Young, confident, courageous women

Sir — The day after tens of thousands of young women marched in our capital city for the right to control their own fertility without interference from church or state, and given the unprecedented attendance at the march, I thought the voice of one of these young women would have been heard in the columns of your newspaper.

Instead we were treated to the tired voice of Maria Steen (Sunday Independent, October 1) from the Iona Institute complaining about how unfairly “pro-life” activists have been treated in recent times.

Indeed, Ms Steen was a guest on Brendan O’Connor’s Cutting Edge on RTE in June 2016 where she trotted out the same mantra.

Ms Steen’s article, which took up half a page, partially dealt with a man called Tim Jackson, described as “courageous and dignified”. Well, Ms Steen, so were the tens of thousands of young women who marched through Dublin.

Mr Jackson does not have to worry about an unplanned pregnancy, nor will he have to carry a child who is the product of a violent rape. Nor will he be like the women in this country who are forced to carry babies suffering from fatal foetal abnormalities. My advice to Mr Jackson is to concentrate on the problems facing the born. He’d be better served helping Brother Kevin at the Capuchin Day Centre or a similar charity.

I am a man in my 60s and am proud to say my daughter was one of the young women on that march. The future of this country rests with them. They are young, confident and articulate and will not be cowed, unlike previous generations of Irish women — some of whom were treated appallingly by church and State. Shay Howell,

Dublin 14