EDITOR – With the approaching summer heat the energy crisis recedes.
Now the government has time to have a sniff at the Irish supermarket industry. Grocery prices have increased to a level that even the basic living items like bread, butter and milk have become luxury purchase items. The cost-of-living crisis has allowed supermarket chains to crucify people to their weekly receipt.
How can current grocery prices be justified?
Prices for groceries in Irish supermarkets have a history of being higher that our European neighbours.
From this base and the almost daily price increases, the Irish consumer is paying more for a basket of grocery items.
What forces are at play when supermarkets can raise prices on a daily/weekly whim and no statutory body says ‘why’?
The government’s light touch has allowed supermarkets to adopt a brothel approach – screw the customer, take the money and back they will come.
Irish supermarkets have always feasted on the consumer.
Even when Covid-19 laid the world to waste many Irish supermarkets gorged.
Their bloated annual profits gives these companies the financial heft to absorb supply chain increases without using the consumer as a money sponge.
If grocery prices continue upwards then a people’s revolution has to take place. Nobody minds paying for groceries at a fair price, but what is going on in Irish supermarkets is shopping trolley extortion. The grandfather of angst, Morrissey, once warbled, ‘Shoplifters of the world, unite and take over’.
At the rate prices are going, resorting to applying a ‘five finger discount’ might be the only way to put food on the table.
The Irish government needs to step in and tell the supermarkets to end their addiction to upping prices.
It is a habit that produces no bargains – only rip-offs for consumers.
John Tierney,
Ashtown.
Fews,
Co Waterford.
US politicians always put self-interest first
EDITOR – As Ireland has bid farewell to Potus after the visit of President Joe Biden, let us spare a thought for those who are not so fortunate to have such relations with the USA as Ireland.
Let us consider the people of Afghanistan and the females of that country, in particular. Having ousted the Taliban the females of Afghanistan were led to believe they could return to ‘normal’ living.
Females returned to education, were elected to parliament, worked in legal/judicial systems, worked in the media. Then the USA walked away.
Now the Afghan people are back under Taliban control. Women are again confined to the home, prevented from education and work.
Iraq was invaded (under false pretences) by the USA and UK, its people subjected to murder, rape, torture, plunder and pillage by elements of forces deployed. USA and UK walked away, leaving the people to the mercy of various warlords and religious leaders, including the so-called Islamic State.
Let us remember the so-called rendition flights whereby individuals were transported to a third country where they were interrogated and tortured.
And also Guantanamo Bay prison, where the United States holds people in violation of basic human rights and the Geneva Convention.
I suggest we should remember that US politicians will, at all times, act in self-interest.
Michael Moriarty,
Rochestown,
Cork.
Looking for McAuliffes in West Cork region
EDITOR – I am researching the history of the McAuliffe (Mac Amhlaoigh) family of Co Cork for a new book The McAuliffe Story.
The book is due to be released at the 2024, with the McAuliffe Gathering due to take place in Newmarket in the summer of 2024.
My family members, Denis McAuliffe and Hannah Callaghan, left Mallow for Friars Walk in Cork where they lived before settling in London.
After they married, they had eight children: Daniel, Hannah, Ellen, Catherine, Denis and Thomas John (who married Mary Colston), Norah McAuliffe (b1897) who was my great grandmother, who married George GW White and Bessie McAuliffe, who married Henry John Allison.
Denis McAuliffe was the son of David McAuliffe and grandson of John McAuliffe and Honora Fitzgerald. They had one other son, Edward, who married Margaret Hyde and they also had children: Edward G, Edward, James, Elizabeth, Timothy, Eliza Anne and Mary Bridget.
I am visiting Cork City Library on Monday 8th May and I would be happy to meet with anyone interested in sharing their McAuliffe story.
On the Wednesday I am hosting an ‘open house’ at the Cultúrlann Mac Aimblaoigh in Newmarket between 2pm and 7pm. I hope people will bring along their photographs, family trees and scrapbooks. I can be contacted at [email protected].
Philip Taylor,
Bamford,
UK.
