Sir, – The letter you published by Seamus McKenna (February 9th) is just the latest in a long line of letters over the years, all saying the same thing, that Catholic schools are funded by the State, and are therefore State schools, and therefore should be secular.
Mr McKenna makes the mistake in his letter, however, of introducing the idea of fairness, and thereby inadvertently draws attention to the absolute lack of this quality in his and similar proposals.
What he blithely describes as “an accident of history”, most of us would describe instead as a massive historical contribution of resources from Catholics into setting up and running these schools, and many of us would acknowledge that these schools did a superb educational job over a long period when the State did not have the resources to do so.
Not a mention from Mr McKenna of compensating the Catholic Church for any of this.
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Not a mention, either, that a clear majority of parents want the present system to continue.
And no acknowledgement that secularists are free to run their own schools on secular lines, with State support, just as Catholics and those of other religions are free to follow their own ethos.
I like Mr McKenna’s beliefs no more than he likes mine, but I would not dream of forcing on him an all-Catholic education system. Until he is prepared to do likewise for me and other Catholics, he should stop talking about fairness. – Yours, etc,
JIM STACK,
Lismore,
Co Waterford.