A land of trouble
Sir: Much of George Gale's splendid rhetoric on Northern Ireland (11 July) could not, and was not intended to be taken liter- ally. No one, for example, would be sangu- ine enough to anticipate that churches there, or anywhere else, will in the foreseeable future close from lack of interest, or san- guinary enough to advocate closing them down by force. Mankind's capacity for self- delusion seems to be infinite and institutions of vast wealth have remarkable survival value even in the absence of positive com- mitment.
One of your contributor's proposals is, however, capable of immediate implementa- tion throughout the United Kingdom: the removal of religious instruction and worship from all county schools and of public sup- port from all church schools. As I try to show in a forthcoming pamphlet on 'The Cost of Church Schools', segregated sectarian education leads to a whole train of social and moral disasters of which Northern Irish politics is the most macabre though not the only example.
David Tribe President, National Secular Society, 103 Borough High Street, London sni
Previous page
