Letter from the Editor
The word “ragout” is defined in dictionaries as “a dish consisting of small pieces of meat or fish and vegetables”, but most newspaper people seeing it written down won’t think of food, or pronounce it as “ra-goo”. In our game, a ragout is a miniature headline showing how a key story has been covered in the past. It’s often there to tell the reader: we were first. But it can also serve as a reminder that an important story has received due attention.
There are no fewer than eight ragouts accompanying Mark Tighe’s report on the long-awaited Cass Review into the treatment of children with puberty blockers and hormones at the UK’s Tavistock gender identity clinic, to which more than 230 Irish children have been referred.
This, of course, has long been a deeply contentious issue, and I was struck by the statement by Dr Hilary Cass that “polarisation and stifling of debate do nothing to help the young people caught in the middle of a stormy social discourse”.
Mark’s reporting on this story has been far and away the most notable — and comprehensive — by any Irish journalist. It is fair to say it has also been the subject of much hostility, particularly on social media. The same could be said of commentary on the same subject by Eilis O’Hanlon. Both address the findings in the Cass report, on pages 9 and 21 respectively.
“The time for silence is over. There has been too much of it already,” Eilis writes. There are also several letters on the subject, on page 29 — and we invite more for next week’s paper, from all shades of opinion.
A particularly good edition of Life magazine carries three related features which are likely to be among the most read of our offering this week. The theme of the signature piece by Patrice Harrington is illicit encounters — what causes people to cheat on their partners?
Resident advice columnist Mary O’Conor examines how a relationship can survive an affair and the package is completed by an anonymous writer’s account of a four-year liaison with a married colleague.
As usual, we have big interviews — including Dónal Lynch with Twin Peaks actor Kyle MacLachlan in People & Culture. A mention, too, for Maeve Sheehan’s report in this section (page 6) on the sudden death last weekend of the Kilbeggan racecourse general manager Paddy Dunican.
It’s also one of the best weekends of the year for live sport and we have 20 action-packed pages. The last word, as usual, falls to Eamonn Sweeney’s Hold The Back Page column. He looks ahead to the All-Ireland hurling championship, with Limerick going for the five-in-a-row.
Tipperary great Babs Keating, who turns 80 on Wednesday (see our popular Birthdays list, page 29), tells me he can’t see the champions winning another Liam MacCarthy. Whatever about that prediction– and some of us beg to differ – a glorious summer of hurling lies ahead.
There’s plenty more interesting reading in our five sections. I hope you have a great Sunday.