Sir, – It was a pity that Diarmuid Ó Briain (June 2nd) should seek to elevate Scouting Ireland by disparaging the Irish Girl Guide Movement in response to criticism by Claire Daly TD (“Scout group refused to allow girl to join”, Home News, May 26th).
There is a long-established educational view that girls do better in single-sex environments. I do not share that view. But our sisters in Irish Guiding do and continue to provide “fun, friendship and challenge” across our island to girls and young women.
Scouting and guiding are simply the two sides of one coin. In most of our groups, male and female co-exist happily in a progressive, informal educational environment. I would love to see all guides some day joining together in one organisation – just as we in scouting have. For the moment, however, I will simply appreciate the service given to both movements by thousands. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT LACEY,
Beech Hill Drive,
Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
A chara, – Diarmaid Ó Briain argues for joint scouting, liberated from the shackles of gender, religion, and anything with a whiff of what he calls discrimination. Is it really that awful that the Catholic Girl Guides prefer to remain Catholic and allow only girls? So much for freedom and diversity.
Mr Ó Briain hammers his point home with a call to do what is done in other “civilised countries”.
I live in France. Scouting here is very strong. Its strength lies in doing the very opposite of what Mr Ó Briain argues for. There are more than 200,000 scouts and guides, and more than 50 distinct organisations, thriving on their identities – Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish. Non-faith-based scouting does not exist in France; the very concept is unknown to the French. – Yours, etc,
CIARÁN Mac GUILL,
Rue Gaston,
Paymal, France.