Sir, – Having read Áine Ryan’s article on the hardships for survival on Ireland’s offshore islands, (An Irishwoman’s Diary, June 28th), may I suggest that islanders place more emphasis on sustainable communal wealth creation and manage their islands as communes as in the Ralahine experiment of 1830-33.
Today we are seeing the total collapse of our social services, health care, education, transport, water and food supplies and administration due to their excessive costs. It need not be so.
Many large national and multinational companies offer communal living and working conditions to their employees, from company housing, health care, education, transport, stores, everything from the cradle to the grave in countries like the US, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Australia, South Africa and elsewhere. Can people not do likewise for themselves? - Yours, etc,