Sir, – We, the members of the Trainees’ Committee at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) are deeply concerned by the US president’s arbitrary and discriminatory suspension of immigration and entry for citizens of Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Libya, as well as the signal that the US will not give refuge to those fleeing war in Syria.
We represent and advocate for doctors in Ireland who are engaged in RCPI postgraduate training to become specialists in their field. Our esteemed foreign colleagues – who work and train in Ireland – may be prevented by this ruling from taking up fellowship posts in the US, attending conferences and courses and enjoying the same day-to-day freedoms as Irish doctors. This is not acceptable. Apart from the injustice suffered by individual foreign doctors who currently give so much to our health service and its patients, it will deny to the people of Ireland the worthwhile expertise that these physicians could bring back from the US.
We feel, as doctors, that we have a duty to speak out when our patients and our colleagues are marginalised and discriminated against. This division and inequity is the antithesis of everything and everyone we try to represent. – Yours, etc,
Dr JAMES MAHON,
RCPI Trainees’
Committee Chairman,
Specialist Registrar (SpR)
in Geriatric Medicine;
Dr SORCA O’BRIEN,
SpR in Obstetrics
and Gynaecology;
Dr JAMES NOLAN,
SpR in Haematology;
Dr CORMAC KENNEDY,
SpR in Clinical
Pharmacology
and Therapeutics;
Dr CARMEL MOORE,
SpR in Paediatrics,
Royal College
of Physicians of Ireland,
Dublin 2; and 16 others. See irishtimes.com/debate/letters for full list of signatories.
Sir, – Peter Keating (February 2nd) asks the rhetorical question “It’s a lot easier and safer to hop on the bandwagon than protest against the evils of sharia law, isn’t it?” when comparing President’s Trump’s recorded treatment of women to that of a minority of Muslims.
I would point out that the two issues are not mutually exclusive; we can be repulsed by both separately, and the various documented abominations of sharia law do not in any way justify Mr Trump’s misogynistic attitudes. I can guarantee that the vast majority of right-minded people find both issues absolutely deplorable. For the record, Mr Keating and I have now publicly criticised sharia law. I for one do not feel any less safe. – Yours, etc,
ALLAN SWEENEY,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
A chara, – If Taoiseach Enda Kenny will stand in front of a microphone at a press conference in the White House on St Patrick’s Day and say to all assembled there, including President Donald J Trump, that the Irish Government does not agree with and wholly condemns the current US administration’s immigration policy, as clearly and in the same manner as he did when he justifiably criticised the Vatican over its failure to protect children in his notable speech to Dáil Éireann in July 2011, then by all means he should go to the White House. – Is mise,
SEÁN Ó RIAIN,
Achadh an Iúir,
Contae an Chabháin.
Sir, – Further to “Kenny got it wrong on Sinn Féin, but right on Trump” (Opinion & Analysis, February 2nd), the position of Stephen Collins is regrettable, and ignores the shadow of history cast on allowing economics to trump human rights. There are always economic arguments to be made for allowing human rights abuses to go unchallenged. For instance, late-18th-century anti-abolitionists argued rationally and pragmatically that the British economy could not survive without the slave trade. For the Taoiseach to take this opportunity to very visibly stand against apparent human rights violations, by declining Mr Trump’s Patrick’s Day invitation, is more important than prioritising Ireland’s special access to the US president. – Yours, etc,
ELAINE BYRNE,
Dublin 9.