Sir, – When Maurice Manning addressed the members of the Citizens' Assembly at its inaugural gathering, he cautioned them against listening to the voices of the vested interests "where the noise of conflicting claims drowns out all other voices" ("Taoiseach warns of potential for bitter division as Citizens' Assembly starts work", October 15th). He called upon the assembly to reflect "the quiet views, the matter-of-fact views, the ordinary views".
His advice echoed a fashionable notion that truth is to be found somewhere in the compromise between the opposing points of view in a disagreement.
But often that is not where truth and justice actually lie.
Imagine if the slavery abolitionist and de facto extremist William Wilberforce had been replaced by a more "matter of fact" person who campaigned instead for the conditions of slaves to be improved.
Or if the loud-mouthed Martin Luther King had a dream “that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood”, would ordinary folk have been better off closing their ears and their hearts until quieter, more moderate, voices held sway and with a less absolutist vision?
And when at last human beings can no longer be sentenced to death in the United States of America, the vested interests who eventually succeed in achieving that noble end will rejoice in the fact that their noisy voices have finally been heard over those who quietly wished to retain the practice, at least in certain limited circumstances.
Sometimes when you occupy the middle ground you find yourself not standing on the terra firma of the higher ground where you had hoped to be but instead sinking imperceptibly in thick, lukewarm mud. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN CONROY,
Windy Arbour,
Dublin 14.
A chara, – The website of the Citizens’ Assembly informs us: “The Assembly is a body comprising the Chairperson and 99 citizens, randomly selected to be broadly representative of the Irish electorate.”
The random selection has resulted in just 13 of 26 counties having participants. The counties without a participant are Carlow, Cavan, Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Laois, Leitrim, Offaly, Sligo, and Tipperary. Can some mathematician tell us what are the odds that 50 per cent of counties would be missed?
Leave the 99 and go in search of lost sheep? – Is mise,
PÁDRAIG McCARTHY,
Sandyford,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – Given that a sample of a thousand people is generally viewed as lending validity to survey results in both opinion polls and general market research interviewing, either the Citizens’ Assembly should be increased tenfold, or dismissed as a waste of time not worthy of a Supreme Court judge’s involvement. – Yours, etc,
PAULA SMITH,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.