Sir, - Why can Ireland not make a public statement to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christ by erecting a suitable monument to Christ the King/The Good Shepherd, or Our Lady with the Child Jesus on O'Connell Street, the centre of our capital city?
We organised a nationwide campaign in the form of tens of thousands of cards petitioning for the above to be sent to Mr Seamus Brennan of the Millennium Committee, to the Taoiseach, and to various politicians and others. The Millennium Committee has almost ignored us.
We find this unacceptable as we form a very large part of the electorate and earnestly wish to honour our Saviour in this way and not by footbridges, fireworks, upgrading of pilgrimage walks, restoration of church bells, illumination of buildings and, more recently, the commencement of an object on O'Connell Street which we are being forced to accept - so aptly described as a "nothing commemorating nothing".
We are astonished and very concerned that the One who was, who is and who will be is being left out and overlooked in this Jubilee year.
Our politicians would do well to remember that they serve the people and not the other way round. Shame on our government and the Millennium Committee for treating our request with such contempt as this is our only opportunity to visibly express the occasion we wish to honour. - Yours, etc.
(Mrs) Ethna M Cotter, President, Our Lady's Sodality, Joseph M. Gill, SJ, Spiritual leader, ITA LITTLE, Hon. Sec., Rita McGrane, Elizabeth Mahon, (Executive Council), St Francis Xavier Church, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin 1.
