Madam, - I grew up with the idea that the law does not consider race, gender or social standing as a when a person accused of a crime is brought before our courts.
But after reading Kevin Myers's thought-provoking piece on the recent Norma Cotter case (An Irishman's Diary, January 6th) it is difficult to keep hold of that belief.
It is hardly ludicrous to suggest, as Mr Myers does, that if the roles had been reversed, and it Mrs Cotter had been the victim, Mr Cotter would now be in prison.
The very notion of women committing violence against men seems as lost among the legal profession as it is by our current Government. While a National Steering Committee on Violence Against Women is not in itself a unwelcome development, why not simply establish a national steering committee on domestic violence, full stop? Men are also beaten and subjected to domestic violence. So by not establishing a similar body to represent men, the Government is implying that the beating of women is of more important than the beating of men. - Yours, etc.,
DERMOT KEYES,
Portlaw,
Co Waterford.
Madam, - Somewhere in Kevin Myers's comments on the Norma Cotter case there may be a legitimate complaint; and maybe it is this: the judge in did a poor jurisprudential job. That is a matter to be decided within the conventions of the legal system, by those who are expert.
But Mr Myers seems also to have another, wider, more contentious argument: that the legal system (or even "the official ideology of Ireland" itself) has been taken over by "feminists", and that the judge's performance is a symptom of that takeover. Because of his style, it is difficult for us to make a considered yet manageable assessment of Mr Myers's position; so we need to keep our critical eyes open.
Just briefly, though, we can observe that Mr Myers reaches his conclusion by way of a series of insults (the NSCVAW is "fatuous" and "ridiculous"), inflammatory speculations ("imagine the hysterical outpourings"), and hasty generalisations (a single court case as evidence of the State's taking leave of "reality").
Furthermore, in his zeal to denigrate the NSCVAW, Mr Myers resorts to doing exactly that which he claims is so problematic about the committee! His use of "feminist flat-earthism" rhetorically links a concern for women victims of crime to a rejected picture of the world. The message for the unwary reader is: abandon your misplaced interest in women; this is a man's spherical earth where men should always be the centre of attention. - Yours, etc.,
HARVEY BROCKMAN,
Grosvenor Lodge,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.