Modern Ireland needs men and women of Dan Keating’s vision

I READ with interest your editorial on the passing of IRA veteran Dan Keating (October 6).

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dan a number of years ago and found him to be an affable gentleman of keen mind.

The men and women who fought for Ireland’s independence put everything they had on the line for what they believed in — their jobs, their comfort, literally even their lives.

The 1916 Proclamation was a radical document, a new departure trying to reinvest power and sovereignty in the people: “We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible.”

That the resulting Free State did not live up to these aspirations is hardly their fault. It was a political entity forced on us by a far bigger power under threat of “immediate and terrible war”. We inherited a whole hidden administration — legal, ideological and civil service from our former overlords.

It was a bad start, but people tried to make the most of it. They were idealists; perhaps not always the best type of person suited to the mundane running of the country though many of them rose to the task admirably.

But without the vision and generous spirit of such people we risk becoming the nation of “grubby shopkeepers” described in Yeats’ poem September 1913.

Your editorial was quite accurate in saying that “nearly all of our political parties concede there are few profound differences between their policies” and therein lies much of the problem.

At the last election we either voted along inherited lines (as the editorial mentioned) or for the lesser of evils that would keep the economic ship afloat. There was a distinct lack of any real vision or opposition. And how could there be, when the main parties’ policies “differ in emphasis rather than conviction”?

While I’m sure many of the IRA and Cumann na mBan veterans, were they alive today, would be pleased with our economic prosperity, they would also see much to concern them.

There’s increased privatisation of even basic social services, our natural resources sold for a song, our elected leaders forgetting who serves who; our very struggle for independence downplayed and indeed derided, and the resulting confusion in our national identity making us even more vulnerable to a stripping away of our sovereignty by multinationals, foreign powers and so on.

Where are the men and women of vision to show us another way?

Nick Folley

36 Ardcarrig

Carrigaline

Co Cork