Letter to the Editor: Regarding the Deleterious Effects of Your Publication on Public Order

Dear Editor,

In recent weeks I have become aware of and extremely perturbed by the toxicity and parochial character of your publication’s writings. From the mockery of Ireland’s immigrant communities to blatant Catholic apologia, you ought to be ashamed. For a so-called environmentalist publication, your catalogue veers regularly into narrow-minded nationalist commentary and divisive rhetoric.

I write to you out of concern for the anti-social culture fostered among Dublin youths, which I believe to be a consequence of your dastardly journal. I have personally witnessed, in the Ballsbridge area, yobs clad in Canada Goose outerwear, littering the fine suburban area with whippets and firecrackers. Friends, acquaintances, and neighbours have been harassed and cajoled by a cohort of secondary school drop-outs for their faith, socio-economic background, and even accent.

The anti-Protestant, sectarian character of your “environmentalist” journal especially is responsible for inducing such behaviour, let alone the prejudiced remarks magnified by your written catalogue; remarks which have caused minority communities and many foreign embassy staff needless heartache.

I need not remind this apparent “intellectual” publication of the important, dare I say predominant, Protestant contributions to Irish identity and public life. Authors such as Jonathan Swift, W. B. Yeats, and Douglas Hyde have left an indelible mark on Irish society for the better, which makes the prejudices of MEON Journal far more egregious.

Thomas Davis and dear old Charles Stuart Parnell would be turning in their graves at the thought that such a publication had professed itself the inheritor of their political legacy whilst admonishing both their stock and religion! To see petty polemics against the great men and women who helped bring Ireland into the modern world is a disgrace. I wonder if this publication celebrates landmark Irish cultural events like Iveagh Day, or perhaps even Bloomsday?

It is with a heavy heart that I read this publication’s writings to see outright repudiation of the Ireland my generation fought so hard to obtain. To see the social backsliding induced by one organ of narrow-minded toxicity that is regrettably becoming a feature in public life today churns my stomach.

Sincerely,

Edmund Spenser