Dear Editor, When I first read the proposed amendments to our Constitution, I was enraged as I remembered by own lovely mother and the wonderful women who have gone before us. To try and remove the word ‘mother’ completely and the word ‘women’ in this instance, is an insult to us all.
The male of the human species will never suffer the pains of childbirth. Nor will he ever know the intense love and joy that fills your being as you look for the first time on the face of your little baby. It is the love that will sustain you as you endure sleepless nights and worried times as you rejoice and hurt with your children.
Motherhood is a privilege that I have been blessed to receive and the Christian family is so strong and supportive. The great majority of men are great fathers and wonderful husbands. Why not acknowledge this in our Constitution?
The Government’s efforts to try and opt out of their responsibility for our disabled and vulnerable people was cruel. These citizens and those, many of them close family members, mostly women, who with great love and attention care for them, are our present-day saints, heroes and heroines. Give them more help and supports… that is what you’re expected to do when elected.
The Government is now seeking to explain why these two proposed amendments were so strongly rejected. They say that the electorate didn’t really understand the proposals. How dare they!
The majority of ‘No, No’ voters understood perfectly. Some people who felt a bit confused clearly voted ‘No, No’.
We Irish owe an enormous debt of gratitude to PeadarTóibín of Aontú, the only political party to reject the proposals and to Michael McDowell and others who came on television and spoke on radio on several occasions explaining the complex and confusing questions, with far-reaching consequences, some of them unknown.
Likewise, those in opposition who say now that the Government used the wrong wording but encouraged us to vote ‘Yes, Yes’ are equally guilty as Government is. Say no more, please.
Mothers and women celebrated Mother’s Day that Sunday, happy in the knowledge that our prayers and votes ensured that we are still acknowledged in our much-loved country’s Constitution.
Yours etc.,
Nuala Doran,
Raheen, Co. Limerick
Will the Church lead a counteroffensive?
Dear Editor, The Irish people affirmed their support for the Christian family with their ‘No’ votes in the recent referendums even if many did so for reasons other than faith. It was a victory for the family and for all of society because the well-being of the latter depends greatly on that of the former. But this is not a time to sit back because the Marxist anti-family lobby will try again. When it comes to referendums we have seen how many previous governments have treated the people like small children who refuse to eat their dinner: they serve it up to them again tomorrow and the next day until eventually they have to eat it.
In the second amendment transgenderism got a blow: the people affirmed that the mother is not just any carer of any gender but special, and the value of her work in the home was recognised. The follow up to this should be that we root out transgenderism from our schools and demand that the mother be paid for the work she does in the home. Money thus spent would save the State millions because most of our problems of delinquency and broken marriages would be forestalled. I wonder will the Church give a lead in any such counteroffensive? Pious sermons about St Patrick and the faith need to be followed up by action if that faith is to survive.
Yours etc.,
Fr Richard O’Connor,
Prof. of Theology, The Angelicum, Rome, Italy
Taoiseach’s lack of consistency on value of life
Dear Editor, The Taoiseach’s statements on the war in Gaza and the killing of children and adults and about the “Cries of the innocent” and that “The life of a child is the greatest gift of all”, are to be commended. These statements raise two important questions.
Could not the Taoiseach have used the same statements regarding the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Act (2018) considering the lives of some 33,000 children aborted since 2019 and, if the life of a child is the greatest gift of all, from whom is the gift? I think some clarification from the Taoiseach is needed on these questions as there seems to be a lack of consistency on the value of life.
Yours etc.,
Herbert F. Eyre,
North Strand, Dublin 3