Sir, - Have you seen the five idols of Thomas Street? They stand on the pavement opposite John's Lane Church, 15 feet high, painted in blaring reds, greens, yellows and purples. Do come; they will repay study. There is something sinister about them, anti-human even. With their curled lips and slitty eyes they seem to be sneering at the humans who surge beneath them.
One must admire the skill of the sculptor/painter who succeeded in giving them such a baleful air. The great figures on Easter Island look merely dumb. There is something menacing and malign about these.
What do they symbolise? The soul of the Celtic Tiger? Where did they come from? And why? Are they things of beauty? No, horrors rather. In Rome, if a man wishes to instal neon lighting over his shop, the Commission for Public Beauty tells him the colour to use, so as to make a harmony with the other street lights. Has our Corporation no such body to protect us? Will these sinister, baleful, malign things continue to affront us? Oh dear, how I wish they would go away!-Yours, etc., Fr. K. Cullen, O.S.A.,
John's Lane, Thomas Street, Dublin 8.