Sir, – Oh, how intolerant the tolerant have become! I appreciated Breda O'Brien's article "Shiny, secular Ireland still fails children" (Opinion & Analysis, June 3rd). Thank you. – Yours, etc,
LYNN KEE,
Clonsilla,
Dublin 15.
Sir, – There is one outstanding difference between the Ireland of Breda O’Brien’s parents and the relatively secular society (we have some way to go yet, particularly in our State-funded schools) that exists now. When failures and even the smallest of shortcomings are found in childcare and in other areas involving the vulnerable today, they receive the spotlight of serious publicity as soon as they come to light. In her parents’ time, exactly the opposite happened.
Deplorable abuse, on a massive scale, was systematically covered up by all concerned, including the media and various organs of the State, whose members were in thrall to the Catholic Church.
The concept of the protected disclosure would have been totally alien to your columnist’s parents. Anyone with the temerity to attempt to be a whistleblower would have been excoriated by both their superiors and their colleagues, as well as by the public at large. – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA,
Windy Arbour,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – Breda O’Brien tells us of how her mother lent her wedding dress, let out at the waist, to a friend who was pregnant and had to marry quickly. She claims that the deep religious faith which inspired her mother’s compassion is now “despised and vilified” in a more secular Ireland.
I suggest that it was human, not religious, compassion which motivated her mother. Her gesture helped save her friend from the cruel retribution the Irish Catholic Church inflicted on women who strayed from its vice-like grip.
Qualities such as compassion, kindness, respect and justice are essentially human and are therefore shared by people of many religions and none. It is not these qualities which secularists despise; rather it is the ceding of political power and influence to unaccountable religious bodies.
Secularism is neutral about religions: it simply provides a framework for a democratic society based on the equality of all citizens. – Yours, etc,
DERVAL DUGGAN,
Kilternan,
Dublin 18.