Sir, - In her reply to Roisin Shorthall (August 19th), Muriel Cleary would have us believe that this Fianna Fail-led Government regards supporting the family as a priority issue. Is one permitted to ask, then, why the Fianna Fail party withdrew its support for marriage as a lifelong commitment by supporting divorce? Why it changed its position with regard to divorce between 1986 and 1995 without a ballot of the individual membership? Why it supports the public declaration by its leader that he is romantically involved with a woman other than his wife?
The problems facing Irish society at the moment are moral and not economic. The family, based on marriage, needs moral support more than it does financial support. In this regard the present and previous government parties are guilty of giving bad example to our children. But "hush now", I hear the Celtic Tiger, and one cannot serve two masters. - Yours, etc., John Lacken, General secretary, Christian Solidarity Party,
Foxrock Avenue,
Dublin 18.