During last year’s same-sex marriage referendum, the phenomenon of Groupthink came into sharp focus.

A few years ago Vincent Browne made a series of programmes in which he took a gratuitous sideways swipe at Christianity by the simplistic device of taking the Old Testament out of context and by ignoring it’s crucial understanding in terms of the New Testament.

Once again we are having an adolescent conversation in Ireland and resolutely fail to learn from the mistakes of others.

Congratulations to Fr Joseph Okere, the Longford-based priest, for speaking so clearly on the issue of same sex marriage.

A musical has been produced about a group of feminists who brought contraceptives from the North back to the South in the 1970s.

A new series of The Meaning of Life is about to be screened on RTÉ, which can mean only one thing — a succession of anti-Catholic bigots will be given permission to display their ignorance of the religion they dismiss.

Congratulations on publishing Margaret Hickey’s excellent summary on timeless Church teaching/tradition and how it relates to present events.

It seems extraordinary that a Catholic parish council would offer an invitation to an individual who has taken positions fundamentally at odds with core teachings of that Church.

While most forms of public displays of bigotry are thankfully a thing of the past, it appears from Hughie Hartigan’s contribution (Irish Examiner, Letters, August 19) that anti-Catholic bigotry is very much alive and well.

When England was being blitzed during World War 2, one of the main factors in maintaining the morale of the population was the strong, confident and decisive leadership of Winston Churchill.

After the recent same sex marriage referendum, Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin stated that the Church needed to learn some lessons. That must go down as the understatement of the century.

You’ve read our reports and editorials on tomorrow’s same-sex marriage referendum. Now it’s time for your voice to be heard

It seems to me that the yes side in the same-sex marriage debate will continue to concede votes unless they pull back from name calling and bullying their opponents with false allegations.

Congratulations to Alan Whelan (Irish Examiner, Letters, March 25) for rightly identifying the dereliction of duty inherent in the cowardly decision by the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP0 not to preach the Church’s teaching regarding the nature of marriage.

In taking Robert Pierce to task, Rossa McMahon asserts that at heart the referendum is about equality.

When I was growing up, one associated thought crime or Big Brother etc with the Soviet Politburo.

Resulting from Christmas week’s sad case, a number of commentators have attempted to use this tragedy to bad-mouth those who dared to vote yes to the pro-life amendment in 1983.

It’s that time of year for good cheer; goodwill to all men and, oh, begrudgery on behalf of the non-believing community. Just in case we were too optimistic, Gordon Cunningham (Letters, December 12) sought to put a damper on proceedings.

It has long been the mantra of “modern/liberal” Ireland that in the past the state was over deferential to the Catholic Church. There undoubtedly was an element of truth to this to the detriment of both Church and State. However those times have long since passed.

I was always taught that one should not receive Holy Communion unless one was in a state of grace and I still believe that the sacrament of confession is the jewel in the crown of Catholic sacraments. For that reason I usually receive Communion at Easter & Christmas, preceded by a good confession of sins.

Paul Doran asks why prayers are still said in state schools, and he makes a claim for a secular society. The reason is that Ireland is a sovereign republic.

Many people were rightly repulsed by Richard Dawkins primitive/less-than-enlightened views on the treatment of Down Syndrome infants. Having said that, in many ways Dawkins views are merely reflective of what emerges from a doctrinaire adherence to Darwinian theories. Not evolution, per se, but this particular deviant variant. Darwins adherents have always had a less than benign view of what their perverse ideology regards as lesser forms of life.

The excellent HSE Report into the Savita Halapannavar case confirmed that medical negligence was the reason for the tragic outcome and that subsequent references to abortion were a total ideological red herring.

The recent UN Human Rights report on the Catholic Church belongs in the category of ‘you couldn’t make it up’.

Pope Francis covered a wide range of subjects in the course of his recent trip to Brazil.

I do not know where Eric Conway (Letters Mar 13) got his figure of a 15 million increase in Catholic numbers last year and, more wonderfully, he ascribed this mythical increase to Emeritus Pope Benedict’s reign.

As the cardinals enter conclave to elect our new Pope, they should keep matters simple.

While Catholics are sad at the resignation of Pope Benedict, we are delighted that he left with such dignity.

Please permit me to clear up the confusion over the EU summit. Merkel stated, & “Ireland is a basket case”.

The comments by Pat Rabbitte on RTE radio in relation to Cardinal Brady represent a flagrant abuse of the correct concept of separation of Church & State.

Like many people I had never heard of Congressman Paul Ryan until he was announced as Mitt Romney’s running mate.

From a Catholic perspective, it was most gratifying to observe that Maeve Binchy died with the great satisfaction of a Catholic requiem mass.

A year ago Enda Kenny stood up in the Dáil and made a grandstanding/demagogic speech lacerating the Catholic Church’s record in the area of child welfare.

RTE’s Joe Little reported that a few hundred people attended the recent We Are Church protest outside the residence of the Papal Nuncio in Dublin.

There has been a noticeable ratcheting up of anti-Catholic commentary (most of it, as usual, ill-informed) in the media and elsewhere in recent weeks.

Hopefully the report that the Vatican is to take action against Fr. Tony Flannery will turn out to be true.

There is much to be said for a country of Ireland’s size having only one embassy in Rome.

A few months ago Enda Kenny, used Dáil privilege to falsely accuse the Vatican (and by implication Pope Benedict) of obstructing investigations into abuse issues.

The recent proposals from within the Labour that “no Catholics need apply” represent a sinister development in Irish politics.

PHILIP O’Neill (Letters, Jan 5) makes a number of valid points in his comments on atheism/theism.

AS a believer (and recovering atheist), I am constantly bemused by the irrationalities/contradictions of my former comrades.