Pussy Riot’s altar protest did no harm, Dr Dooley
MARK DOOLEY may well have justifiable contempt for the moral hypocrisy that has poured out over Pussy Riot from certain ‘ liberal’ quarters. He notes these same voices would remain silent should such a protest and subsequent sentence have occurred in a mosque.
But he is thoroughly wrong in referencing John Stuart Mill’s concept of harm to others as pertaining to the curtailment of one’s opinions or ideas in case they should offend someone.
That of itself would be unquantifiable, and indeed contrary to Mill’s belief in the free exchange of opinion and ideas — freedom of speech and conscience — for the betterment of society, where the best ideas may take hold.
Mill’s concept of harm referred to physical harm: ‘I have every right to express my ideas and opinions whether you are offended or not. If you disagree you may equally engage in the expression of your contrary view provided neither of us were inciting harm and violence on to the other.’
The Blasphemy Law is a product of the Dark Ages through which the great Western political/social body is being undermined. And that is being conceded to by both the politically correct body that Dr Dooley has justifiable contempt for and the Christian conservative ideas he espouses.
As for Pussy Riot . . . two years for prancing about the altar! Would he advocate stoning just to keep up with the Islamists?
JOHN MCGRATH, Cappawhite, Co. Tipperary.
Shameful neglect
WHEN I read the front page of my Mail I thought, for a moment, I was in Communist East Germany. But no, I was in holy Catholic Ireland, purported to be one of the richest countries in the world.
The shocking revelation of the appalling conditions at the Owen Riff Nursing Home in Galway turned my stomach. There was a harrowing litany of neglect — residents left in filthy clothes, no showers for a month, not properly fed, scalding water in the taps . . . the list goes on and on.
Staff, many of whom did not have the required Garda vetting, were unable to see to the needs of patients, because they were ‘too busy’.
The cabinet where controlled drugs were stored, and which should have been secure, was unlocked. It would also appear that the individual issuing medicine was not 100 per cent sure if it was being given to the right patient.
The home is owned by a company called Riverside Nursing Home Ltd and was taken over by the HSE in April. Questions have to be asked about the HSE inspection system. It is run on a three- year cycle; this is lunacy. Where human beings are involved, it should be every six months. A Garda officer should accompany the HSE inspectors, to check the Garda vetting documentation of staff working in that home.
If these are the conditions at one home, regularly inspected by the HSE, what are things like at the rest of the nursing homes around the country? I fear to think.
JOHN FAIR, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
Welcome John Lenin
IT WOULD be lovely to know how many special advisers, office staff and scriptwriters it took to provide the Taoiseach with the speech that claimed Michael Collins once brought Lenin to Ireland.
With these people behind him I’m surprised his speech didn’t try to convince us Phil Collins had once brought John Lennon to Ireland.
MARTIN STRINGER, Barnacogue. Co. Mayo. SO THE Taoiseach thought that Lenin came to Ireland to get some tips on how to run the Soviet Union and no one noticed the gaffe for three days. Does this suggest that our historians are rubbish — or that no one pays attention when Enda speaks?
MIKE ROYCROFT, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.
Lost in space
IS IT right that Sarah Brightman or Guy Laliberte can spend €34 million or so to fly into orbit? Wouldn’t that money be better spent on the hungry, the homeless etc.
The needs of thousands could be satisfied rather than the needs of one or two.
MARIE FLANAGAN, Noughaville, Co. Clare.
Economic madhouse
HURRAY! Yippee! Whoopee! Time to go dancing in the streets! Happy days are here again. Everything is coming up roses.
We have achieved our greatest ambition; we can borrow again from the markets. If cocking up economies was an Olympic event we would have struck gold.
It appears Abraham Lincoln’s old adage of not being able to fool all the people all the time is under severe strain. The economic establishment tells us that being able to borrow on the ‘ bond market’ again at rates substantially higher than those we find intolerable under the Troika is success and progress.
Economic achievement is now apparently based on our acceptance by the predatory money lenders who already fleeced us to be fleeced once again.
Payback of the Troika bailout with money borrowed from the ‘markets’ will herald our arrival as a successful economy once more.
Only one uncertainty remains; how long before our bond rates reach unsustainability again and we go screaming to the Troika — again — to be rescued — again.
A people who believe and accept such absurdities probably deserve to be fleeced and enslaved.
PÁDRAIC NEARY, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo.
Tax shambles
WHEN are the ministers going to return from their expenses-paid junkets and holidays and sort out the shambles that is the household tax?
I received a second letter today warning me that legal proceedings will be initiated if I don’t pay. I paid the tax in March, but a neighbour — same address — still has not paid and has not received any letters.
Does this mean that all the figures that are spouted out about the noncompliance are pie in the sky, like all other data that is published?
Considering that it took them nine weeks to cash my cheque, they don’t appear to be making much effort to sort out the mess.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED.