Sir, – With all these people pausing to pray, reflect, meditate or otherwise at the ringing of the Angelus on the radio, do we need to consider introducing penalty points for observing the Angelus while driving? – Yours, etc,
STUART MEHARG,
Ballyconnell,
Co Cavan.
Sir, – Many of your correspondents who support the retention of the Angelus on RTÉ radio and television suggest that the biggest value of the regular broadcast of the Angelus is the opportunity for people to pause and reflect and not necessarily to pray the Angelus.
Can I therefore make the entirely reasonable suggestion that to maximise the impact of this pause for the nation that the broadcast drops the 18 bell tolls and replaced them with various “pausing” sounds familiar to everyone? We could watch a pint of Guinness being poured. We could even have the Taoiseach silently staring at the camera for a minute.
To really maximise these pauses for the nation, we could request that RTÉ broadcast them at random times in the day to ensure the nation is always looking out for that well-earned break. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD LOGUE,
Quigleys Point,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – Compared to other programmes without appeal, the Angelus is blessedly short. – Yours, etc,
COLIN WALSH,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.
Sir, – Retention hurts nobody but helps many. – Yours, etc,
GP McHUGH,
Belfast.
Sir, – Wesley Boyd asserts that “Ireland is a secular state” (“RTÉ flies Vatican flag by keeping Angelus on air”, Opinion & Analysis, October 28th). Not according to the Constitution it isn’t!
The preamble begins with an invocation to “the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and states must be referred”. It continues by “humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial”.
Article 6 states that “All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial derives, under God, from the people”, while Article 40 declares blasphemy in speech or writing to be “an offence which shall be punishable by law”.
Last, but not least, Article 44 declares that “the State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence and shall respect and honour religion”.
Nothing particularly secular about any of that!
Of course, Wesley Boyd may wish that Ireland was a secular state and want RTÉ to “do its bit” as he sees it for the cause by getting rid of the Angelus. Whether most people would agree with him is another matter.
The Angelus is not the only religious programme carried by RTÉ by any means. When listening to Radio 1 on a Sunday morning I find that, quite often, there is a Protestant religious service, which should please his hypothetical "unionist in Ballymena", who is probably listening to Thought for the Day on BBC anyway.
As for the changing composition of Irish society due to immigration in recent years, it does not seem to occur to some that many of these people are Christian and even, horror of horrors, Catholic. At least some Poles, Lithuanians, Filipinos, Rwandans or Congolese, for example, may well find it easier to integrate into Irish society if they see their religion respected. Non-Christians among the immigrants know perfectly well that all western societies have been profoundly conditioned by Christianity. – Yours, etc,
ED KELLY,
Merseyside,
England.