Madam, – Last Sunday I saw a man parading what I presumed was his wife up and down Grafton Street. This woman was wearing the full burka with just the tiniest slits for her eyes. I was tempted to alert a passing ban garda to this spousal abuse, but I realised I would probably, at best, be subjected to some multicultural babble picked up on a diversity training course, or at worst, be arrested for disturbing the peace.
So I sickened to read your Editorial (“Citoyens”, June 13th), which condemned a French decision to deny the privilege of French citizenship to a man who would not let his wife speak in public. Hundreds of thousands of people were martyred in France to secure the civilised values that all of the Western world now take for granted. Should they throw all that away so as not to offend the sensibilities of reactionary misogynists? All the focus is on the rights of the bigoted man, none on the man’s wife or on his unfortunate female children.
The Irish Timeslaboured long and hard against a backward Irish Catholic Church that turned out to be far more unpleasant than its fiercest critics ever imagined. For what? To appease another authoritarian religion that crushes those born into its power with far more intolerance than ever the Catholic Church did? Vive La France! – Yours, etc,