Why we need Churchillian leadership in Ireland now

IN 1939, Britain faced a wartime crisis of grave peril.

The then prime minister, Winston Churchill, realised the immediate necessity to take the firmest possible measures — even unprecedented measures — effectively to tackle the crisis which threatened his country.

Churchill effectively dissolved parliament in its traditional form and replaced it with a single-party coalition, with the king’s consent, consisting (particularly in the war cabinet) of the best brains known to him, drawn from all parties or indeed from outside the political arena altogether, to serve for as long as needs be.