Sir, – John Waters bemoans the frequent inclusion of homosexual marriage, abortion and euthanasia in newspaper columns at the cost of “real” news (Opinion, May 10th).
Aside from the fact The Irish Times only offers a very small proportion of its newspaper to these topics on any given day or even week, they are hardly the concerns of special interest groups who are given disproportionate print space.
Homosexual marriage does not just affect homosexual people, but their families.
How many families in Ireland have no homosexual member, either a sibling, father, mother, cousin, aunt or uncle? Abortion, the right to control human reproduction, is hardly an issue affecting a minority. Similarly euthanasia can potentially affect every person in Ireland by means of disease or accident to a loved one or oneself. These issues are documented in print because they carry fierce importance to a large number of people.
How they are dealt with by governments of Ireland or not dealt with will affect hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens and residents lives – both their physical and mental health.
The discussion and treatment of these issues was until recent years stifled by religious institutions cloistered from the real world and its bitter cruelty, discrimination and misfortune.
Whatever one’s political opinions are, be they liberal or conservative, these issues must be discussed, dissected and understood. They are not going away. Ever. – Yours, etc,
ANNE MARIE DONOVAN,
Fortfield Road,
Dublin 6W.