Sir, - I would love to live back when the fields went on for miles and miles and miles, the priests hopped and skipped, the gardai would always pat the little dirty-faced urchins on the head and we drove the donkey to work and could park it for nothing.
Just stop it right there! There was no golden Irish past, no morally perfect society where everyone was deeply spiritual and helping the sick and poor was everyone's main concern. The Irish were just as greedy, conservative, and corrupt as they are now.
Last week, an impassioned P. Kiely stated that our present icons are morons. Yet the icons of today are saints in comparison with those manipulative, sadistic and short-sighted Irish political and religious icons he harks back to. And that wonderful "Land of Saints and Scholars" phrase is laughable. There are more scholars now, thanks to better teaching methods and access to college. And those saints were only hiding behind a veneer of Christianity as they bullied us into submission.
If your idea of a decent society is one of restricted press, industrial schools and a meat-and-potatoes economy, then maybe you would prefer to live in the welcoming country of Indonesia. - Yours, etc., Dave Hall,
Greystones, Co Wicklow.