from the heelers emails

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: James Healy
Date: Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 9:30 PM
Subject: attention Colm Keane/Una O'Hagan re Lourdes book
To: <capelislandpress@hotmail.com>


Dear Folks.
I've bought most of Colm Keane's spiritually themed books. I bought the
Padre Pio one several times as a gift for different people.
I'm not a fan of your writing or analysis. But I really enjoy your subject
matter.
Some thoughts on the Lourdes book which I purchased the moment I saw it last week in the Silverware Newbridge.
1. The first half of it is quite a good book. The second half reads like
filler.
2. Your use of already refuted slanders about Pope Pius 12th is poor. I
would refer you to the writings of Rabbi Dalin on this matter.
3. Your use of certain leftist critiques of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid
was also poor. You say he forced the cancellation of a football match with
"communist" Yugoslavia. I think we can all agree Yugoslavia was communist without inverted commas. Did you bother to acquaint yourself with the routine murders, tortures and random incarcerations by the communist regime of Yugoslavia from World War Two up to 1992 particularly against Catholic priests and nuns, but also quite substantially against other citizens in Yugoslavia at the time you alleged Archbishop McQuaid was authoritarian in supposedly forcing a football match to be cancelled?
4. You say Archbishop McQuaid enthusiastically implemented a ban on Catholics attending Trinity College. This, if your assessment is true, was part of the historical context of the time, involving a substantial amount of culpable prejudice and wrong doing against Catholics by the authorities running Trinity College, and involving a residue of sometimes legitimate distrust which arose from our experiences as a colony of Britain. The ban which you incorrectly imply arose at the hands of Archbishop McQuaid was far older and was in fact often set aside on request.
5, In further slandering Archbishop McQuaid you adopt the RTE, Irish Times, congential leftwing perspective on his opposition to the socialist policies of government Minister Noel Browne. You are perhaps presuming a lot when you presume this analysis is endorsed in every quarter.
6. You wrongly label Archbishop McQuaid authoritarian, manipulative, and manoeuvring. Yet you fail to apply any such adjectives or any critique at all to other controversial figures such as De Valera and his ilk, when you describe them. You take a strangely rose tinted view of political figures who inflicted civil war murders and tortures on Ireland. Your tendentious negative comments are reserved for Archbishop McQuaid and Pope Pius 12th.
7. The sequence about the Hollywood actress June Haver ends with the assertion following your description of the death of her husband, that she had at last found the happiness which had always eluded her. You might want to reconsider your twee phrasing and the positioning of your twee phrasing in this instance.
8. The writing about Princess Grace and John F Kennedy is awful. For heaven's sake have mercy. Let those cliches rest in peace.
9. The cover of the book is lovely. You could consider naming an artist with regard to the image. The attribution to a company that designed the book cover is dissatisfying. But it is a lovely cover.
Best wishes.
I'll probably be buying your next half good fervourless concatenation of filler too.