Sir, - Just how insensitive can you get? The Thinking Anew item in your edition of March 24th quoted the comments of an English bishop, J.C. Ryle, on the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 1865. Ryle concluded that this disease was the "finger of God" pointing at the lifestyle of the people at that time.
The writer adds: "From where Ireland finds itself this weekend, does Ryle's sermon read as though it is 150 years out of date? . .What is God saying to Ireland and is there a contemporary J.C. Ryle in a pulpit anywhere to spell it out plainly?"
Seeing farming families in the Cooley Peninsula weep as they witness long-established herds being wiped out and children devastated by this killing of familiar animals, I wonder how the writer could possibly say the present foot-and-mouth epidemic is an act of God. I certainly could not spell out that message from my pulpit.
Anyway, I thought the evidence was emerging that some humans were responsible. Perhaps the writer sees them as God's agents? - Yours, etc.,
Canon Desmond Harman, Sandford Close, Dublin 6.