Sir, — The latest Irish Times /Ipsos MRBI poll reveals that a majority of Irish people favours parenting by a mother and a father. While this finding should not surprise us, we might still ask if this proves that such an arrangement is superior to every other form of parenting?
Walk into any “family” or “women’s” resource centre around the country and you will be hard-pressed not to find heartbreaking stories (some in public view) of children in the midst of horrendous domestic situations perpetrated by heterosexual couples (some married, some not).
Daddy and mammy to these children are not what the 67 per cent of respondents to this latest poll have in mind when they say “mother and father are extremely capable” of fully meeting a child’s needs.
Yet this form of parenting is the most prevalent and is enshrined in law with the full backing of the State. Other forms of two-person parenting – as in father and father or mother and mother do not (yet) have the same the legal or welfare protection as their heterosexual counterparts.
Therefore while it is highly predictable that the majority would uphold the “traditional” pattern of parenthood by a man and a woman it is by no means certain that these have a monopoly on how best to bring up children. — Yours, etc,
TOM McELLIGOTT,
Tournageehy,
Listowel,
Co Kerry