Sir, – Fintan O’Toole maintains it is “not ‘self-hatred’ to point out that our Constitution is not being respected” (Opinion, August 20th). This may be the case, but it does not go far enough.
To condemn the Constitution as a flawed anachronism, to lambast the failed institutions of State, and to excoriate the politicians who governed so ineptly for so long – none of this is “self-hatred”. Rather this sort of critical self-examination is the very lifeblood of a functioning democratic Republic.
The Constitution and the State exist merely to serve the interests of society. They deserve “respect” only insofar as they achieve this; where they fail to do so then they must be rewritten or reformed. Time to bung the Bunreacht in the recycling bin and start over. – Yours, etc,
Dr OWEN CORRIGAN,
Gill Street,
Limehouse,
London, England.
Sir, – I had missed Fintan O’Toole’s recent silly season spat with Michael McDowell at the Parnell Summer School, which O’Toole elucidated further upon (Opinion, August 20th).
There’s little point in regarding McDowell’s facile jibes about “middle class self-hatred” whatever that’s supposed to mean, (except to uselessly deflect from the substantive point). It seems the crux of this issue was that McDowell didn’t share O’Toole’s conviction that the three pillars of the Irish state (the executive, parliament and judiciary) are discredited and in crisis, having failed the Irish populace.
McDowell is obviously an intelligent man, so it is inconceivable that the current calamitous condition of the Irish State – of which he played a substantial contributory role while part of “the worst government in the history of the State” as O’Toole labels the 1997-2007 Fianna Fáil/PD coalition – would not be apparent to him.
O’Toole, as always, makes his case compellingly and I agree wholeheartedly with his rationale, but he hardly expected a pampered establishment figure such as McDowell to endorse any negative criticism of the very organs from which he has sucked the life blood since he commenced his various careers at the upper echelons of Irish society. – Yours, etc,
JD MANGAN,
Stillorgan Road,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – The spat between Fintan O’Toole and Michael McDowell about the causes of our problems seems to be taking up a lot of newspaper space (Opinion, August 20th).
Both have had in the past – and still have – high profiles in Irish public life. Neither are short of opinions and the ability to express them.
Both had high profiles in government and the media during the Celtic tiger era when decisions were being made by those at the head of our most powerful institutions which eventually bankrupt the country.
The question has to be asked of both, therefore, as to why, during the Celtic tiger era, neither of them challenged these decisions nor warned the rest of us that what was happening then would bankrupt the country. – Yours, etc,
ANTHONY LEAVY,
Shielmartin Drive,
Sutton, Dublin 13.