Madam, - I read with interest the article on religious belief by Mark Brennock based on the Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll (September 20th).
I find it hard to believe that in a poll of 1,000 young people aged 15 to 24, taken at 100 different locations, there were no representatives from the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist, Jewish and Muslim religions.
The poll as I read it assumes that everybody questioned was a member of the Roman Catholic Church. How many of the 55 per cent who answered No to the question "Do you go to Mass nowadays?" represented other religious beliefs?
We now live in a society far removed from the "Catholic Ireland" image of the 1940s and 1950s; so, rather than asking us if we went to Mass or not, surely it would be more correct to ask if we attended a place of worship. - Yours, etc.,
ROBIN D. HEATHER, Dunbur Lower, Wicklow.
Madam, - Although surveys on youth attitudes to alcohol and sexual relationships are no doubt of interest to parents, I am surprised that no mention has been made of the possible inaccuracies of what they report.
Surely the normal statistical variances expected in such surveys would not go far enough to measure how teenage bravado, especially among young males, would skew figures upwards. When 16-year-olds are asked about the amount of alcohol they drink or the number of sexual partners they have had, surely the answers must be taken with a pinch of (liver) salt! - Yours, etc.,
DAVID COLLINS, Ballinteer Avenue, Dublin 16.