Sir,
I read Fintan O’Toole’s column (15 April) with irritation as usual.
The Irish Constitution was drafted neither in Rome nor Maynooth. It never enshrined Catholic law.
Two instances refute the Princeton Professor’s contentions.
Marriages contracted in accordance with Irish Law could be deemed null and void by the Church.
Conor Cruise O’Brien, married according to Irish law, was unable to remarry in Ireland while his wife
still lived.
But he was married in accordance with Catholic Canon Law in St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
If such a ceremony had been performed in Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral he would have risked prosecution
for bigamy, and the officiating priest might have been prosecuted for abetting a crime.
Catholic workers in the Republic wishing to attend Mass on Holy Days (except on St Patrick’s Day
and Christmas Day) must beg their employers’ permission to absent themselves for the half-hour or so needed.
Name a Catholic Holy Day and you name a Public Holiday in secular anti-clerical France, Germany, Holland and other EU countries.
Mr O’Toole may be forgive ignorance of Continental Europe. But he has lived in Ireland long enough
to know something about the country.
Yours faithfully
Donal Kennedy
LONDON
The letter above was emailed to the Editor of The Irish Times last night.