Madam, - Until now, I had thankfully observed that institutions and authorities in Ireland had so far resisted the insidious pressure from the politically correct brigade to abandon the traditional celebration of Christmas in all its customary form.
However, RTÉ's qualms about the word "crib" in a Veritas advertisement could be seen as a signal departure from this spirit of toleration and acceptance. Concerned public figures, including Ireland's Catholic Bishops Conference, are legitimately alarmed that Christmas is in danger of being swept aside now by a tide of political correctness.
Perhaps Ireland so far has not become so extremely secular as Britain, where only one in 10 Christmas cards sold contains any religious messages or imagery whatever. Let us hope that this virulent secularist virus, in such an extreme form, will fail to cross the Irish Sea; and that institutions and local authorities here will continue to exhibit common sense and reasonable loyalty to long-established traditional values.
- Yours, etc,
THOMAS P. WALSH, Faussaugh Road, Dublin 7.