Sir, – Thanks to Fintan O’Toole for his thought-provoking series on “The State of Us” over recent days.
His quote about Ireland being “unpleasantly” different to France and Germany in being “more worried” in relation to “basic social provision” of housing, health and social security misses the point that, in contrast to most other countries, Ireland has been recently bankrupt.
The collapse and subsequent bailout in 2010 were not pleasant.
Neither were the consequences with which we are still living.
Fintan O’Toole tells “us” that “we need a large-scale structured conversation in which we decide for ourselves what our republic will look like”.
He fails to mention the important role of the mainstream and internet media in that conversation.
That is a media that told “us” that the goings-on in pre-2009 Celtic Tiger Ireland that caused the collapse were essentially okay.
That was a media in which many people participated in a campaign to scoff at the few who told “us” that what was happening then had risks attached and might not be as bright as was being painted.
If Fintan O’Toole’s good wishes for the future of this country are to be realised both the mainstream and the internet media, whose job it is to inform “us” about what is happening, will have to do a better job than they did in the past. – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – Could it be that Ireland’s attachment to the flamboyant hucksterism of the annual Tralee prance-fest, with its simpering maidens and their coy retinue of wannabe caballeros, provides us with a far more trenchant comment on “The State of Us” than Fintan O’Toole’s eloquent treatise? – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA MULKEEN,
Ballinfull,
Sligo.