Sir, - In a recent radio interview, Assistant Commissioner Jim McHugh sought to outline a Garda initiative designed to combat late-night brawls and violence between young people. This initiative must be fully supported.
When the Assistant Commissioner mentioned involving parents, the interviewer immediately commented: "Oh, you're putting the blame on parents, are you?" I am certain that this was not what the Assistant Commissioner was saying. Nor is it what I am now saying.
But I do say that unless parents engage in the challenge of finding a solution to this horrific problem, gardai on their own are doomed to failure. I believe, moreover, that there is a profound obligation on all of us in politics, in education, in the church and in the media to combine our strengths to tackle this issue. I also believe that young people themselves - the most highly educated generation of Irish youth in history - must be challenged to make their input. They can begin by identifying for themselves and for us the cultural conditions that have given rise to this appalling situation. More than any other segment of society I believe that their engagement with finding solutions could be the most valuable.
Human life is held to be sacred in every civilised society. People of my generation were brought up with the principles of the Ten Commandments - one of which says, "Thou shalt not kill". I am certain that there is an overwhelming need to revisit these principles and to assert them on a ongoing basis and in the modern idiom.
Young people have a right to be raised in a society that has a core moral order. No self-respecting society can turn a blind eye to this visible slide into barbarism. This happened fictionally in William Golding's novel Lord of the flies. It is happening in reality in the streets and suburbs of our capital city today.
The challenge for all of us now is to ask ourselves if we are part of the solution or part of the problem. - Yours, etc.,
Senator Mairin Quill, Wellington Road, Cork.