society, and if loneliness is combined with the pain of an incurable disease and advanced age, the trauma can become very difficult.
Worldwide, most people seeking assisted suicide and euthanasia suffer from depression or other mental illnesses, physical illness, or simply loneliness.
When applying for “medical assistance with dying”, ie Maid in Canada, patients are asked to detail all the types of suffering they’re experiencing in order to determine if their condition qualifies as something “grievous and irremediable” — and thus eligible for death.
Health Canada’s report for 2023 reveals that 47.1% of non-terminally ill Canadians who applied for Maid reported “isolation or loneliness” as one of the causes of their suffering.
This was significantly higher than the number of terminally ill applicants who said the same (21.1%).
In a future Ireland, will euthanasia and assisted suicide be offered as the societal response to devaluation, emotional seclusion, and loss of social significance experienced by our fellow human beings who experience loneliness?
One of the hardest tasks for any clinician is to work with somebody who has been chronically depressed for years.
This illness is still, in some ways, mysterious.
I say that because there’s much that’s still unknown about the science of the human brain.
However, millions of people do manage their depression and lead responsible and productive lives.
We now have to accept the prevalence of treatment-resistant depression.
This is pretty common in that around 5% of adults experience this form of depression in any given year.
About a third of those have who have what we call treatment-resistant depression — which means that, unfortunately, they don’t respond to the normal therapies like antidepressants and cognitive behavioural therapy etc.
There now appears to be hope in a different modality of treatments.
It has been reported by the neuromodulation services at the St John of God Hospital in Dublin that there is now a special treatment that will be introduced for patients who do not have success with conventional treatment for depression.
The usual treatments for depression would be talking therapies and antidepressants, but this new modality uses magnetic pulses to stimulate parts of the brain that are underactive when people are depressed.
The way it works is that people come into the clinic on consecutive weekdays for anything from four to six weeks, and they have treatments that last up to half an hour.
The treatment involves delivering magnetic pulses via the device to activate parts of the brain. It’s a very safe treatment.
It acts quite swiftly in that some people can have a good response or recovery from their depressive symptoms quite quickly.
Ostensibly, studies indicate that like any treatment it doesn’t work for everyone. Studies show that, in clinics, up to 50% will have a good response.
Finding light in darkness has to be the hope of all human beings.
While Ireland’s over-budget, long-delayed National Children’s Hospital is a source of ire for many, at least when it finally does open it should be a force for good for the country.
The same, however, cannot be said for the State’s rowdiest and most expensive childcare centre: Dáil Éireann.
Such a drain on the nation’s coffers these petulant politicians are.
As most of the adults who put them in there struggle on by, the toddler TDs are having a row about the democratic right to row.
Perhaps the threat of a St Patrick’s week grounding might see them come to their senses. Perish the thought that their minders deny them the chance to colour the world green for Ireland.
In my four campaigns for the US House of Representatives in Central California in the 1970s and 1980s, I raised the issue of protecting the Constitution of the United States as the founding fathers wrote and intended.
I said: “The citizens of the United States of America needed to be continually on guard in that the executive and legislative Branches of government would not be firm defenders of the greatest political document ever composed.”
However, I added that the nine justices of the US Supreme Court could be counted on to protect this document as the founders intended.
I still believe this in spite of the present six to three division between conservative and liberal thinkers.
Sarah Harte is at great pains to point out that “the development of human rights on a legal, philosophical, and political basis owes a huge debt to the story of Christianity” — ‘Keep your hands off our Angelus, it’s a comfort in this world of flux’ ( , February 26).
In an Irish context, these human rights did not historically extend to those in mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries, or industrial schools, presided over by the officials of the Roman Catholic Church.
Hearing each day’s business in our national parliament preceded by a prayer designed by that very organisation is an affront to all who suffered at its hands, as is the twice daily playing of its call to prayer (let’s dispense with the disingenuous notion that it is a moment to reflect) on our national airwaves.
If you want to pray, do so in the privacy of your own home, or in your giant tax-free churches, the exemptions granted to which are a job for the Dáil on another day.
Echoing Ursula von der Leyen’s statement that Ukraine deserves “peace through strength”, Micheál Martin also tells us that “peace can only be achieved through strength”.
Strength has nothing to do with peace.
Given Ms von der Leyen’s reputation and her track record, we must assume that when she uses the term ‘strength’ she actually means ‘military strength’.
As Mr Martin is seemingly being influenced on these matters by foreign leaders, we must assume that he too means “military strength”.
Military strength has nothing to do with peace.
Ireland must show true ‘strength’ in its adherence to the spirit of Article 29 of our Constitution, which affirms our “adherence to the principle of the pacific settlement of international disputes by international arbitration” — peace is achieved through real communication and dialogue.
Military interventions have nothing to do with it.
Keir Starmer’s visit to the White House bearing a king’s invitation adds to an already uncomfortably weighted visit of our Taoiseach in the coming weeks.
May I suggest to Micheál that he invite Trump to the All-Ireland hurling final in July?
The sight of 30 “strongmen” going at it “hammer and tong” should gratify the president, while it could be a win-win for An Taoiseach, with Cork surely going to end a 20-year drought in pursuit of the Liam McCarthy Cup.
