Sir, - The abuse of children, under whatever guise, is abhorrent, and has prompted many gifted individuals in this country to use their talents in defence of children at risk. Peter Kelly, Christina Noble, Adie Roche, the ISPCC and Childline are just some of the people and institutions that can be listed among the panoply of contemporaries who fight to keep us aware of the need to protect the most vulnerable in our society.
It is a sad irony that their work should be vitiated, as it surely is, by the photograph of Ms Samantha Mumba in your edition of January 29th as she performed at the recent Childline concert. The use of a scantily-clad teenage girl as a fundraiser for child protection is, at best, an exercise in cycicism and, at worst, itself a form of child abuse.
Ms Mumba's choice of costume was ill-advised, and the Irish Times picture ill-chosen, to promote the welfare of children. -Yours, etc.,
Dr Orla Halpenny, Queen's Park, Monkstown, Co Dublin.