Letter:A violent past

H. D. O'Grady
Saturday 14 September 1996 18:02 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Fintan O'Toole misses one factor concerning gangsterism ("Ireland is discovering that gangsters are not so glamorous", 1 September): the attitude adopted by some politicians, clergymen, lawyers, judges, even newspaper columnists, over the last 70 years, towards the paramilitaries.

These commentators on Ireland's moral principles - of all persuasions, North and South - have consistently chosen to excuse (if not condone) the actions of the men of violence, on the grounds of a patriotism which is at best spurious. I suggest that a major cause of gangsterism, which Mr O'Toole so deplores, has been the ambivalent thinking, by these members of the establishment on both sides of the border, who, it seems, are willing to accept and defend one form of violence whilst at the same time rejecting, with crocodile tears, another. Mr O'Toole's proposition that "Irish society is learning to look" is only partially correct when the so-called guardians of public morals adopt such a two-faced attitude.

Mr O'Toole seems to suggest that events leading up to Veronica Guerin's awful murder are a recent phenomenon. The ideathat terrorists were, somehow, folk heroes has bedevilled the country for years and encourages common criminals to follow the same bloodstained example.

H D O'Grady

Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in