Madam, - In his corrective to Kevin Myers, Piaras Mac Éinrí (September 19th) points to the need for a process or mechanism whereby debate can take place in a respectful and inclusive way, and he suggests that the New Ireland Forum of the 1980s might be a good model. Surely this merits serious consideration at the highest level.
An even better model might be the Initiative '92 project which resulted in A Citizens' Inquiry, more affectionately remembered as the Opsahl Report (1993), which proved at least as influential in forming the new climate in which the Belfast Agreement was eventually made, and was more efficient and effective.
The New Ireland Forum, supported by 19 full-time civil servants working for a year, backed by the full panoply of powers and resources of the Republic of Ireland government and State, heard 40 oral presentations and received 347 written submissions and produced no single compilation of material. Opsahl, within a year, and with only three-full time workers, funded mainly by charitable foundations led by the Joseph Rowntree Trust, managed to produce a single, comprehensive report based on almost 200 oral presentations and 554 written and taped submissions.
Is Mr Myers offering a better way forward? - Yours, etc,
BRIAN LAMBKIN, Centre for Migration Studies, Omagh, Co Tyrone.
Madam, I laughed when I read the letter from John Broe (September 20th) supporting Kevin Myers's comments on multiculturalism. An Irishman with an address in Japan warning about the dangers of immigration? - Yours, etc,
MARTIN LOUGHNAN, Skerries, Co Dublin.
Madam, - The concealment of the face and eyes behind a burka is both disturbing and threatening, as Kevin Myers suggests. "Disturbed" and "threatened" express quite accurately the way I feel when I find myself confronted by a burka-shrouded figure on the street. It seems to say to me that not only should a woman not be heard, she should not even be seen.
I only hope that the vision of woman implied by the burka is not acceptable, culturally or legally, in Ireland. - Yours, etc,
ANNE JENNINGS, Mount Anville Road, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Multiculturalism is not really a two-way street. If I were to move to an Islamic country, how would my Christianity be treated? In Saudi Arabia I would not be allowed to wear a cross around my neck, I could be jailed for worshipping God in my own apartment, I would not be allowed to pray in public.
In many Muslim countries there is an absence of any spirit of reciprocity. Permission to build a church is severely restricted in some Muslim countries and banned in others. Yet there is no bar on building mosques in the so-called Christian West.
Does a Muslim have the right to desert Islam and turn to Christianity? Is faith a private matter or do the state and its organs have the responsibility to monitor and control it?
Islam threatens "apostates" with severe penalties if they choose to believe the Christian message. Exile, divorce, intimidation, loss of family and of job, threats, beating, torture, prison and even death are very real expectations. - Yours, etc,
LOUIS HEMMINGS, Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.