Mother’s pride in her ‘little boy’ will never dim
THE supermarket was busy as they headed for a trolley. He was big and strong, and wore a lumberjack shirt, sleeves rolled up showing tanned, hairy arms.
His combats and hobnailed boots were splattered with muck. A builder, no doubt.
She was a tiny, frail lady who gently propped her walking stick into the trolley. They ambled up and down the aisles, and picked up this and that. He was at his mother’s beck and call. She preferred the little washed spuds all the same size, which was handy.
The half-full trolley made its way to the checkout, she didn’t need much. A bottle of sherry and a few beers for when he called around were added. With great pride, he paid the bill. The bags were packed with hands as big as shovels. Mother smiled contentedly: wasn’t all the time and energy put into him worth every minute, he turned out a right smasher. Off they went.
As Mother’s Day nears, remember: it matters not how old a son is even when he is a big hairy yoke. He will always be a little boy in his mother’s eyes. JACQUIE CONNOLLY,
Foxrock, Dublin 18.
Political choices
I WAS reflecting recently about what politics actually means.
I concluded that the essence of politics should be about the principles according to which policies are formulated. That is competition versus cooperation, individualism versus collective interests, business profits over human needs (or vice versa), hierarchy versus equality. This leads me to ask: which parties in the Dáil offer us a truly principled choice?
I struggle to tell if the political shopping list is any good, especially if you don’t know what the dinner menu is meant to be.
All we seem to be getting from the three parties in government is the same debilitating political junk food, differing only in the details of the ingredients. When I look across the Dáil and see Sinn Féin, Labour, Social Democrats, etc, I find myself being depleted of all appetite. The words of the late George Orwell resonate so much truth: ‘Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.’
JOHN O’BRIEN, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
War kills our faith
THE futility of war is indelibly etched into the European psyche.
Darwin’s On The Origin Of Species was published in 1859. It still attracts our intellectual elites. But theologians describe it as a ripple when compared to the tidal wave of spiritual scepticism unleashed by World War One?
The mud of Flanders dealt a killer blow to our institutional church, not fossil discoveries in Precambrian sediment. Metaphorical (and literal mud) perpetually drowns every nationalistic argument about a perceived attachment of blood and soil. ‘Ideas have consequences’ – as we see daily in TV reports on Gaza and Ukraine.
JAMES HARDY, by email.
Balanced debate
IN this era of daily criticism of RTÉ, I would like to congratulate it on its Prime Time programme on Tuesday in relation to the upcoming referendums. The presenter was very balanced.
The Yes side was represented by Tánaiste Micheál Martin, the No side by lawyer Maria Steen. Mr Martin was unable to satisfactorily answer a question in relation to a Muslim man who has two wives, and whether this family would be classed as ‘durable’.
The failure of the Government or Electoral Commission to clearly state what constitutes a ‘durable relationship’ is reason enough for people to reject this proposed amendment.