Symptoms of a society in terminal decline

LAST Saturday I passed the telephone kiosk on Edward Walsh Road, Togher in Cork city and, to my horror, every sheet of glass was broken. I have already noticed the same thing on three occasions over the past few months, at a bus stop on Clashduv Road, Glasheen.

I have also seen the same type of senseless destruction all over the city. It is impossible to believe there are no witnesses to all these events. In the specific cases I’ve mentioned, both are within sight of many houses.

I mentioned this wanton destruction to a number of people. All just shrugged and said essentially the same thing — ‘this is Ireland today’. In 24 years in Nigeria, a land of great poverty, I never came across such deliberate, senseless destruction; nor have I witnessed the appalling indifference/resignation of residents to this war on their communities.

Aren’t these acts of vandalism, the outrageous behaviour at pub closing times, the coarseness prevalent everywhere — but far, far worse, the apathy of the majority to what is going on around them — all frightening symptoms of a civilisation in terminal decline?

Rev Tomás Walsh

Fr Dominic Road

Ballyphehane

Cork