Letters to the Editor: Royal family is as dysfunctional as any other 

Should Harry and Meghan have aired 'dirty laundry' in public?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex during the annual WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London.

I watched the “explosive” interview between Oprah Winfrey and Harry and Meghan. 

What I find fascinating is that Harry married a woman who would ultimately feel trapped in the royal family exactly the same way his mother, Diana, felt many many years ago.

I believe Harry has never properly grieved over the loss of his mother and is unconsciously acting out his unresolved trauma.

Is the royal family dysfunctional? Yes, but probably no more so than the average family.

Is there covert racism in this family? I’m sure you would find worse racism if you eavesdropped on many conversations in Britain and Ireland today.

It’s hard to feel sympathy for people who try to drag their family through the mud for being normal.

Tommy Roddy

Ballybane

Co Galway

Royal racism?

Allegations of racism towards  a monarchy that prohibits marriage to Roman Catholics?

Keith Nolan

Carrick-on-Shannon

Co Leitrim

Not good enough for palace life

Both Harry and Meghan enjoyed a lot of attention after their wedding in 2018. 

The queen did everything to welcome Meghan into the royal fold. She was given the title of Duchess after being divorced. This was unfair to Duchess Catherine, who had a less chequered past.

It is, therefore, very low of Harry and Meghan to besmirch the palace in a laundry-airing interview with Oprah Winfrey. 

It’s horrendous that Harry would do this to those who conferred so much privilege on him. After all, his father and grandparents are elderly; Prince Phillip is recovering from a heart operation.

I’m delighted that the British public are critical of this stunt.

Harry and Meghan should simply close the chapter on a life for which they just weren’t good enough. 

The privilege and wealth they enjoy is more than ample compensation without having to stoop to an appearance on a tawdry chat show.

Dr Florence Craven

Bracknagh

Co Offaly

Let churches open for Easter

We are in the season of Lent and Easter is fast approaching. Many, if not most, Irish people have found the last year of the pandemic quite challenging on many fronts. It has been a huge challenge for everyone all over the world.

For those of us who cherish our Catholic faith, the inability to access the sacraments, especially the sacrament of the Eucharist, for so many months has been particularly difficult.

As the most important week in the Christian Church calendar is nigh, many of us deeply desire to be able to participate in the Easter ceremonies in person this year. Online is just not quite the same.

I would ask both our Church and political leaders that, for those who wish to participate (and are able to), our places of worship be open for the ceremonies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. 

All the safety measures would be in place, as they were before, and our churches were so safe as a result.

Last year we weren’t able to participate and it would be a great sorrow for so many people if we were not to to able to again this year. Please open our churches especially in time for Holy Week. God is essential. Thank you.

Aisling Bastible

Clontarf

Dublin 3

Commemorating misrule in Ireland

Recent demonstrations by protesters outside Oriel College in Oxford demanding the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes from the facade of the college has been rewarded with the news that the governors of the college have voted to remove the colonial iconography of the racist slave trader.

It appears Trinity College Dublin is considering removing the name of George Berkeley from one of the libraries on its campus because the 18th-century philosopher was once a slave owner.

Perhaps this initiative might be the impetus needed for our local authorities to reflect on some of the statues and street names in our cities and towns commemorating those associated with misrule in Ireland down the centuries.

The removal of the statue of Queen Victoria from the precinct of Leinster House in 1948 was a worthy initiative. Even today, 73 years later, Queen Victoria’s name conjures up images of famine, evictions, tenant farmers, workhouses, and coffin ships. There are more worthy people and causes we could and should commemorate.

Tom Cooper

Templeogue

Dublin 6

One size does not fit all for schooling

Diary of an Irish teacher Is it time to take religion out of the classroom? ( Irish Examiner, March 5, 2021) is right when s(he) states that learning means “encountering new things, different viewpoints, different perspectives... [a]nd making connections between different ideas”.

This learning, however, is best facilitated by educational diversity and choice, with different schools providing the difference. One size does not fit all.

To answer one of the questions posed in the article: As a parent who has had the opportunity to see firsthand her child’s remote instruction during lockdown, I am not happy to leave schooling to educators, who have their own strengths and weaknesses, and quite naturally none of the vested interest of a parent.

Moreover, contrary to the understanding of the columnist, dogma, whether religious or secular, is taught in all school systems. This includes the gaelscoileanna, whose priority belief is language-immersion education.

Kathleen O’Connell

Cork City

Elliott photo and racing’s reputation

We were distracted last week with the reaction to the publication of a photograph showing Gordon Elliott sitting astride a dead horse and his understandable remorse as expressed before the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s referrals committee.

He has paid a heavy price for an error of judgement, possibly an adverse reaction following the loss of an animal. The IHRB’s rule 272, an open-ended conduct unbecoming provision, needs to be probed, but that is for another day.

Whomever took the photograph and/or organised its release is equally responsible for acting in a manner “prejudicial to the integrity, proper conduct or good reputation of horseracing”.

Tom Wren

Ardpatrick

Co Limerick

Concern should be for living horses

The reaction to those images of a jockey and trainer “riding” dead horses raises questions about our attitude to the welfare of animals.

The behaviour of the two men was idiotic and inappropriate, but at least the animals were dead, and therefore no longer at the mercy of human beings who think it’s perfectly okay to utilise them for sport.

I’d be more concerned about living horses than dead ones, especially those that die on tracks here and in Britain every year.

John Fitzgerald

Callan

Co Kilkenny

What’s happened to compassion?

The Gordon Elliott situation was stupid, incompassionate, and lacking in judgement from him.

However, what is most concerning with regard to this issue and others that we have encountered in the recent past is what has happened to us as people. 

Someone makes a mistake and we unite to destroy their lives, their families, friends and careers and God knows we have plenty of examples of this in the recent past.

We all make mistakes and we need to learn compassion and forgiveness, particularly when the individual involved has a proven track record of upholding the highest standards in their career or business. 

Why destroy them for one mistake?

In all the interviews that have been conducted into this matter, no one has asked the following questions: Who took the photograph, who put it up on social media two years later and just before the Cheltenham Festival, and what was their agenda?

Peter O’ Dowd

Ballykeeffe Estate

Limerick

Benefits of joint World Cup bid

I am very pleased to see that we are to join with the UK in a joint bid to host the World Cup in 2030.

At this point, whether the bid ultimately succeeds or not is of secondary importance. 

Against the background of ongoing Brexit discord and thinly veiled ‘vaccination jingoism’, getting involved in a regional project like this has immense potential with regard to resetting our relationships with our UK neighbours, and all the more so in a context free of a European dimension. 

The fact that this project may also help to defer consideration, even in the short term, should the bid fail of a ‘border poll’, an obvious and queueing bone of contention, will be an added bonus.

Michael Gannon,

St Thomas’ Sq

Kilkenny