Fintan O’Toole is one of Ireland’s best and bravest journalists. This is his piece in the Irish Times two days ago in response to the campaign in support of Sean Quinn.
Some of you may have heard me say that I believe that two things erode and corrode a society – moral ambiguity and weak leadership.
This stuff reminds of of how it was in the years of violence – and I hear the echo of Conor Cruise O’Brien who spoke of the ‘sneaking regarders’ – those who would neither condemn nor approve.
And I can remember the vitriol that was directed at the Cruiser at an Irish Labour Party conference in the 1970s when he had the temerity to challenge the current implied (and thoroughly morally equivocal) definition of ‘political prisoner’. No attempt to rebut his argument, of course, but ranting comments of the type: ‘I never thought I’d live to see the day when…’