Sinn Féin’s attacks on Paisley are hypocritical
IT IS hilarious to hear Sinn Féin, and indeed some others in our own Dáil, telling us Ian Paisley Jr has behaved in a manner bringing politics into disrepute.
Give us a break from the outrage that an MLA took holiday trips offered by a foreign government.
Where’s the real harm in something like this, apart from a slight bending of a rule pertaining? There are Sinn Féin TDs sitting in Leinster House and MLAs in Stormont guilty, and convicted, of very serious crimes.
Let’s revisit those for the sake of balance and to give us real cause for outrage that such people inhabit our places of parliamentary democracy.
Judge then as to the common sense of Ian being punished with just a slap on the wrist, which is all his junket merits.
By comparison to the crimes of the real ‘hard men’, this is what his mistake ought to warrant. ROBERT SULLIVAN,
Bantry, Co. Cork.
Fine Gael failures
ON THE day Fianna Fáil announced there were a million people on health service waiting lists, Health Minister Simon Harris said he intends to ensure women from the North can access abortion services in the Republic.
Perhaps he should concentrate on reducing the waiting lists under his control rather than ‘ensuring’ patients from another jurisdiction get treated.
Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy has been forced to close his constituency office because his lease came to an end and he obviously has been unable to source another property as he has now has no constituency office (Mail, yesterday).
It does not give one much confidence in his planning abilities. So much for the up-and-coming young guns in Fine Gael. DENIS DENNEHY,
Dublin.
Pope’s dilemma
APPARENTLY, Pope Francis plans to meet the Taoiseach and members of his Cabinet when he visits Ireland later this month.
It’s very difficult for any Catholic who remains faithful to Church teaching to understand why the Pope would see fit to meet a group of people who have publicly rejected the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of human life and the Christian view of marriage.
As his visit is a pastoral one only, there is no obligation on the Pope to meet any politicians or other State dignitaries.
It can hardly be said that he is meeting them to preach the Word of God since they have already heard the Word and have rejected it. The fact that they rejected it in public as was seen during the two recent referendums on marriage and abortion marks them out as scandal givers.
Bearing this in mind, I fail to see how the Pope, whose function it is to preach and defend the Gospel and give comfort and leadership to those Catholics who are outraged at the virulent attacks on that Gospel, can be seen to appear in public with smiles and handshakes for people who are so blatantly anti-God, anti-Church and anti-religion.
Indeed, it would be hard to imagine a more unsuitable bunch of people for the Pope to be seen mixing with while on a pastoral visit.
If he decides to do so, he can expect nothing but further alienation from those Catholics who remain faithful to the Church’s teaching and will render his entire visit meaningless and insignificant. FRANK O’CONNOR,
Blarney, Co. Cork.
Fix your grammar!
IN RECENT times, there has been some criticism of poor grammar by GAA analysts on RTÉ radio and television, and rightly so.
Now, I wish to add further fuel to the fire with comments about some of those involved in the television coverage of the European Athletics Championships in Berlin in recent days.
While the long-serving duo of George Hamilton and Jerry Kiernan deserve praise for their professional efforts, it was quite irritating to hear the continuous use of the words ‘you know’ by two others. One of the offending persons used the two words about 15 times in around a minute.
This caused me to switch to the BBC and I respectfully suggest the ‘you know’ guys are not suitable for broadcasting. Surely such people should be tutored in proper use of the English language. Over to the RTÉ heads of sport.
LEON COOGAN, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
Say no to misogyny
THERE is no place in our Western civilised society where women are forced by a man to dress covered from head to toe.
A woman has a right to choose and she does not have to have her genitals mutilated. There should be no place in our society where women are forced to cover their beauty and their bruises in order to conform to Dark Ages and outdated violent misogyny.
Nowhere in Islam does it say, ‘A woman must be covered from head to toe’. Women are not even allowed to choose who they marry. Next they will be demanding we introduce Sharia Law.
Women who choose to dress like this are betraying their female friends. I am neither a bigot nor a racist. ANN BRENNAN, Kilkenny.