Sir – I have spent the past week stuck in transit in Qatar’s capital Doha, one of many thousands of Irish people stranded in the Gulf after the United States and Israel’s unexpected attack on Iran and Iran’s retaliation across the region.
The sound of large explosions from strikes and missile interceptions above my hotel echoing around the clock.
I work for the humanitarian organisation Christian Aid Ireland and am a regular traveller to conflict zones. However, I don’t mind admitting I have found this to be a frightening and unsettling experience.
I know I will be among those fortunate enough to be evacuated to safety soon, but I am deeply concerned for those caught up in the humanitarian crisis now engulfing the Middle East.
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US and Israeli strikes on Iran and Iran’s missile and drone attacks have seen human suffering across the region mounting by the day, a region that for more than two years has been pushed to the brink.
In Lebanon, which is still reeling from two months of sustained conflict in late 2024, people are once again being forced to flee their homes in south Beirut to escape air strikes. We are hearing from Christian Aid’s local partners that shelters are already close to capacity, with many people sleeping rough on the streets or on the beach.
With attention elsewhere, Israeli settler violence against Palestinians increased immediately in the West Bank, according to our Israel-based human rights partner, B’Tselem.
And once again, we are seeing suffering being compounded in Gaza following the closure of crossings by Israel.
This is preventing aid from reaching those in need, and our partners have shared that people fear running out of food and that the price of basic goods immediately spiked.
War is never the answer, and the ‘might is right’ approach must be utterly rejected. Sense must prevail. We need an immediate ceasefire, urgent diplomacy and respect for international law to keep all civilians safe. – Yours, etc,
PAUL QUINN,
Head of International Programmes and
Global Head of Peacebuilding,
Christian Aid Ireland,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – The sinking of the IRIS Dena should go down in history as the day the image of the US in western minds turned inexorably from world policeman to terrorist state.
The murder of 80 seamen was described by US secretary of war Pete Hegseth as follows: “An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death.”
The law of armed conflict requires that the violence carried out, and the lives taken, are proportionate and necessary for the execution of a legitimate and lawful military aim.
This is not a lawful war – this vessel was well outside the zone of activity and these sailors did not need to die. There was no legitimate aim, no proportionality and no necessity for these men’s deaths. The only way to accurately describe these killings is murder, given the explicit aim of the state responsible (the US) is terror and the maximisation of death. – Yours, etc,
EOGHAN McMAHON,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – I commend Clare Storey’s succinct letter (March 4th, 2026) in which she states that Donald Trump has no idea how to close the Pandora’s box he has opened.
In light of the war he said he’d never start, I would add the question: is the Maga mind able to comprehend how dangerous this man is? Will it show in the midterms? – Yours, etc,
BOB BARRY,
Ashbourne,
Co Meath.
