Sir, - I refer to your issue of August 29th, in which Finance Minister Ruairi Quinn, on a visit to Chicago and Detroit to attract American institutions to the Dublin Financial Centre, described Ireland as a "post-Catholic, pluralist republic".
One hopes that Mr Quinn, a member of the Irish Government representing all the Irish people - which includes the readers of The Irish Times - will kindly elucidate. When I am abroad, I have no hesitation, if asked, in declaring that I come from a Catholic country. Maybe the Minister would consult the most recent census findings.
The Minister, with many of his fellow politicians and leading members of the business and artistic life of this country, may prefer the epithet "post Catholic" to denote their opposition to some of the teachings and doctrines of the Church, to which many of these same people profess to belong but to which they pay lip service only when it suits them. - Yours, etc.,
Mountainview Road,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.