Rocking the cradle

‘Patronising remark’ goes unchallenged

Thu Apr 13 2023 - 02:15

Sir, – Yet again, on TV, I have heard the unquestioned, arrogant and condescending “soundbite” uttered by former president Mary Robinson on her inauguration. How is it that her assertion that Irish women “instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system” has never been publicly challenged by the powerful women who continue, effectively, worthily, to rock that very cradle?

On witnessing her first public utterance of this remark, I, as a mother, meeting my baby’s needs, felt patronised by someone who, as a mother, should surely have embraced all women. The anger doesn’t abate. – Yours, etc,

MONICA NOLAN,

Knocklyon,