Madam, - I was disappointed to see The Irish Times publish Donal O'Driscoll's letter suggesting that granting rights to gay couples was tantamount to promoting paedophilia (October 21st).
Madam, - I was disappointed to see The Irish Times publish Donal O'Driscoll's letter suggesting that granting rights to gay couples was tantamount to promoting paedophilia (October 21st).
Mr O'Driscoll's may underestimate or even deny any significant emotional element in a relationship between two men. However, even those who refuse to countenance that same-sex couples can "love" each other should surely be able to distinguish homosexual sex from paedophilia.
For Mr O'Driscoll's benefit, the former is consensual sex between adults of the same sex, while the latter is non-consensual sex between a child and an adult of the same or different sex. Of those paedophiles who also form relationships with adults, the majority form opposite-sex relationships.
I trust that most sensible Irish parents already know this. Indeed, I suspect that given a choice between a gay couple and a homophobic man with an unhealthy interest in what other men get up to in the privacy of their own homes, most would not choose the latter as a babysitter. - Yours, etc.,
E.M. EIVERS, Faussagh Road, Dublin 7.
Madam, - I recoiled with outrage reading Donal O'Driscoll's inciting and ridiculous link between paedophilia and the homosexual union. For anyone to suggest that the coming together of two men (and it was certainly men that he was referring to) leads inevitably to the sexual abuse of children just proves how worthy a cause Senator David Norris's campaign - and the campaigns of others - for the promotion of gay rights in this country is.
Such attitudes are among the last remaining barriers to the fabled society of equals noticeable on a daily basis, and serve as a sad reminder of a far more narrow-minded and bigoted age. - Yours, etc.,
RURAIDH CONLON O'REILLY, Fownes Street Upper,
Temple Bar, Dublin 2.
Madam, - So the good Rev. Phoncie Cullinan feels compassion for those with homosexual problems. I wonder how he feels about healthy, well-adjusted lesbians and gay men.
Perhaps if he spent less time criticising the decisions of other Christian churches, and more time addressed his own church's dysfunctional attitudes to sex and sexuality, it may go a small way to stem the flood of people fleeing the Church of Rome for churches that seek "the truth about human nature". - Yours, etc.,
DÓNAL TRAYNOR, Shepherd's Court, Shepherd's Bush, London W12 8PW.