Religious tolerance sabotaged by bigots

WHAT was it Christ said about greater joy in heaven over the finding of one lost sheep? What did he say about judging not?

Betty Harrington (Irish Examiner letters, April 10) might like to consider some of the history of Irish education. In the late 1820s, at a parliamentary commission into primary education, the great Catholic Bishop Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin said that nothing would be more conducive to peace in Ireland than mixed religious education.

With that, and similar advice, Lord Manners introduced the National Education Act for Ireland in 1831 (40 years before the rest of Britain) on the basis that the commissioners were to give precedence of funding to applications from Catholic priest/Protestant parents or Protestant minister/Catholic parents over mono-sect applications. However, by that time the Catholic hierarchy were under the influence of an arch-bigot, MacHale of Tuam, the Presbyterians in the North had similar influences. Between the two of them, Manners' bright idea was perverted into the sectarian education system that has blighted this country since.