Sir, - I would like to compliment John Waters on his courageous article, "Banished to a bed sit for the sake of women's liberation" (October 8th). It takes courage to write an article such as this, which challenges the "politically correct" consensus which dominates our society generally, and particularly the media.
Mr Waters refers to a recent article by Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, in The Irish Times, in which she said that women should "embrace those men who are trying to be better". In a similar vein he could also quote Ms Aine McCarthy who wrote an article in The Irish Times on September 11th about separated fathers who run Fathers' Family Time in Wesley House on Sundays. Ms McCarthy surpassed Sister Stanislaus with her remark that ". . . just because men are violent or sexually abusive more often than women, and more likely to run out on their families, does not rule the possibility of other men being good fathers And these remarks reflect the attitudes of the more moderate wing of the Sisterhood. Imagine the uproar that would ensue if such remarks were made about women.
Mr Waters concludes his column by highlighting the plight of fathers who are banished to a peripheral position in their children's lives just because their marriages break down - a cause recently taken on board by Bob Geldof. This is dangerous territory. He is, in effect, saying that men, too, are victims of gender based discrimination and injustice. It is an article of faith among many in the women's movement that "All women are victims and all men are villains". Their perceived monopoly on victimisation and suffering is one of the feminist movement's most cherished possessions which will not be surrendered to male upstarts preaching heresy.
Mr Geldof and Mr Waters are facing insurmountable odds if they are trying to get justice for separated fathers as regards custody and continued parenting of their children. When this issue has been raised in Dail Eireann, the response of the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, has been that there is no problem. So the thousands of separated fathers living in squalid bedsitters, deprived of their right to participate fully in the upbringing of their children, only imagine that they are suffering (they are not women!).
Mr Taylor's views are not untypical of the political establishment - it is likely that the vast majority, if not all, of his colleagues in all parties share his contempt for the plight of these separated fathers. As regard the children, the last two paragraphs of Mr Waters's article just about sums up the official attitude to the value of fathers and fatherhood in the lives of children. It is, indeed, amazing that so many separated fathers continue to strive to fulfil their parental obligations in the face of such a hostile, anti father, feminist dominated establishment. - Yours, etc.,
Aylesbury,
Tallaght,
Dublin 24.