Sir, – The distribution of thousands of food parcels by Br Kevin Crowley and his volunteers, not just at Christmas time but weekly, is, as President Michael D Higgins said on a visit to the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin, "the stuff of a real republic" (News, December 21st).
But this number probably doesn’t reflect the true number of those in need in these straitened times. Br Kevin said that many of those who presented themselves at the friary for food parcels were from a middle-class background but had now become Ireland’s new poor as a result of our economic collapse. Without question, pride, shame and embarrassment have prevented many more thousands in need availing of this charity.
At this time of year, when the vulgar and immoral disparity of life is so visibly rampant, people like Brother Kevin selflessly reach out in a tangible way to the suffering, struggling poor of Dublin.
It is the self-sacrificing few like Brother Kevin who, not just at Christmas but 365 days of the year, and without regard to personal wants and needs, provide for those less fortunate in a society that exalts wealth and power, however gained. – Yours, etc,
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TOM COOPER,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.