Did broadcast reports have to be so graphic?
NOW that the very prominent criminal case involving four males in Belfast is thankfully over, I can express my abhorrence at the extremely explicit and graphic reporting of the case on the early evening news and chat shows transmitted by all broadcasters.
How many parents were faced with their young children hearing such troubling reports so early in the evening?
Paul Cummins, PADDY JACKSON and Stuart Olding should never ever be allowed play for Ireland again. They are a disgrace.
Their behaviour on the night of the alleged rape was despicable. I am sure many of their rugby colleagues would not wish to play with them.
I am sure also there would be protests at the matches if they were ever picked to play again.
Noel Peers, Graignamanagh, Co. Kilkenny. THE trial and acquittal of the ‘Belfast Four’, on various charges in relation to alleged offences in relation to a young woman, raises some serious questions that the media seems reluctant to address.
The four men, who have been acquitted of all charges and stand innocent in the eyes of the law, have nonetheless been named, and their reputations trashed and traduced, in newspapers, social media, TV and radio across Britain and Ireland.
Meanwhile, the young woman retains her anonymity and the sympathy of the feminist media. Where is the justice in all of this?
John O’Sullivan, Carrigaline, Co. Cork. THERE are approximately 60,000 babies born in Ireland every year who have a fundamental right to life as per our Constitution.
There are approximately 60 (0.1%) babies born with varying degrees of life limiting conditions where their mother feels she cannot carry them to full term even though there is no risk to her own life or her health.
As those unfortunate conditions are normally diagnosed well into the second trimester surely it would be preferable for all concerned to avail of palliative care for those babies, rather than ending their precious lives prematurely through upsetting surgical abortion?
John Burke, Clontarf, Dublin 3. TOM COOPER obviously doesn’t do irony (MoS letters, March 25). If John Redmond was enthusiastic about Irish participation in World War I on the side of Britain, it was matched by the signatories to the Proclamation for the German side: ‘Our gallant allies in Europe’ and all that.
Irishmen being killed or wounded by German soldiers was welcomed by militant Irish nationalists. Should Redmond have his statue? Well, Seán Russell has his (in Fairview Park). During World War Two, IRA man Russell collaborated with the Nazis (the most vile regime in history) in a bid to overthrow the government of the fledgling Irish state and install a Nazi protectorate.
What would have happened had the IRA’s allies won the day can only be guessed at. Redmond was a saint in comparison.
Eddie Naughton, The Coombe, Dublin 8. I READ the interview with TV presenter Helen Skelton in the Magazine of the MoS (March 18) and was horrified to see the quote: ‘GP said: breast is best for baby – bottle is best for boobs,’ printed nice and big.
I fully agreed with Ms Skelton’s position regarding breast feeding; it absolutely has to be each mother’s individual choice. I’m sorry to hear that she feels that the decision to bottle feed her baby would be met with ‘a look of disapproval’ from health professionals in Britain.
I live in Northern Ireland, breastfed my three children and found quite the opposite reaction from the health professionals in my area.
They thought what I was doing was great and I practically took on saint status with one doctor when I had blood tests done so that I might contribute milk to the Human Milk Bank.
I’m no hero. I did all of it because I could, because I wasn’t having to wean off to go back to work, because I was too lazy to get out of bed and make bottles in the middle of the night.
What’s made me hopping mad about the article and position of the GP in France is that it’s untrue, misleading and frankly antiquated.
Breastfeeding helps protect mothers from breast cancer, not to mention ovarian cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and obesity. Delia Grant, Castlewellan, Co. Down.