Madam, - Séan and Róisín Whelan have indeed, along with many others, very short historical memories.
It would be unfair of me to suggest their memories are selective, but there certainly is touch of denial.
Not wishing to be an apologist for the present Turkish government, or indeed its voting masses, is it not true that back in those dark days of Talibireland the government made an application to join the then EEC?
The very ministers were bowing in front of bishops and kissing their jewellery.
Pregnant women were incarcerated at the behest of their loving families egged on by zealous priests who in turn were molesting children.
Children snatched by the State for supposed misdemeanours, handed over to the religious authorities (chosen by the State for the job) and treated as we now know how.
Those carrying out their "duties" already knew. Let us recall that they were the ones who preached from pulpits about the evils of sex, divorce and, my favourite, occasions of sin.
Had the peoples of the original six been aware of these goings on would they have tried to block the application?
At the time four of those countries were ruled by "Christian" Democratic parties.
And what about today's Poland, welcomed with open arms into the democratic bosom of the West, where a government is trying to pass legislation based on the bigoted position of the religious group which voted it into power? - Yours, etc,
HUGO MacMANUS, Via Marco Aurelio, Milan, Italy.