Galway Advertiser 2006/2006_08_03/GA_0308_E1_020.pdf 

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LETTERS
Dear Editor, I have enjoyed the beauty of Ballyloughane beach for years. I observed the recent renovations with interest. The cycle path, the pedestrian path, the parking facilities, the planting of shrubs -- all seemed well and for the betterment of the area. Then having removed the previous concrete tables and benches -- which were more or less vandal-proof and pleasing to the eye, they are replaced with easilyvandalised and quite ugly wooden benches and tables -- why? Then numerous benches -- again of the wooden variety -- appeared along the narrow strip of green that was once frequented by numerous joggers. It must have been a mistake -- perched precariously on the edge of the sea wall? Then yellow cages were erected around these seats. I have sat on them, but not for long. They are so uncomfortable and I had a yellow zebra view of the sea. For heaven's sake, what are the designers in the city council thinking? Bring back the usual iron sea benches and rid us of the monstrous yellow cages forthwith. I have also noticed that it is the creatures of the two-legged variety who frequent Ballyloughane beach

August 3 2006

Thanks What have they done to Ballyloughane beach? Galway, says Oxfam
Dear Editor, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Galway Advertiser's many readers for their generous support for Oxfam Ireland's `Who Cares About Kenya' campaign, which we launched in February. So far your readers have helped to contribute to the total sum raised to date of 60,000, which Oxfam Ireland is using to provide shortterm emergency assistance and to address the long-term causes of food crises for drought-affected communities. However, many poor people in Kenya remain desperately in need of help, and donations are still urgently required. The 2005 drought in Kenya was the worst in six years. It left more than 3.5 million people unable to provide for themselves and in urgent need of assistance. Pastoralists - who make a living off the land - have been hardest hit, with their means of survival pushed to breaking point. The rains in April were good but patchy. Wells and pastures were replenished but only in some areas. However, there are fears that supplies may not last the whole season until the next rains come, which could force many people to migrate in search of other grazing and water sources. Not only will this place an enormous strain on communities and the surviving animals but, as Oxfam Ireland has learned from experience elsewhere, it can also lead to conflict between various groups. In areas where the rains have been good, it will still take up to two years before livestock can produce sufficient milk to support households' nutrition and income once again. As well as providing short-term relief, Oxfam Ireland continues to highlight the root causes of suffering and injustice and to campaign for the long-term changes that are so urgently needed if poor people in countries like Kenya are to lift themselves out of poverty. Oxfam Ireland desperately needs further support if we are to be able to go on distributing food and helping to restock the herds of those most in need during these vital months. You can make a donation by calling 1890 60 60 65, online at www.oxfamireland.org or by calling into any Oxfam shop. If you would like to learn more about the situation in Kenya and what Oxfam Ireland is doing to help, visit our Kenya dedicated website www.whocaresaboutkenya.org which is updated regularly. Yours Dr Brian Scott Chief Executive Oxfam Ireland 9 Burgh Quay Dublin 2

and who vandalise the area and strew litter around and play music at a level sufficient to break the sound barrier. I enjoy walking my dog at the beach and feel I should be able to do so. While work is still in progress, be big enough to admit your mistakes and remove those yellow cages and resite the benches. Yours, Claire Lyons, Renmore.

Galway is a death trap for cyclists
Dear Editor, After years of getting around Galway by foot, bicycle, car and bus, I feel the need to publicise my growing concern. This concern is, in so many words, a fear for my life. Most days I cycle on the city roads, and on almost every occasion I am witness to driving that puts me in immediate bodily danger. I see the same impatience that is evident all over the country and is responsible (along with drinkdriving, phone-driving, bravado, tiredness, etc,) for the depressing statistics of carnage we hear and forget, week in week out. Given the city's frustrating lack of properly-designed cycling paths, and the emphasis placed on automobiles in the general public's daily lives, it is inevitable that cars and bicycles will get in each others way from time to time. However, I don't accept that this entitles motorists to take casual risks with my well-being. Rather than wait five or ten seconds to pass safely, many drivers take a chance on a blind corner or a busy or narrow road, and put the foot down. Some drivers wait for an opportunity to overtake safely. Too often, however, I feel the need to ensure such a wait by cycling well out from the kerb. This is where lessassertive cyclists must feel the fear, as to offer even minimal passing room to many motorists encourages them to whip by at high speed. I know several people who do not cycle in Galway because they are nervous or terrified of sharing the road with motorists. Studies into road rage reveal that it arises partly from a sense of inviolability. Cars are designed to be safer to those inside them at the expense of those outside. Drivers cannot easily make eye contact with other road users, and hence tend to view them not as other humans with friends, families and fragile organs, but as inconveniences to their primitive sense of territory on the road, and to the perpetual rush they are in. This haste is very evident at junctions: not only do most cars not slow down and stop as the lights turn

The need for honest food reviews
Dear Editor, Can I just express in a letter to you the delight I have received from reading your regular food reviews in your newspaper. Honest food reviews are a rarity in the regional press and nowhere are they more needed than in Galway where we should have a fantastic abundance of fine restaurants. Alas we do not. I used to own a restaurant in the south-west and I appreciate often while unpalatable to owners, food reviews and restaurant reviews are an evil necessity to ensure that bad service gets mentioned and good service gets rewarded. In my time, we had to depend on the few reviewers from the nationals (the Helen Lucys, et al,) to make a visit when they came west, so the chance of the bad restaurants being outed was slim. I must say that I agree with a lot of the points that Mr Shaw makes in his column. To think that there are some restaurants in Galway city in this day and age where toilet seats fall off and where dirt is evident is incomprehensible, yet true. On the other hand, there are many that are very very good and this is reflected in the column. Well done to Mr Shaw for his column with the clever name and also for being aware that by doing a second review of the simple lunch, the column and its contents do not become elitist. Yours, C Kierans, Loughrea, Co Galway.

amber, they speed up as the lights turn red. I'm not trying to start a war of words. Cyclists can be lunatics too, while many drivers are cautious and decent on the road. Though I currently cycle and walk around town, I drove for several years. It was convenient but it made me impatient, lazy and dependent. I understand the temptation to take risks. I know how easy it is to forget the constant dangers, to convince ourselves we're in a constant hurry, and to consider the possibility of an accident as a remote horror that does not apply personally. Such complacency is a grave mistake. I just want to ask for a little more courtesy from all road users, so that I don't feel a creeping sense that the next spin into town, to the shop or the sea might be the one that leaves me crippled, brain-damaged, or dead. Yours, SC, Galway (Name and address with editor)

Horses and elephants are animals too
Dear Editor, I heard "You're wasting your time protesting here", a circus ringmaster had informed me. "We don't have any wild animals. We only have horses and an elephant." Forgive my ignorance, but I always thought that elephants were wild animals. Does their status change after they are forced to live a life of slavery? Or could this be more mis-information that circuses are trying to brainwash the general public with, in the feeble attempt to regain popularity and profit? Most circuses that say, 'first time in Ireland, all new, American, Australian, etc, these outfits are touring for years under different names. No one checks this. Names are changed as accidents and bad publicity hits the papers, like abandoned animals and escaped animals, and traffic accidents causing deaths, and children being bitten, and workers being gored. The list is endless but unthinking people still pay to see psychotic animals being degraded or worse. Circuses shouldn't need to use animals as crowd-pullers. They need to leave the Victorian era they have been stuck in and step into the 21st century with new and exciting acts. The public are tired of the same old clap-trap being revamped year after year. Yours, Ciaran Long. (Anti- Circus Campaigns) Alliance For Animal Rights. PO Box 4734, Dublin 1

Let elderly tourists ride free
Dear Editor, Recently visiting the United States has prompted me to write this letter. It was a pleasant surprise to see that all people over 60 years were given senior citizens reduction on all public transport, regardless of nationality -- why are we not doing this in our country? Arriving back in Shannon, the approach as we left the clouds, gave a wow to most strangers on board. However travelling back to Galway from Shannon on Bus Eireann I observed the driver being not at all friendly to our visitors, who were about 10 Americans. I almost apologised to them I was so embarrassed. It would also have been a nice experience for them to listen to some Irish music rather than the loud rap we had to endure. I would appreciate if Bord Failte could put to management the above two issues and keep visitors coming. Yours, Margaret Keaney, St Mary Road, Galway

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

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