Friday, May 23, 2014

My Letter in the Irish Times today

Sir, – Eamonn McCann seems unable to stop himself from bashing the Catholic Church in his Irish Times columns (“Why do we rarely give the Devil his due?”, Opinion & Analysis, May 22nd).

He’s gone from complaining about the diplomatic status of the Vatican to grumbling about the church’s canonisation procedures (why should an atheist care?) to poking ridicule at Pope Francis for his expressed belief in the Devil. Does he perhaps yearn to be a religious affairs correspondent?

Perhaps this attitude is only to be expected. After all, Mr McCann’s personal faith of radical socialism has been devastatingly disproven by history and human experience, while Christ remains the light of the world to tens of millions of people, educated and uneducated. We should allow Mr McCann a little bit of rancour, I suppose. – Yours, etc,

MAOLSHEACHLANN

Ó CEALLAIGH,

Woodford Drive,

Clondalkin,

Dublin 22.

This was the article to which I was responding. Eamonn McCann is well-known as a Trotskyist.

Incidentally, I never actually use the accented Ó when writing out my name, but it's often inserted anyway, as it was here. I accept that the name O Ceallaigh is generally spelled either O'Ceallaigh (anglicized) or Ó Ceallaigh, in the Gaelic manner. I don't like either of these spellings (I have what can only be termed a thing against accents and umlauts and all diacritics, as I've just learned they're collectively called. And the apostrophe just looks weird.) I don't see why I shouldn't spell my surname O Ceallaigh, even if nobody else does. Not that I care much either way.

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your excellent letter in the Irish Times.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! I see there were more letters on the subject today, one from my fellow blogger and friend Fr. Levi.

    ReplyDelete