Sir, – I must confess to being flabbergasted when I read in The Irish Times that Catholic agency Accord was in receipt of funding for pre-marriage courses to the tune of €378,000 from the public purse, through State organisation Tusla.
I was persuaded to go to one such meeting myself, some years ago, only to be confronted with a fresh-faced curate who simply regurgitated parts of the catechism and sage advice such as “keep the relationship holy in the eyes of God and bring the children up as good Catholics”.
It seems to me that €378,000 seems like a lot of money for expert advice from the very people who know least about the practicalities of marriage management. And to put it mildly, it is smells somewhat of a cosy church/state deal. – Yours, etc,
NIALL GINTY,
Dublin 5.