Rape case could help society

■ Last week, a letter writer, J Kelly, mentioned the “win” the international rugby players cleared of rape had while at the same time acknowledging that there were no winners in the case as your front-page headline stated the previous day.

However, maybe there was one winner out if this very sordid mess.

This case has highlighted at least two very important issues.

It has put the focus on consent in sexual relations, as well as attitudes held by some young men who look on women as mere sex objects that can be used for their own sexual gratification and then discarded like a piece of unwanted junk.

The whole case and acquittal has generated much needed debate on these issues, as have the recent Hollywood scandals and the #metoo campaign.

While the trial took place in another jurisdiction, the issues raised are just as applicable south of the Border. The overconsumption of alcohol by some of the parties involved is something we are no strangers to either.

While this whole case undoubtedly caused much distress to the young woman at its centre and the outcome was not what she would have hoped for, I’m sure she took comfort from the protests held on both sides of the Border on Thursday.

Maybe society will be the real winner when people have forgotten the minutiae of the court case.

It’s only when a light is shone on previously taboo subjects that society as a whole can see its deficits and work to improve matters so that the chances of things being repeated are minimised.

Tommy Roddy Salthill, Co Galway