A chara, – I was close to tears as I read Fintan O Toole's excellent piece "We should not replace one way of forgetting with another" (Opinion & Analysis, March 29th). His telling of the plight of Peter Tyrrell should be compulsory reading for every citizen of our still young republic. Having celebrated the Easter Rising with pride and honour, we should be mindful of the failures of successive leaders thereafter to implement its ideals. Peter Tyrrell and his Letterfrack experience are a stark reminder of those failures and we should redouble our efforts to create a real republic for those who will celebrate in 2116. – Is mise,
PAT BURKE WALSH,
Gorey, Co Wexford.
A chara, – Notwithstanding the awful and disgusting conditions that all children suffered during their time at Ireland’s industrial schools, can I challenge Fintan O’Toole to write something that he’s never written before – something positive about Ireland, its government, the State and its citizens.
If he thinks Ireland is unique is causing misery for its citizens, he’s more naive than I thought. – Is mise,
GARETH T CLIFFORD,
Stillorgan, Co Dublin.
Sir, – How appropriate that amid the wonderful celebrations of the 1916 centenary, Fintan O’Toole reminds us of the failure of the subsequent generation to create a society which mirrored the Proclamation. Thankfully in recent years we have liberated our society from the repression of previous generations. However, despite this social maturity, we continue to elect a political elite that panders to the free market and over recent years has, through acquiescence to this orthodoxy, allowed social protection to be seriously undermined. We now have a society in which having a job is no longer a guarantee of a home and a life free of poverty.
No doubt it would naive to hope that our recently elected representatives might reflect on this when formulating a programme for government. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Blackrock, Cork.