Sir, - It is easy to agree with Dr Tom Dunne (April 1st) that the massacre at Scullabogue was "a sectarian atrocity". Reminiscent of our own time, the Protestants composed a "Bloody Calendar`' of the 150 or so who died in it.
The rebels had noble ideals of liberty and equality (they were less sure about fraternity). Yet the intense religious hatred developed over the previous 200 years could not easily be overcome and led to this and other atrocities.
The Catholic Church itself can hardly be blamed for the incidents, even though several priests were fighting with the rebels. This church was, however, fully involved in the beginnings of the religious wars when the Popes gave the same plenary indulgence for fighting Protestants as was given to the crusaders. It is easy to switch on popular religious fervour but it takes centuries to extinguish it.
Some years earlier Tadhg Gaelach O Suilleabhain was praying for the Stuart pretender "a bhrufas an bruscar sin Liutair is Sheain" ("who will crush the rubbish that is [the followers of] Luther and Jean [Calvin]"). Evidently this spirit still survived in Wexford despite the effects of the French Revolution.
The second Vatican Council admitted the Catholic share of guilt for the Reformation and confessed to Catholic ways of acting opposed to the Gospel. The Pope prayed at a monument in Debrecen, Hungary "dedicated to Protestant victims of the religious wars". Cardinal Daly apologised to the British people in Canterbury Cathedral for the hurt inflicted on them by the Irish. Since we are a confessing and repenting church, it would be appropriate for Catholics to stage an act of of repentance at Scullabogue on June 5th next. - Yours, etc.,
(Rev) Eoin DE Bhaldraithe
Bolton Abbey, Moone, Co Kildare.