Prayer in the Dáil and Seanad

Sir, – I see that John A. Murphy objects to starting Dáil and Seanad proceedings with a prayer (April 14th). If every Irish citizen were Christian would he still object? If 99 per cent were Christian would he object? Where would he pick the cut-off point?

The fact is that 95 per cent of Irish citizens subscribe to a religion and almost all worship the God addressed by the Dáil and Seanad prayer. Only perhaps 1 per cent or 2 per cent of Irish citizens are atheists and entirely rule out God. If I were designing Oireachtas procedures from scratch I would probably not include a preliminary prayer. However, this prayer is now a long-standing tradition that harmonises with the beliefs of the vast majority of Irish people. Should we abandon this tradition because it does not align with the beliefs of around 1 per cent of the population? – Yours, etc,

WILLIAM REVILLE,

Waterfall,

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Co Cork.