It must be parents who decide if it's safe enough to return to school

At first it was our elderly residents in care homes who were sacrificed to the current pandemic. An extreme and disproportionate number of residents in these care homes have died as a result of Covid-19.
Either the government and their advisers were completely ignorant of the particular dangers this disease posed to this very vulnerable section of our population or they simply didn’t care.

We now know that many mistakes were made here that resulted in the loss of thousands of lives. Nowhere near enough testing was done, PPE for carers was inadequate or non-existent and these members of our society were largely sacrificed to this horrendous pandemic.

Now, what we are hearing from the government should really be filling us all with great fear. We are told that we are on the downward side of the curve and that the government is planning an exit strategy. Among the first phases of this exit strategy is one which will see our children return to school. The government know this is necessary to free up parents so they can go back to work. The Tories know this is the first step that must be taken to begin refloating the economy.

There are few citizens who would not be aware that this is the prime aim of this Conservative government. Our elderly residents in care homes were shamefully left wholly unprotected, and it now seems as if our children are the next to be sacrificed. Boris Johnson and Peter Weir are already planning for our children and grandchildren to return to the classrooms before ensuring their safety.

Both men have said that circumstances must be right before this occurs. However, both men have set actual dates for their return – with no guarantee that it will be safe for them to do so.

Johnson has set Monday for England and Weir has set the last week in August in the north of Ireland. The disease will still be rampant at both these dates and it will still be taking lives. There is very little likelihood of a vaccine by any of those dates, so our children’s safety cannot be guaranteed.

We didn’t act quickly enough to protect our elderly. We must not make the same mistake with our young.

At the onset of this pandemic it was the parents, not the government, that closed the schools and protected our children. It was parents who refused to send their children into schools that forced the government to shut down the schools. It must be the parents who decide when the schools are safe enough to allow the children back – not this or any other government.

SEAN SEELEY
Craigavon, Co Armagh

Not improper for archbishop to speak out on academic selection

Tom Kelly – ‘Archbishop wrong time muddy selection waters’ (May 25) –  makes apologies for criticism he is about to make on freedom of speech as he sees it in relation to the ordained religious.

His hesitation stems perhaps from the faith held while ordained religious abused children while in the supposed sanctity of schools run by each diocese. All over Ireland the crozier stood over the serpent and the snakes remained. Vile things happening and no guarantees they do not continue.

The power of Churches are in their words accompanied by deeds.

Those deeds, commandments seen just and proper only in the sight of the faithful.

So, why is it Tom Kelly finds it improper for the Archbishop Eamon Martin to speak out on the assemblage of minds being treated unfairly as they most definitely are when they are subjected to the inequities of academic selection?

Love thy neighbour as thyself is a foremost doctrine for any age but here with the example of academic selection perpetuating division through harsh criteria designed to create a split – literally and to immediate affect, the dissolution to the illusion is visited upon children so early in life. They are cast into not so neat tiers of wisdom. So where is the logic in that Mr Kelly? Commence with the curriculum.

JOHN GRAHAM
Belfast BT9

Ignore Britain and live as EU citizens

THE taoiseach needs to stop interfering in the de facto constitutional and legal position of the island of Ireland.

We are all ruled in the EU, and not by Britain.

We in Northern Ireland actually voted to be EU citizens and not British citizens in our 2016 referendum. We cannot be both at the same time, ruled by two opposing sides, as the EU and British clearly are, due to Britain’s exit from the EU.

Leo Varadkar needs to stop talking business issues as if he is the constitutional representative of all Ireland.

He is clearly trying to represent foreign British interests as if they are one and the same thing as Irish interests. How can we be ruled by Britain and be EU members ruled by Britain at the same time? We in Northern Ireland are EU members not overseas voters.

As a united Ireland, under EU membership with EU rule instead of British, we are already beyond the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and need not ask for permission from Britain to vote again on the matter.

All we need to do is to ignore Britain and live as EU citizens and see how willing Britain is to leave us in peace and unity to be ourselves and Irish.

GABRIELLE STEWART
Omagh, Co Tyrone

Above the ‘common herd’

Dominic Cummings’s convoluted explanation for his visit to his father’s ‘estate’ (subsequently amended to ‘farm’) in Co Durham left no-one in any doubt that he regards himself as being above the common herd and that the rules he helped to design for the plebs do not apply to him.

One statement he made seems to have been missed by every reporter and journalist at the press conference, which was when he explained the urgency of getting back to advise his master in London. This was “to get more investment for the NHS”, which is as clear an indication as could be that he and PM Johnson, and of course the whole Tory party, are intent on selling off our health service to private investors.

Johnson will miss him if he goes but we will all be better off without his influence.

EUGENE F PARTE
Belfast BT9

Unfairness of selection procedure

It was gratifying to read Gerardine Leonard’s letter (May 12) expressing her view on the unfairness of the selection procedure. A comprehensive system would remove the anxiety of having to  experience transfer tests.

Every child has talents and a comprehensive system would allow them to explore these talents.

Well done, Gerardine.

DYMPNA McCLUSKEY
Ballymoney, Co Antrim