A chara, - I wish to join Garry McMahon and Gay Brocklesby (March 9th and 12th) in their praise of that moving appreciation of Patrick Sweeney in your edition of March 5th. It was heartening and uplifting for many readers to learn of this previously unknown man who made sense of human life and suffering and was so cherished by the few people he got to know in life.
The recognition of this man's uniqueness and beauty of character, despite a hostile and hapless life in an ill-disposed society, is timely because of the recent unfortunate lack of understanding and subsequent rancour regarding the residential home in Swords, Co Dublin for patients from St Ita's in Portrane. This quarrel underlined need for the education of our society to accept the underprivileged and to respect the human dignity of the "duine le Dia" in our world.
It also served to highlight another world out there, no longer hidden within old Edwardian structures that haboured unfortunates without family or friends to care for them in life or even in death. Would that people would stop to think! I ask them: have you ever stood alone by an open grave staring down at the coffin, and not another soul to join you in prayer?
Thank God much of that has changed. Such people can now come and go freely from homes given to them that they may live in more ordinary circumstances. A friend or neighbour may turn up at one's funeral. But society on the whole is slow to change. Many will run an embarrassed mile rather than greet the handicapped neighbours on the street needing to be loved and respected and cared about. But not to be pitied, or to be feared. Like Patrick Sweeney, they are God's own people.
Many thanks to the author of Patrick's appreciation - and thanks to you, Mr Editor, for publishing it. - Yours, etc.,
An tAthair Piaras O Duill, Chaplain, St Brendan's Hospital, Grangegorman, Dublin 7.