Sir, – My seven-year-old asked me today what hypocrisy meant.
I thought about trying to explain that hypocrisy was our Government whingeing about the British breaking international law and then turning around and breaching international data protection laws themselves.
I reckoned that might be too much for a seven-year-old to handle, so I thought about trying to explain that hypocrisy was old people whingeing about young people having house parties and then turning around and whingeing about their own right to go to Mass. Again, I thought he mightn’t quite get that, we being aetheists and all.
So in the end, being a language teacher, I resorted to the old Greek definition of the word and told him that hypocrisy was speaking from underneath a mask. He was quite happy with that explanation, knowing that Covid-19 has made hypocrites of all of us. – Yours, etc,
KATHARINA GREINER,
Gorey, Co Wexford.