McGurk wrong again (Letter to the Editor)
24th August 2014
The Editor,
Letters Page,
Sunday Business Post.
Dear Editor,
In an otherwise laudatory and deservedly so, tribute to Albert Reynolds, Tom McGurk (SBP 24th August) made an extraordinary, but telling point.
He queried how anyone could believe that “somehow the Presidency of the High Court was of more national significance than the Peace Process”.
Well you know someone who values the integrity of this State might think the integrity of our High Court is more significant than a so called peace process in another State. I am fed up to my teeth with the ambivalence and fudged values brought about by that phrase “the Peace Process”. It is a term that has been used to justify the unjustifiable, the immoral, the criminal and the very opposite of what this State – my State as a citizen – requires. One of the interesting things about Albert Reynolds role in the Northern Ireland peace process was that unlike some of those with a latter role in same he did not equivocate on violence.
I am very glad that the murder and mayhem in Northern Ireland is largely gone. I am glad that some politicians in Northern Ireland now do what politicians do in most democracies – engage in the practice of governing. However I see no reason why the institutions of this State should have to be compromised to facilitate this. I am grateful for the work and dedication of so may people from North and South of this Island and Britain, including the late Albert Reynolds, towards achieving peace for the people living there
So yes Tom. I for one am a proud citizen of the Republic of Ireland. If someday we become larger than our existing 26 Counties – I will support that. But the integrity of the Institutions of this State so battered and bruised in so many ways are important to me. Setting everything in this State against some sort of test of its impact on Northern Ireland is no way to determine a future of integrity and decent political values for our Republic. It makes no sense whatsoever and only fuels the narrow nationalism that has bedevilled us for so long.
As a neighbour, a fellow citizen on this island and as a regular visitor, I wish nothing but peace, prosperity and progress to Northern Ireland but I also want to ensure that we have models of Public Administration and Governance in this State that are not compromised in order to satisfy the lowest common denominator in the ongoing Peace Process – without which, of course, people like Mr Mc Gurk would probably have little to write about.
Yours sincerely,
Dermot Lacey
66 Beech Hill Drive,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
