Sir, This morning's news (January 25th) about further murders prompts me to write regarding respect for the elderly in this country.
The time has come for more serious action to be taken against the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. De Valera's vision of comely maidens dancing at the cross roads did not allow for elderly people being afraid to walk the streets at night, much less being prisoners in their own homes and now not even safe at that.
If law and order have broken down to this extent, drastic measures are called for and the only punishment I can think of for these cowards, is public flogging. These would be advertised after conviction of the crime in court. Admission could, I'm sure, be charged and the money gained used for rehabilitation and counselling of the victims.
Prison is only a guaranteed three meals a day, together with some recreation and heat for these people and it's too good for them. Apart altogether from the cost of keeping people in prison all they seem to learn in there is how the other criminals dodge the law and use our courts to their own advantage and then it's on to drugs and dependency and the spiral which that creates.
Kathryn Holmquist's recent article where she stated that these people have something missing in their make up which makes them dysfunctional and uncaring of their actions in hurting others would certainly raise sympathy for their plight, but who is more deserving of our care, the perpetrators or the victims? Yours etc., Fairview Corner, Dublin 3.