Madam, – Why does your distinguished
columnist Kevin
Myers use the word "medieval"
to describe the savagery in Sudan
An Irishman's Diary, (July 23rd)?
In so doing, he ignores the
achievements of medieval civilisation
which include, inter alia, the
Book of Kells, the great European
cathedrals, and the poetry of
Chaucer, Dante, and Langland. I
see no merit in adding a corruption
of our language to the corruption
of our politics.
I doubt whether medieval
rulers had the military capacity to
inflict suffering on the scale we
are now obliged to witness. The
word for which Kevin Myers is
looking is not "medieval", but, as
his own passionate account so eloquently
testifies, "modern".
By the misuse of terms such as
"medieval" we conveniently turn
away from the face of our own
barbarity. – Yours, etc.,
GERALD MORGAN, Trinity College,
Dublin 2.