Exorcising the fact from the fiction

Louise Roseingrave reports a horrific scene in Medjugorje (Irish Examiner, May 28).

For over two hours, a distressed woman, in clear need of medical assistance, is tormented by a mob of religious fanatics.

Rather than ask why local police did not intervene, Ms Roseingrave calls the unfortunate woman’s ordeal an “exorcism” and goes on to present as fact the most primitive and harmful superstitious nonsense.

The woman’s illness is described as “the demon inside her” and, claiming that “the hellish wrath” of this imagined creature profoundly affected the writer, Ms Roseingrave concludes her article by assuring us, in language which might seem familiar to anyone who has seen The Usual Suspects, that the devil is real but wants people to believe he is not.

Ms Roseingrave is normally a fine journalist and she is entitled to her religious beliefs, but surely a piece of writing given such prominence should be tempered by a more questioning approach to the supernatural and the fantastical?

Donal O’Keeffe

Fermoy

Co Cork