Madam, - As a person born during the 1950s, I disagree strongly with Father Con McGillicuddy's (July 17th) rose-tinted views on Irish life at that time. Ireland was not a safe or happy place for many, many Irish people at that time. It was not a safe or happy place for women, who were treated as second-class citizens, deprived of choices about their lives and treated in a way very close to some fundamentalist religious traditions which deny women their human rights.
It was not a safe or happy place for the thousands of poor and disadvantaged people, forced to live in sub-standard housing with little or no access to good healthcare or education.
It was not a safe or happy place for the many thousands forced at that time to emigrate abroad due to economic necessity, having to leave their homes and families, in many cases, forever.
It was not a safe or happy place for the thousands of people subjected to abuse of all kinds - physical, sexual, emotional, verbal and institutional - and expected to endure such abuse in an atmosphere of guilt and fear and especially, silence.
It was not a safe or happy place for the thousands of girls and women who became pregnant outside marriage and were forced to give their babies up for adoption or sent away to mental institutions or ostracised and rejected by their families and communities.
It was not a safe or happy place for those unlucky enough to suffer from alcoholism or for their families, with little help or understanding of the disease available.
I could continue on in a similar vein but I feel I have made my point. Ireland today is far from perfect but it is at least a more open society thait was in the 1950s and I, for one, am glad of this. - Yours, etc.,
MARIAN REDMOND, Grange Park Road, Raheny, Dublin 5.