RE RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE IN IRELAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 158, 5 July 1921, Page 6

RE RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE IN IRELAND.

(To tbe Editor) Sir, —I was born and lived for about twenty years in the South of Ireland, and was brought up a Roman Catholic. I -was a pupil in three convert schools in Ireland—in one ac a day pupil and in the others as a boarder. Wben grown up, a critical examination of mv religious beliefs compelled mc to leave the Church, much to the distress of my relatjves. It is many years since thcii, and in religion I am as far removed as •possibls from Roman Catholicism. Mv experiences have given mc. I believe, ail adequate opportunity of jut-Tin-*- of the feelings of Irish Catholics with regard to their Protestant countrymen "ami women. Though my parents lived and died the strictest of Roman Catholic, never at any time have I heard from them any suggestion that Protestant-. did not deserve the same treatment -is Catholics. The same is true of mv I teachers and the numerous priests 'l have known. I was tauaht that mv neighbours were "mankind ~of every description," regardless of their creJd or Tbt' fnll ? i hy nei^'b ">'r as thyself." Hns talk out here of Irish Catholics illtreating Protestants on account of their region would be laughab]e jfc co wicked and dangerous. Of late I 3 ra f" ed m - v brains to recall any sib^rL 0 ' W(M ? that could *y ™ poi ofi £LS C ° nStrUed into of Protestants on ac-cou n t of their reiio'°n. I cannot recall one. Instead many acts of kindness, which I certainly oote r OI CoUrse at the tim * come back to my memory—l "am, etc., .... USE URLANDAISE.