Taoiseach’s challenge - Just what is he trying to hide?

THERE is a terrible irony and sadness in the fact that on the very day that one of the traditional authority figures in our society — a cardinal of the Catholic Church — finally accepts that a person, an office, entrusted with such authority, can no longer seek refuge in secrecy, obfuscation or legal point scoring, that our Taoiseach turns to the High Court to stymie the Mahon Tribunal’s investigations into his finances.

The Taoiseach now faces the same, self-inflicted dilemma Cardinal Connell brought upon himself when he began an action to deny a state inquiry access to documents on child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

If he succeeds we will wonder what he is trying to hide, if he fails we will always wonder why he tried.