Turning a blind eye to homelessness

Sir, – It seems that Ireland’s capacity for turning a blind eye hasn’t gone away.

A generation ago the problem was the children who were born to unmarried girls and unknown fathers, and the mother and baby homes. Today, the problem is families with nowhere to live, thousands of homeless children, many of whom are attending school burdened by the shame of their situation.

Politically, these children have been converted into statistics, meaningless numbers not unlike the occupants of hospital trolleys who must wait patiently for their turn.

As Jennifer O’Connell says in her excellent piece: “We suffer not so much from compassion fatigue as shame fatigue” (“A playground for the living built over the bones of the dead”, Opinion, October 11th). We are saying I hear you, but we are not really listening. We would prefer not to know. – Yours, etc,