Madam, - John Boyle (January 26th), like some of your other contributors, seems to believe that all the problems and failings of Irish society can be laid at the door of the Catholic Church. Indeed he must be suffering sleepless nights trying to figure out how Rome managed to cause the recent tectonic events under the Pacific.
A far more likely reason for the lack of native enterprise in Ireland (Desmond Fennell, January 20th) can be found just below and to the right of Mr Fennell's letter. A Mr Montgomery, responding to the failure of the Western Writers Centre in Galway to get Arts Council funding, stated that many people, including himself, applauded the decision. This is a fairly typical "dog in the manger" attitude one finds in Ireland.
My comments are based on my experience in an enterprise some years ago when I was constantly told that an idea would or could never work, it being too ambitious, too imaginative, too risky etc. etc. These comments were usually from those who had never created anything worthwhile, and whose idea of risk taking was a 50 cent bet on the Grand National. A more worrying aspect for the future of our little island, is that this negativity went right through the system - local authorities, even State bodies. One has only to look at the amount of media space and time given to whinging about Michael O'Leary and Ryanair.
By comparison, our neighbours the English are generally more positive, supportive and certainly less begrudging, and it is easy to see how they led the industrial world for so long. It is probable that while Trevithick and Watt were designing their pistons and steam valves there was a Paddy sitting on a bar stool nearby saying "it will never work". - Yours, etc.,
N. MAC AODHA, Nas Na Riogh, Co Cilldara.