Sir, – Chris Johns (Business, March 10th) bemoans Michael Gove's introduction of "a sectarian dimension to the Brexit debate". This arises because of the leading Brexiteer's view that Theresa May is too influenced by her Anglo-Catholic background and her attachment to Catholic social teaching with its emphasis on the dignity of the human person and the importance of working for the common good.
Gove implies that only a rock-ribbed Protestant imbued with a buccaneering, individualistic, liberal spirit can be relied upon to effect a glorious Brexit.
Whatever the veracity of Mr Gove’s claims, this long-time reader of your newspaper was happily surprised to see in these pages an acknowledgment, however oblique, that anti-Catholicism is still a calculation to be reckoned with in the world of politics.
How interesting it would be now for your newspaper to explore the extent to which it is a factor in current, often tendentious and inflammatory reporting and commentary in the Irish media.
Or is anti-Catholicism so firmly ingrained as the last acceptable prejudice that such a theme would be unthinkable for any self-respecting Irish investigative journalist? – Yours, etc.
Rev NIALL COLL,
Chestnut Hill,
Massachusetts,
US.