Emotions of Christmas

Sir — Brendan O’Connor (Sunday Independent, December 24) does the State and its citizens a truly worthy service by illuminating the authentic enduring Christian magic and emotional nuances of Christmas, as it was and how it should/ could still be. Highlighting, with a compelling personal candour, his raft of seminal pre-Christmas experiences at various concerts and church services (including the stunning inspiration of a funeral with its powerful community essence and generosity of spirit abounding).

Brendan’s various commentaries cover a vastly varied tableau, and while they may tilt frequently towards the acerbic zone, one always detects a genuine empathetic thread with an innate caring disposition. He may of course lambaste political decisions and key players associated therein, but that is only to identify and support the suffering needy or marginalised victims affected by self-same decisions. His wit, when invoked, is supremely honed, yet never of the merely glib or flippant mode — not a cheap gibe in sight, or nothing opportunistically vacuous. More a persuasive and convincing insight, always worth considering.

His final paragraph reporting on his pre-Christmas ‘epiphanies’ could well be written into Bunreacht na hEireann with bountiful rewards for all: “And maybe if Christ’s values were more in vogue now, more part of the system, we’d have fewer kids in hotels this Christmas, fewer people ripped off by banks, maybe old people would be less afraid in their homes and maybe all of us wouldn’t have to search so hard and spend so much to try and find the meaning of Christmas.” Jim Cosgrove,

Lismore, Co Waterford