Sir, - Father O'Hanlon's interpretation of President Robinson's meeting with the Pope raises some interesting questions. What exactly was he trying to convey by using the word "cheap". He must realise that Mrs Robinson is not enduring financial hardship. Was he referring to her taste and leaving the reader to finish the mental image readily attributed to a "cheap" woman?
There are so many insulting terms for women but they all really describe the same thing, autonomy. It has been my experience that the use of such terms are usually the expression of a fear of women's ability and determination to govern their own lives and there are many such women in Ireland today. God knows they seem a far cry from the poverty stricken women who treated a visit by a priest like a royal occasion and provided the dignitary with little luxuries which their families rarely saw, never mind partook of.
Is Fr O'Hanlon lamenting the loss of the times when Irish women acknowledged their inherent unworthiness in the presence of the clergy? Is his real gripe with the embodiment of the successful Irish women who recognises her potential as a human being and who pursues that potential without the assistance, support or permission of the Catholic Church? - Yours, etc.,
Barnet,
Herts,
England.