DAVID NORRIS should be given the opportunity to have his name on the ballot paper.

TIM HOURIGAN (Letters, Sept 16) thinks that if “we reduced the powers of politicians, outlawed the party whip system” and got rid of vested private interests, “vigilance and conscience” would reign supreme and those in power would “vote based on considered judgement”.

THERE is still an obsession in Ireland with the mantra of “export-led economic growth” whilst businesses are closing down and others failing to start up and other countries are all now feeling the pinch and exports are struggling to do much more than tread water.

IN 1984, 22-year-old Mary Travers was shot dead by Provisional IRA thugs as she left mass on the Malone Road in Belfast with her parents (who were also targeted but survived).

IVAN Yates is off again on his “privatise everything” hobby horse and he is free to do so (Opinion, Sept 15). However, it is disingenuous to keep repeating that privatisation benefits consumers.

I WONDERED how soon it would be before Fergus Finlay (Opinion, Sept 13) would be rushing to the defence of his slightly beleaguered leader Eamon Gilmore, seeing as no other journalist has seen fit to do so.

BISHOP Edward Daly’s call to end mandatory clerical celibacy to ease problems facing the Catholic Church (News, Sept. 13) echoes an ancient refrain in Ireland.

THE recently published English version of the Latin missal is the one version for use at Mass in all the English-speaking countries. The type of language used is very much in harmony with its purpose. That purpose is the worship of God.

IN response to Fr Magillicuddy’s (Letters, Sept 14), the good priests of the Catholic church are not under fire, it’s the leaders of the church for ignoring the problem of child abuse and moving the problem priests instead of taking them to task and reporting them to the gardaí.

THE people who are in power today in this country and around the world have no idea bad it’s really going to be, because there will be no longer any place for freedom, intellectual freedom, spiritual freedom, monetary freedom, liberty, justice – none of that.