Sir, - I consider the attack by Kevin Myers on Fr Sean Healy and CORI (An Irishman's Diary, October 9th) to be biased in the extreme. He based this attack on the preferential treatment of religious orders in tax matters.
The religious orders educated the people of Ireland, for the most part without charge, and in the primary school which I attended supplied milk and buns to those who needed them. Far from this being a stigma, those of us who did not get this treat felt deprived and quite envious of the recipients. The convents and presbyteries gave hot dinners to the travellers and winos who called to their doors and this week I witnessed the continuation of this tradition.
It is easy to pour scorn on their efforts to help the marginalised but they spent their lives trying to help when the rest of society turned its back. The individual religious handed up their pay packets and were supplied with meagre pocket money.
The money the orders now receive for the sale of land goes to support their many Third World feeding-stations, schools and hospitals. Today in this country we have the example of Sr Stanislaus and Fr Peter McVerry who try to pick up those who fall through the net. Nobody enjoys paying taxes, but to turn our inherent selfishness into an attack on people who spend their lives trying to improve the lot of the marginalised is to me truly disgusting. - Yours, etc.,
Maura McSweeney,
Newtownpark Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.