Society needs to shoulder some of the blame

FIRSTLY I would like to congratulate Terry Prone for her witty but very true piece of writing (Irish Examiner, October 6). We know a lot of people have said what she has just written, but it takes a lot of courage for some one in the news media to come out and say publicly that the media-driven “liberal agenda” has not worked.

Too often we confuse liberty with licence, the freedom to do what is right with the freedom to do whatever you want to do.

However, it must be recognised too that we cannot coerce people into behaving as they ought. That was often the mistake made in the past. It is difficult at times to keep the balance. We have to protect a moral order. Society needs it. Yet we must respect the freedom of the individual. Sometimes it would take a Solomon to do both. It certainly is not easy for a politician whose main concern is the next election.

The second point I would like to make is that it is about time that people in the media like Fergus Finlay, Pat Kenny and Co would get their anti-clerical chip off their shoulders and begin to see the wood and not just the trees.

The reality is, as someone once put it: “Society dumped its dregs into homes run by nuns and brothers and expected them to look after them.” These nuns and brothers also had to look after children who were orphaned, or whose parents were unable to look after them.

On the whole, they did a very good job, providing for them and preparing them to take up trades in later life. In doing so, they saved the State millions, from which they received only a pittance.

Of course there were failures. But these were the exceptions. These failures may even have been less than our “compo” culture wishes to convey.

But surely our society should not now hesitate to take some responsibility for these, instead of loading that on the shoulders of those who faithfully fulfilled their responsibilities. These are now at an age when they themselves are in need of looking after.

It would seem that collectively we can avoid our guilt of failure by putting it on the shoulders of those who at least tried to do something. Here again it is about time the media changed its tune.

There is no one to speak out in defence of these good brothers and sisters who are too good to even try to defend themselves, but seem to think they have to be continually apologising to a society that itself shoulders no blame.

James Neville,

Abbeyfeale,

Co Limerick.