Madam, - It was disconcerting to read the article by Brendan O'Driscoll, a final-year student at Blackrock College, saying his knowledge of Irish politics was limited to the name of the Taoiseach and that this lack of awareness does not "bother" him (Teen Times, October 25th).
"I'm pretty sure we have a president by the name of Mary," he jokes, before announcing himself unable to participate in democracy. "Why would I vote? How could I vote? I wouldn't even know what I was voting for."
Leaving aside the fact that multitudes of people all over the world have fought and died for the right to vote, I find it a bit startling to see him reproach the Government for his ignorance of such matters.
I couldn't help feeling that the education Mr O'Driscoll has been privileged enough to receive might reasonably be assumed to have equipped him with the ability to inform himself. "I need to be pushed," he writes. He might meet the Oireachtas half-way and open a newspaper now and again.
The possibility does not seem have occurred to Mr O'Driscoll, gifted and articulate writer though he is, that it might not be the Government's failing, or the fault of his teachers, that he does not know the names of those who govern him. If he ventures into the computer room at Blackrock College - which, I imagine, is better equipped than some - he may find that logging on to www.irlgov.ie would clarify these, and perhaps other, mysteries. - Yours, etc,
JOSEPH O'CONNOR,
Prince Street,
New York,
USA.