Madam, - Speaking at the Céifin "Imagining the Future" conference in Ennis, (Nov. 4th), the Ombudsman, Ms Emily O'Reilly, criticised what she saw as the vulgarity of today's Ireland and suggested: "It would be good if we recognised the new religions of sex and drink and shopping for what they are and tiptoed back to the churches. . .to remind ourselves of some of the universal truths about charity and decency and how to live a good life, all of which are contained in the teachings of the major religions."
But it was because of some of the teachings of the major religions that people tiptoed out of their churches to begin with. They preferred to take their chances with sex, drink and shopping rather than risk exposure to the violence and vulgarity of homophobic and sexist preaching.
By all means tiptoe back in, but, if I may suggest, at off-peak times, when God is present and not his potentially dangerous ministers. - Yours, etc.,
DECLAN KELLY
Lower Essex St,
Temple Bar,
Dublin 8.
Madam, - Emily O'Reilly's astute observations and wise advice (Weekend Review, Nov 6th) will probably not be read by those who most need to pay attention.
They will have been too busy reading (!) a celebrity gossip mag while waiting to put their name on a list for the latest "must-have", while blissfully unaware of the chaos caused by their SUV double parked in the bus lane.
The rest of us can only splutter with frustration while we eat breakfast and wonder where it all went wrong and where it is all going to end. - Yours, etc.,
CAROLINE McGEE,
Killiney Road,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - "As a nation we have a need for voices that will tell us what we don't want to hear." So said Minister John O'Donoghue at the Sugar Club in Dublin last week.
Emily O'Reilly, Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, became one of those voices at the annual conference of Céifin last Wednesday. She began by saying: "Many of us recoil at the vulgar fest that is much of modern Ireland" and went on to ask some very searching questions on the subject of "who or what is the real us?"'
My thanks to Emily O'Reilly. I have been waiting for one of our political or church leaders to ask such questions for some years. Would it be too much to ask that some of Ms O'Reilly's erstwhile colleagues in the media take up and examine the startling issues she has raised.
They too must be aware of the vacuum in many of our lives. Perhaps you, Madam, could give a lead by inviting comment from those in differing walks of life so that a public debate could take place.
Ms O'Reilly is concerned about our "poverty of spirit". Jesus said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit". So is it a good thing to acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy before God and use that as one of our starting points?- Yours, etc.,
ROBIN BOLES,
Kilmacanogue,
Co Wicklow.
Madam, - The Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, is to be congratulated on her article, "What has happened to us?" (Nov 6th).
It is refreshing to have the appalling state we have fallen into so well described. It makes a welcome change from the bleatings of "liberals" who believe only in capitulating to whatever the fashionable whinge of the moment may be.
We are rude, loud and vulgar. Greed is rampant and civic values non-existent.
The foulness of our towns and cities, the filth we are obliged to endure, poor public transport, a tottering health service and a craven political leadership make us look shabby beside the most abject banana republic.
In a society where "feeling" rather than reason rules, we are doomed to brutish anarchy.
Unlike Emily O'Reilly, I wish for no return to an irretrievably compromised church.
Good manners and politeness would do much if they were not seen as signs of weakness and failure.
We truly are a "most distressful country". -Yours, etc.,
AIDAN HARMAN,
Dillon's Cross,
Cork.