Sir, – In response to Dr David O'Grady's letter (May 25th) on President Michael D Higgins's views on education, as a student in a mainstream Irish Catholic school with only Catholic students, I was denied a liberal education because the Catholic "God" was the only true and one God (thus making all other religions and their followers wholly inferior). In addition a sense of justice and fair play was in the main denied to females, by virtue of a male church power structure. A covert attitude but nevertheless wholly pervasive.
As for the marriage referendum, the results were in direct opposition to the teachings of most, if not all religions, that homosexuality is a sin. Hurrah for secular thinking and basic human empathy.
No one denies the work of our mainstream schools, but despite the best work of “religious” schools inequalities will always exist. The insistence of the superiority of one religion (and one gender) over the other, coupled with attempts at control over their respective flocks, will always maintain that unfortunate status quo.
The advancement of the Educate Together Schools is welcome progress and bodes for a better future for us all. If the day arrives that all Irish mainstream schools are Educate Together schools it could only be a great day for Ireland.
In the words of the Dalai Lama, “the only religion worth having is kindness”. – Yours, etc,
ANNE LAWLOR,
Marino,
Dublin 3.