Michael Noonan - The power of loving

TWO of the great, heartrending yet uplifting, public displays of emotional honesty in recent years were John McCarthy’s radio interview after his five-year ordeal as a hostage in the Lebanon came to an end and Nuala O Faolain describing her feelings about her impending death. After Monday night’s performance by politician Michael Noonan, we can add a third name to that list.

His powerful and emotional description of his wife Florence’s struggle with Alzheimer’s required composure and courage few of us could muster. It showed a side of politicians that if more often exposed might help restore faith in that cheapened process.

Most of all it showed, as Steven King does on this page too, that love is the most powerful human emotion and that, by loving, we can make goodness real.