McAleese just can’t stay out of the limelight
I WAS wondering if anyone else felt the same way as I do about another of Mary McAleese’s attacks on the Catholic Church.
It seems that poor Mary just cannot remain out of the limelight and the best way to get attention is to attack the Catholic Church. She is unable to accept basic Catholic doctrine on anything ranging from homosexuality, gay marriage to even abortion.
In fact it seems that Mary cannot accept the Catholic teaching on anything and has to criticise it. So much for tolerance. Well Mary, if you cannot accept basic Catholic doctrine, it’s time for you leave and set up your own Church.
No doubt you will have an enthusiastic congregation but please stop knocking the Catholic Church. God knows we have more than enough detractors as it is. M. O’DWYER,
Dublin.
Kudos to the Mail!
WHEN I saw the front page of the Irish Daily Mail today (‘The Minister who won’t listen to parents’) I bought two copies instead of my usual one.
You did an absolutely amazing job in covering and presenting what is without question the most import subject affecting Irish society today. I plan to make photocopies of the front page, and pages 6, 7 and 8 to hand out to my friends and other people to whom I’m trying to explain the extent of the problem. The majority of the general public seem to be living in cloud cuckoo land when it comes to social media.
Keep up the good work on this very worthy cause!
JOHN TWOMEY, Kilgarvan, Co. Kerry.
No say in our schools
PARENTS (and students), who are a major stakeholder in Irish education, have no voice in it. Bar, of course, Education Together schools, which recently faced an attempt to adversely discriminate against them by restricting admissions.
Irish schools are the only organisations in the country today who can collect large sums of money, euphemistically called ‘voluntary contributions’, from parents without giving an account of it. Education is, in theory, free but in practice is not.
Irish schools are registered as charities but again are the only group who have been given a derogation whereby they don’t comply with the Charities Acts. Religious schools don’t even provide audited accounts!
Parents on the board of management of Ceist Schools are called nominees and are precluded from representing parents.
Moreover, the chairperson of board of management dictates the meeting agendas, they can prevent items going on the agenda, can stop discussion, prevent voting and boards don’t have to account to parents (or students) for any action they take. All of this is done in plain sight as this information can by found at the Ceist and Joint Management Board websites. TED BRADLEY, Charleville, Co. Cork.
Donald’s in a pickle
I WATCHED Donald Trump’s spokeswoman on CNN announce that Mr Trump knew nothing about Stormy Daniels the porn star, who says she had an affair with Trump in 2006, and was paid $130,000 by Trump’s own lawyer for signing a non-disclosure agreement. I know Trump thinks we are all stupid and what he says we must all agree with.
I do not believe that any lawyer would give anyone $130,000 of their own money and get a porn star to sign a non-disclosure agreement without their boss, in this case Trump, knowing about it and indeed sanctioning it.
MARTIN STRINGER, Co. Mayo.
Brexit disaster
AM I the only one who thinks we are sleepwalking towards economic oblivion with our stance on Brexit?
Britain is our biggest trading partner and the EU is using us as merely a pawn in a game to bully the UK.
As we have seen with the banking crisis, our ‘friends’ in the EU won’t give much of a hoot if we face penury in a few years.
DEREK FOLEY, via email.