Dear Editor, I was listening to R.T.E. recently and heard the article on the Gay Pride protest march in Cork. The Gay Pride person being interviewed commented that she was not impressed by the number of pubs displaying pride flags, who had no interest whatsoever in the gay movement, but were cashing in on the event. We have come a long way from the time when only certain pubs were known as “gay bars”. She complained that the march was being commercialised. Surprise, surprise. The flags being displayed outside the pub set me thinking about minority groups. I came to the conclusion that in fact we are all members of one minority group or another. I recall being barred from well-known pubs for singing. Then I remembered there were certain premises who declared themselves as “singing pubs “. I realise now, when I hear about the flags outside the pubs in Cork, they were only cashing in on the balladeers and the wandering minstrels. Now I realize, I have been a member of various minority groups and have been discriminated against, all my life, and never realised it.
As young fellas, we joined the local scouts and every week going to the meeting in uniform we were waylaid by a gang of youths who did not like us being different, as they saw it. At 12 years of age, when we were being confirmed as young Catholics, we made a promise [called the pledge] to abstain from alcohol. We were known as Pioneers and I kept that promise until I was 30 years of age. The abuse and ridicule we had to endure included being referred to as being straight laced, judgmental, kill joys, wet blankets and incredible sulks. Next we joined the youth hostel association [ An Óige ] and headed off into the open air at weekends. We were laughed at as being friends of the earth, and tree huggers of the Glen Of The Downs type. At home we were an Irish speaking family. Like the lad from Cork, speaking on R.T.E. we were very reluctant to come out until we found kindred spirits. Irish speakers were called the “ Tá Sé’s “ and accused of speaking Irish just to stay apart. But gradually we extended the network until we discovered the The Gaelic League [ Conradh na Gaeilge ], a safe haven in Hardcourt St. where we could speak Irish among ourselves and not risk ridicule. We wore a gold ring in our lapel called “The Fainne”, so as to let other Irish speakers know we were prepared to speak the language. The scoffers referred to the fainne, [the gold ring] in pejorative terms too. We progressed to playing Irish traditional music. It was then that that we really came in for derision. People would pretend to play a fiddle on their arm and call us hillbillies for playing that awful diddily dye music. Like Gay Pride, Trad. Music eventually came out of the shadows and now boasts of Fleadh Ceoil na hEireann. If you think that litany of discrimination is bad enough, try and admit that you are a practicing Catholic. You will hear vitriol the likes of which you never heard before. If the Gay community feels it’s a chilly place for them, then Catholics are in the freezer. As I said we are all members of one minority or another. Majorities are made up of minorities coalescing together and forming a majority to oppress selected minorities. Think of it, we are all capable and sometimes have been guilty of forming a majority to oppress some group that we perceive to be out of step with what we regard of as the norm. Let us make a promise [take the pledge], whether we are Gay, Gaelgóir, Fiddler, Faith goer, Traveler or Teetotaler that we in our minority will not form a majority to discriminate against or oppress any group but embrace and celebrate diversity.
Is mise, le meas,
Donnchadh Mac Aodha.
Roosky, Co. Leitrim.
Open Letter to RTÉ
Dear Mr Bakhurst,
As you know, I sent you an “open letter” the other week protesting on behalf of my colleagues in this Centre and myself at RTÉ’s unbalanced coverage of the Ukraine war over the past three years, and the station’s failure to inform its viewers/listeners of the historical background to that event.
If RTÉ had done the latter it would have shown that the Ukraine war need never have occurred but for USA and EU encouragement of the 2014 Maidan coup and their support for the Zelensky Government’s determination to spurn Russia’s legitimate concern over Ukraine’s joining NATO, and its discriminating against its own citizens in its Russian-speaking eastern provinces.
I am writing now to tell you that that “open letter” has been posted to some two-hundred local media and opinion formers. It has been e-mailed to all the members of the Oireachtas. It has been sent also to the US Embassy here and to the offices in Washington of the American President and Vice-President, as it is relevant that they should know how one-sidedly Ireland’s national broadcaster is covering the peace efforts vis-a-vis Russia of the current Trump administration.
As a coda to my earlier letter, may I say that RTÉ current affairs programmers should be aware that such of their staple guest commentators on the Ukraine war seem quite incapable of giving a realistic analysis of these events. Worthy as these people no doubt are, your programmers should realise that they are Eurofederalist ideologues, advocates of EU militarization, and wholly unsympathetic to any meaningful Irish neutrality policy.
They are all, moreover, advocates for abolishing the solemn Triple Lock guarantee to the Irish people that was made by the Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen Governments at the time of the 2002 Nice Treaty and the 2008 Lisbon Treaty referendums respectively – a guarantee that was recognised by the EU in the Seville Declaration.
It seems to be a reflex amongst RTÉ current affairs programmers that when it comes to covering the Ukraine war – or indeed international politics generally – they go out of their way to seek out foreign commentators who are sympathetic to NATO and to EU militarization, who are advocates of ever higher military spending, and are either explicitly or implicitly hostile to Irish neutrality.
If I may repeat the key point of my earlier letter: it is about time that RTÉ joined the ranks of the peace-makers rather than the warmongers, and supported the traditional Irish State policy of a meaningful neutrality in foreign conflicts – a policy most Irish people desire and support.
Yours sincerely
Anthony Coughlan
(Associate Professor Emeritus in Social Policy, TCD)
Spokesman
The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre
24 Crawford Avenue
Dublin 9
Catholic Mass deserves respect in media
Dear Editor, In the course of his article on the construction of the Panama Canal (13 Feb 2025) Peter Costello makes an interesting observation on the use, or abuse, of the “noun”. He cites two examples. Writing jew for Jew reveals a “prejudice” and black American for Black American hints of racism.
We are not immune from such practises in print media, in some publications the Catholic Mass is always referred to as “mass”.
Firstly, the use is poor grammar, a common noun in place of a proper one, a bias perhaps? But certainly, to borrow Peter Costello’s words in the above context, a “lack of real respect.”
Yours etc,
Patrick Fleming,
Glasnevin, Dublin 9