Sir, – An Irish public tribunal is trundling into action, the result of which I may very well not live long enough to read.
But fear not! No sooner had this gloomy thought entered my head but it was followed by another – I already know the result: some morning, years hence, the following will happen.
There will be a rush to microphones and cameras by politicians, gardaí, civil servants and semi-State representatives, all quoting selectively from unconnected sections and paragraphs of the report, and all claiming to have been vindicated by the report.
There will be accusations that some parties received advance releases of the report. There will be demands that the taoiseach of the day resign, that there should be an immediate general election; that the entire system is rotten to the core and “something must be done” about it.
Amid all this clamour, the least of which shall not be the enriched legal profession chortling happily, Maurice McCabe’s voice, and that of his family, will essentially go unheard. And nothing will be done about it. – Yours, etc,
LIAM STENSON,
Knocknacarra, Galway.