The criminal and the corrupt are the norm

Criminal activity and amoral behaviour are being normalised in Ireland.

Our society is akin to the Italian mafia, complete with murders, hit men and racketeering, and corrupt politicians who can be bought and influenced by special interests.

Murder has become common, and with it an indifferent and de-sensitised nation that has become accustomed, and acquiescent, to it.

The old Ireland is dead and gone, only to be replaced by a sick and twisted Ireland with hypocritical values that are self-serving in the extreme.

The overall picture for this country is the development of an ‘Irish mafia’ who have taken over the suburbs with all kinds of vice.

Our idle and decadent, conservative upper class should be concerned, because the country is on track to be taken over by those who are gaining more and more power.

Former attorney general and senior counsel Michael McDowell emphasised the threat of the underworld to the authority of the State.

We are now a nation that has developed its own mafia and they have become part of the silverware in a country without an effective government, a government that is, at times, arguably just as corrupt as our most hardened criminals.

The term ‘organised crime’ should not be construed too narrowly either, because so-called legitimate business is rife with price-fixing cartels across the country and it is clear that frowning on the underworld can only go so far.

The line between honest business and criminal activity is as thin as a hair — if it exists at all — in a country that is never far away from the criminal courts. Many “pillars of our community” have gone down in shame with the legacy of a bad example to others.

Dear old Ireland is very much a country that has resigned, given up, and couldn’t give a damn one way or the other. We are surely on the road to hell ... can there be any doubt given that crime, organised or not, is such a prevalent factor in our national life and takes up a huge share of media reporting?

Maurice Fitzgerald

Shanbally

Co Cork