Madam, - Ian Paisley Jnr's recent hate-filled comments about how homosexuals live their lives provoked an initial reaction of disappointment, sadness and quite some anger in me. As a gay man I know him to be wrong; as an Irishman I had hopes that this kind of myopia was consigned to our past.
Even though I found his opinions, voiced from high office, deeply troubling, entering the fray to argue and reason with him just did not feel enough. I was in a quandary. And then a thought struck me: not only am I gay and Irish - I am also a singer in one hell of a good choir.
Through your pages, therefore, I would like sincerely to invite Mr Paisley Jnr and his guest to come to the National Concert Hall in Dublin to see Gloria, Dublin's gay and lesbian choir, perform its annual summer concert next Saturday at 8pm. He will be among members of a vibrant gay community, its friends and families and the music-loving people of Dublin. I believe he may witness just a small bit of what makes gay life and gay living, across all of Ireland, so worth celebrating. I believe his spirit, the foundation of all real change in attitude, may be moved by the experience.
I have personally bought two tickets for Mr Paisley Jnr, and they await collection in the National Concert Hall. Incidentally, Gloria's concert theme is both fitting and hopeful: "The Music of Love". - Yours, etc,
BRIAN McINTYRE, Howth, Co Dublin.