Spirit of Open Access and Literary Dialogue: RMcS

Me: Hi,  The following newspaper article was carried in the Sunday Independent (Ireland) 8 March 2026. For the past five days I have been reflecting deeply on it. Its content, tone and language upsets me as a human being, a writer, and an Irish person. I contemplated writing a letter to the editor of the said newspaper but decided not to as the editorial team is inclined to do excessive structural editing on letters submitted for publication: at least on any of my letters. To get us started, I would like you to approach it from a few different perspectives, and then we can develop our conversation from there. One caveat: let us always be respectful of religions and peoples’ right to believe in them. Thank you. :) Problem with martyrs is they like the misery Sunday Independent (Ireland) 8 March 2026 Brendan O’Connor (Columnist) Ireland is “not a theocracy”, the judge said as he sentenced Mammy and Ammi to the slammy. And he’s right, though he could have added “any more”. Many peop...

  The original letter to the Sunday Independent dated Sunday, February 1, 2026 Madam, Barry Egan ( Sunday, 1st February ) brought to our attention that Michael Flatley wants to set the record straight by having us consider for a moment how many poor people do we know who have moved to Monaco; how many people do we know that have no money and live in Monaco? It is surely a strange way to be saying things no doubt, but the man must stand up to those who are bent on defaming his good name. Here is a man who grew up without having been born with a golden spoon in his mouth. He physically worked very hard, and it is one of the admirable things about his character that he doesn’t forget where he came from. Perhaps it is for this reason alone that all his efforts in adult life have paid off so well. What is it about the people of this beautiful land that are so into bringing down anyone, but particularly artists and writers? This man has done so much not alone for Irish culture but ...