BOOKS - RTE NEEDS TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT!

As I watched the AN POST BOOK OF THE YEAR presented by the beautiful Miriam, I reflected that I was a lucky person in that I had never needed to be convinced of the merits of reading; I can take little credit for that because my parents and my teachers always encouraged me to read and as a child books were never far from my hand. As I got older and found myself struggling at times with the depths of depression – I am severely bipolar – I have found it harder to read and read and have taken to watching more and more television – not an intellectual improvement, but a reasonably practical compromise. Of course, book programmes are not about spreading the Gospel or evangelising, but there is no doubt that books (and films) have remarkable political power. There is a great deal of Truth in the saying that the pen is mightier than the sword, but it does require people to read the books (or the newspapers) and to bear in mind that mere reading does not necessarily clear the air or the airwaves. Books still get burned and, most of all, book burners still exist. The one thing that I regretted about Miriam’s review of Irish writing over the past year, indeed over the past few years, is that while interesting and important themes were addressed, by far the most important one was not. Both the Bible and the Irish Constitution are books and both clearly ban and prohibit abortion and other forms of crimes of violence against life and against the person. By an extraordinary sleight of hand, involving all of RTE News and Current Affairs programmes the illegal unlawful and unconstitutional attack against all human life from the moment of conception has been brushed under the carpet and RTE has surreptitiously helped to air-brush the deadly plight and fate of the unborn out of contemporary Irish society and Irish life. It is a great pity that my great and lovely friend Miriam, herself a loving and wonderful mother of eighth wonderful children, never takes the opportunity to set the record straight and never mentioned throughout the whole of her annual review of Irish books that the carnage and the unspeakable hecatomb is still going on! 

Maurice James, Barrister at Law, International Relations Consultant