Sir, – Whether you loved it or hated it, the opening ceremony of the summer Olympic Games in Paris on Friday, July 26th, has certainly achieved its aim of being the most talked-about sports-related event in decades.
It has also triggered a tsunami of comment, like pieces by Breda O’Brien and Fr Chris Hayden (The Irish Times, August 4th).
One wonders if this event can take the weight of argument on Christian symbolism, historical revisionism, queer-inspired transgression, LGBTI+ provocation and woke culture which is now thrust upon it.
Critics of this opening ceremony should note that participating artistes have been exposed to an onslaught of online attacks calling them paedophiles, Satanists, sodomites and hoping that they shall burn in hell for all eternity.
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A number of these artistes have also received repeated death threats.
Such has been the nature of these attacks that the Paris public prosecutor’s section on online hatred has initiated an official investigation entrusted to the central office to combat crimes against humanity and hate crimes.
What have the opening ceremony artistes done to provoke such expressions of intense hatred? – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN O’SULLIVAN,
Paris,
France.