Sir, - There appears to be a concerted effort on behalf of the Roman Catholic authorities in Ireland to wash their hands of responsibility for the abusive violence in institutions under their control in past decades on the grounds that staff activity merely reflected the ethos of the times.
This begs the question - who inculcated that ethos in yesterday's Republic? Whose ethos and writ ran (indeed, still runs) in large tracts of the State's public policy - in the education, health, penal, and social welfare sectors? Who had easy access not just to weekly captive church audiences but to the very cabinet table itself, as evidenced by Dr Noel Browne's revelations?
Regardless of what the bishops would have us now believe, citizens should judge for themselves whether we had "Rome Rule" in the past or not and, on the basis of their free judgment, determine whether such a policy will serve tomorrow's children well in the new Ireland to come. - Yours, etc.,
Wheatfields Court,
Dublin 22.