Madam, - Kevin Myers's description of the investigation into child abuse as a "farrago", and his suggestion that "all the surviving victims can do is to bear up and get on with life as best they can, taking their scars to the grave" is deeply offensive and indicative of a total lack of empathy with the ongoing suffering of the victims of abuse (An Irishman's Diary, September 10th).
He states categorically that "justice of any kind is simply not possible when evil has triumphed on a large scale". Such a suggestion, with its implications that the more prevalent the crime and the greater the number of victims the less we should endeavour to seek justice, should be an anathema to any civilised society. The scale of the tragedy wrought by the abuse of children should have implications only to the scale of the resolve and energies mobilised to rectify, as much as is possible, this terrible blight.
Mr Myers's plaintive assertion that "the simplest lesson from history is that it is impossible to achieve universal justice on this earth" is baseless and self-pitying. In a world that is so often afflicted with tragedy, such a resigned attitude to injustice is both defeatist and dangerous.
While victim support groups lament the resignation of Ms Justice Laffoy and its destabilising effect on the investigation into child abuse, Mr Myers writes that this should have been greeted with "widespread cheering".
The argument that to deal with this issue would take too long and cost too much heaps insult upon injury. Who knows how long these unhealed wounds will fester in Irish society and at what eventual cost if allowed to go unchecked?
The price of justice is irrelevant; the cost of dismissing it is incalculable. - Yours, etc.,
AIDAN HEHIR, Wellesley Court, Clancy Strand, Limerick.
Madam, - Breda O'Brien, in her article "Why the whole story has to be told" (Opinion, September 6th), correctly pointed out the existence of false allegations and the living hell to which innocent people have been subjected.
Loss of reputation, withdrawal from social life, suspension from profession - not to speak of the dreadful anguish experienced within families - are just some of the consequences of being accused in the wrong of such a terrible crime as child sex abuse.
The existence of false allegations has to mean that not all people saying they are victims are in fact bona fide cases. What is the stance of the Laffoy Commission on the issue of false allegations?
How does it discern whether or not a complaint is genuine? And if a person appearing before it is found to have made a false allegation, what course does it take?
Just as the work and credibility of religious orders has been seriously undermined by the actions of a few so the credibility of genuine victims of sexual abuse is also seriously undermined by the few who, in making false allegations and purporting to be genuine victims, are in fact telling lies. - Yours, etc.,
MARY O'REILLY, Dublin 7.