Sir, - I dare to raise my head from the ghetto, from where I contemplate my life of "witless lumpen-proletarian primitivism" to challenge the tone and sentiments expressed by Kevin Myers (An Irishman's Diary, July 22nd).
If he truly had the interest of working-class people at heart, he would have done us all a greater service by ignoring our existence and our plight as he sees it.
While discussing corruption, public morals and the "self-congratulatory inanities of the Celtic Tiger" he asks a very important question: "What is the greatest and most damnable truth about us? It is this: one quarter of our population are functionally illiterate". Fair enough, so far. It is a damnable truth and one that shames us all.
However, there the truth endeth in that column and a far greater shame occurs as Kevin Myers proceeds to write what might be regarded as an incitement to hatred. What else can one call it when he warns us "that illiterates breed early and often, even as family size throughout the rest of society is plummeting." What is it that worries him most? Is it our illiteracy or our fertility? Come to think of it, should we not rejoice that "50 per cent of working-class people cannot read or write properly"? They might thus be spared Mr Myers's analysis of their lives and the knowledge that "they are living in communities which triumph in philistinism, and where crime, drugs, terrorist-recruitment and single-motherhood are the drumbeat of daily life".
Where is the evidence to support the statement that "illiterates breed often and early"? While Mr Myers does his research on this type of eugenics, I will conduct research as to how many groups were offended by his article, and by you, Sir, who saw fit to perpetrate this prejudice.
I would also like to point out some salient facts:
The Basic Education Movement in Ireland does not use the terms "illiteracy". It is a negative phrase close to terms like illness, illegal, illegitimate and so on.
The dynamic, burgeoning adult literacy movement in Ireland is made possible by hundreds of voluntary tutors. Consult the National Adult Literacy Association for additional information.
The KLEAR Centre in Kilbarrack (adjacent to the DART line where "gardai nightly risk their lives") is open five days a week and offers five strands of education to its 500 members, ranging from basic education to third-level courses.
Far from being ashamed of my social class and feeling that its very existence is a matter of shame, I am proud of the values and daily drumbeat that shapes me and those who live in my community. - Yours, etc.,
Cathleen O'Neill, Kilbarrack, Dublin 5.