No more silencing the truth about sex abuse
FOLLOWING on from revelations about Bishop Eamonn Casey’s abuse of various women over the years, your articles from Sunday (MoS, March 31) are truly horrific in relation to further allegations coming to light about his despicable nature.
I fully support your newspaper’s campaign in bringing out the truth with regard to all these victims speaking out.
It’s high time the Church and State stopped gagging victims with redress schemes and then sealing records for 75 years.
Shane Mullally, Ballinasloe, Co.Galway. …I FOUND the latest instalment of the Bishop Eamonn Casey story chilling but very credible.
He is no longer here to defend himself so some might argue a paper shouldn’t print a bad story about the dead.
Editors and journalists are put in an invidious situation in this regard. But what about the victims?
Are they not entitled to their say regardless of whether the perpetrators are alive or dead? I believe this newspaper examined the evidence carefully before deciding to run the story.
I write as a practising Catholic and while recognising none of us are fit to judge others, we the public are entitled to crucial information about adults who hurt children, especially adults in high places.
Meanwhile, I look forward to reading in your newspaper and in others about the amazing good work that most religious do, whether it be in our country or elsewhere.
It is very consoling when one reads about this.
Padraig Byrne, Ennis, Co. Clare. …MARGARET Stewart’s letter requests balance in the reporting on ‘Bishop’ Eamonn Casey (MoS letters, March 31).
In doing so, she reminds us of the good work he did in his life. May I remind Mrs Stewart that many a person has hidden their misdemeanours behind ‘good work’. Jimmy Saville springs to mind instantly.
Surely the people who allegedly claim he abused them must be listened to and their stories investigated thoroughly.
I personally don’t give any weight to his ‘good work’ if there is a grain of truth in their stories. If true, Casey has destroyed lives.
Geraldine Byrne, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.
A political giant
I AGREE wholeheartedly with Joe Duffy’s comments about Donogh O’Malley’s legacy to the Irish Nation (MoS, March 31).
O’Malley did not require hordes of PR merchants to make decisions for him. When his decision was made, the debate was over.
Likewise, with O’Malley’s political colleague, Charles Haughey’s decision to grant free travel to the pensioners of Ireland transformed their lives beyond their wildest dreams.
Pat O’Callaghan,
Tidy Towns hit back
WE REFER to the article about election posters in Mary Carr’s MoS column last Sunday.
The pros and cons of election posters has been well debated nationally and while we, as a network of Tidy Towns groups in Co. Louth, hold the strong view that they should be limited for aesthetic and environmental reasons, that’s not the purpose of this letter.
What we really take issue with is the headline, ‘Tidy Towns should stick to real litter’, and the reference in the article that ‘they should stay with hanging baskets’. This demonstrates a completely outdated view of what the Tidy Towns movement is about and how it has evolved over the 60 years since its inception.
Perhaps if the writer undertook a little research she might discover that nowadays it is no longer about ‘litter and flowers’ but all about creating sustainable communities, with volunteers working on resource management issues, managing and improving biodiversity and, yes, ensuring the highest level of presentation in their towns and villages at all times.
That’s why the visual intrusion of election posters, the single-use plastics from which they are made, and having to remove cable ties afterwards are so important to us.
We absolutely do not wish to interfere with the democratic process in any way, and accept the benefits of election posters, but argue these benefits are well outweighed by the aesthetic and environmental considerations.
Mary Murtagh, Larry Magnier, Louth Tidy Towns Together.
Unstoppable Jagger
POOR Mick Jagger was somewhat blue and lonesome when the Rolling Stones had to defer their latest tour due to his cardiac condition (MOS, March 31).
Fans will be happy to hear that Mick is expected to make a full recovery after going under the knife. Jagger, well known for his shrewd financial acumen, would not let a little thing like the mixed emotions of heart surgery keep him away from making buckets of money.
Pounds, shillings and stents, perhaps, Sir Mick, you old devil?
Vincent O’Connell, New Ross, Co. Wexford.