Sir, – Breda O'Brien ("The norms may have changed but the pressure to conform remains", Opinion & Analysis, October 10th) is correct in identifying a culture of conformism in much of Irish society. Its roots have been established over many generations.
The origin of this feature of being Irish was, I believe, identified by John McGahern in an article in Granta magazine in 2006, when he wrote about the ordinary farming people he grew up among who saw "this version of Roman Catholicism as just another ideological habit they were forced to wear like all the others they had worn since the time of the Druids". – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA,
Windy Arbour, Dublin 14.
Sir, – Declan Kelly (October 13th) is right to be alert to the dangers of bigotry, but his letter demonstrates that there are also dangers to political correctness. He takes racism as an example of a noxious idea and dismisses the questioning of a student union ban on prejudicial attitudes on this basis. The logic is shaky at best. Racism is an evil, not an all-purpose put-down. Those that strive against prejudice are ill-served when their cause is name-checked as a means of silencing wider debate. Certainly, racism is something that is "outside the pale of acceptable though"; that does not mean all ideas outside the pale of acceptable thought are racist.
Many noble and worthwhile ideas have been banned at one time or another by well-meaning people. If we allow political correctness to become policies for correctness, we are getting very close to resurrecting policed righteousness. Student unions should not be leading the charge down that slippery slope. – Yours, etc,
COLIN WALSH,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.
Sir, – Declan Kelly asserts that student unions are entitled to ban prejudicial opinions because they are wrong. But this is the very nub of the problem that Breda O’Brien addresses.
What gives student unions the right to decide what attitudes are prejudicial or wrong, particularly when such decisions are invariably coloured by their own political prejudice and subjectivity? Anyone familiar with student union politics will be aware that it is predominantly the preserve of the left and often the far-left at that. Far too frequently such undergraduate left-wing ideology dismisses all contrary views as not just wrong but wicked and can lead to a lazy and convenient labelling of such views as “racist” or “discriminatory” to avoid having to debate uncomfortable counter-narratives. The suggestion that student unions and third-level authorities should “decide” what views their students should hear represents a profoundly worrying and far too prevalent attitude that is utterly at odds with the ethos of inquiry and open exchange of views that is supposed to underpin the third-level experience. – Yours, etc,
C LYNCH,
Castletroy,
Co Limerick.