TONY JORDAN,
A chara, - Patsy McGarry's breast-beating article on sexual abuse among Irish males (Weekend, May 4th) undoubtedly contains some truth, but also much speculation.
One common difficulty with surveys in this area is that our current definition of sexual abuse would be very different, and in some cases unrecognisable, to previous generations.
Mr McGarry writes that the recent survey by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, when 29 per cent of the people approached by random phone calls would not participate, "is a merciless unearthing of the secret world of the Irish Catholic male". Strong stuff!
Without questioning the integrity of any group, it never ceases to surprise me that it is so common for commissioners of particular surveys to achieve results which happen to suit them.
Can Mr McGarry be serious when he concludes that current Irish society is more open, free and transparent, that happiness is possible by the great majority of people and that we are becoming a country fit - and safe - for young people again? Sounds like election sloganeering! - Yours, etc.,
TONY JORDAN,
Gilford Road,
Dublin 4.
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Sir, - Your Religious Affairs Correspondent is so reliable that a lapse from his usual high standard is surprising. In his thoughtful piece on child abuse by Irish clerics, he writes that Irish women were expected to emulate the Virgin Mary, "with a regrettable acceptance that it was not possible for them to conceive immaculately. . ."
The conception involved in the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is Mary's conception, that is, her coming into existence in the womb of her mother. This was immaculate, the Catholic doctrine maintains, in that she was conceived without the stain of original sin. Agree with this proposition or not, but at least get it right. It is not a description of the miraculous conception of her son Jesus and does not imply that there is any "macula" or stain in normal conception.
Roaring Redemptorists preaching school retreats over 50 years ago may have given me and my school-mates the impression that there was some such stain involved in any sexual relations, but that had nothing to do with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. - Yours, etc.,
ALF MacLOCHLAINN,
Lower Salthill,
Galway.
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Sir, - Patsy McGarry's article in your edition of May 4th does not stand up to serious scrutiny, in particular his final comments that Ireland "is becoming a country fit - and safe - for young people again".
The Garda annual reports certainly do not bear this out when a comparison is made between levels of crime against the person (young as well as old) over the past 40 years.
Murders have increased 10-fold since the 1950s; suicide rates (of young people particularly) have soared dramatically; reported rapes have gone from 10 in 1958 to 292 40 years later; indecent or sexual assaults from 79 in 1958 to 598 in 1998. Not to mention the deliberate destruction by abortion of the lives of 7,000 unborn Irish boys and girls in 2001.
Young people safer, my foot.
Leaving aside the sloppy research, it's a long time since I have read such a selective and agenda-driven piece of nonsense. - Yours etc.,
LOUIS POWER,
Loughlinstown,
Co Dublin.