Letter which appeared in the Irish Times last Saturday September 24, 2005 [My translations in square brackets].

Women, work
and the home

“Madam, – Níl
aon tinteán mar do thinteán fein. [Irish phrase meaning there’s no place like home, literally, no fireplace like your own fireplace].  Of course,
an tinteán is fast receding into fadó fadó [long, long ago], but the profound verity that is the
essence of the seanfhocal [Irish phrase] will always be the truth of the human condition.  More heart than hearth, it is a
humano-spiritual rather than physical structure, a warm cocoon enveloping the
very chrysalis of human society.  To grow
into it and out of it is the natural right of every person.

However –
and indeeed, however well – non-parental childcare is funded, an tinteán is not
to be found in creche or kindergarten, pre-school or after school, and hardly
in a couple of nightly hours of “quality time”.

Many women,
perhaps most women, now want to “work”, i.e. to go every day to a workplace and
to take part in everything that passes there.

To
acknowledge readily that most of them work very well is not to forget that a
woman feels scant deference to logic and is wont to express the truth in such
an oblique way that it is scarcely recognisable.  Thus, the true statement, “I want to go to
work” is instead expressed as “I need to go to work”; “I can’t afford not to go
to work”; “the ends that I think should meet cannot be made to meet unless I go
to work”; “I must go to work to provide adequately for my children”; or, even,
“my children will be better off by being without me for most of their daylight
hours”.

I feel sure
that an tinteán will continue to recede until women of some future generation
become so alive to their own deprivation that they will resolve that their
children must be preserved from tinteán-deprivation.

-Yours etc.

Frank
Farrell
Lakelands
Close
Stillorgan
Co. Dublin”

jackdalton

on 26 September 2005 at 13:07

Don’t sweat it, girls: Frank is a well-known ‘commentator’ on these and other social issues. And has his own unique insights to offer, naturally.
SPUC: an Gaeilge: what everyone else should do about their vile unIrish life and ways; the evils of computers in schools…agus mar sin de…
What I can’t understand is why the Times keeps giving him space. 0
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geepeemum

on 26 September 2005 at 19:55

He’s obviously VERY bored. We must think of something to occupy his time. Any one know any JW’s who live near him? 0
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jackdalton

on 26 September 2005 at 22:06

JW’s? See…. this is more of it — another woman who offers scant deference to logic and is wont to express the truth in such an oblique way! How is a tinte?n-deprived digital journeyman to cope with all this. 😉 0
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poggle

on 27 September 2005 at 11:16

I bet Frank’s single and childless. 0
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jackdalton

on 27 September 2005 at 15:48

And this is an absolute disqualification from life, Ms Pog? 😉 0
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poggle

on 27 September 2005 at 15:53

Single, childless and writing silly pompous letters like that? Yes, I think so, Doc. It’s the combination, you see. (I would assume the same if it was a woman writing along the same lines (and yes, I am also both).) 0
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jackdalton

on 27 September 2005 at 23:10

ahh the combination’s the thing. Right. Would agree absolutely so… 🙂 0
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poggle

on 28 September 2005 at 10:38

Phew. Think I got away with that one …..
Ahem. 😉 0
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jackdalton

on 28 September 2005 at 12:33

hmmm… 0
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