Sir - I have a burning question to ask. As I hear the Catholic Church vilified daily in the media, and asked to take responsibility for the actions of some of its members, I should like to invite nominations for the credit for creating our present-day Ireland. I do not refer to improvements in telecommunications, health, prosperity, etc., which would probably have occurred anyway, as in other western non-socialist states since the war. Rather I refer to social and cultural "improvements", described often as freedom from various types of oppression. What I want to know is: Who are to be nominated as champions of our brave new Ireland? The period for which the prizes are being given out is the period since Independence, the past 70 years.
In 1937, a Constitution was voted into effect which reflected all core Catholic values. For the sake of argument, let us take 1937 as the apogee year of Church influence. Ever since, the Constitution has been diluted, contradicted to such an extent that one might say the Church's influence in social and cultural affairs is now at an all-time low. The pluralism and liberalism for which we are supposed to be so grateful are in no way due to the Church. In fact the Catholic Church is viewed as one of the tyrants from whose yoke the Irish people have largely been liberated. There is no way it can take any credit therefore.
So who does deserve the credit? In that same year of 1937, a woman was murdered at Malin Head. The murder was, I'm told by people who remember it, the first that had occurred in Ireland for two whole years. I'd really love to have the time and resources to check out this and other indicators of our social "progress" such as suicide, crime, prison population, drugs, family break-up, etc. But it surely doesn't take a doctorate in statistics to establish a correlation between the waning of Church influence and the increasing social mayhem.
Let, therefore, our fearless commentators identify with clarity, transparency and fairness the makers and shakers of this brave new Irish world. Let them then step forward and take a bow. Let their names be inscribed at the foot of the O'Connell Street Millennium Obelisk. But please, first - who are they? - Yours, etc., Brian Flanagan,
Buncrana, Co. Donegal.