Neil Prendeville and the national ‘Do you know who I am?’ syndrome

BEHIND all the slick explanations interspersed with some orchestrated craw-thumping on behalf of Neil Prendeville, only Claire O’Sullivan realises what is truly at stake (Irish Examiner, November 4/6).

The ‘Do you know who I am?’ syndrome has been debilitating Irish society for generations and has made a mockery of any notions we might have that we live in a republic.

Status, self-importance and all the trappings of wealth are enough to dazzle the more deluded among us. It was the same grovelling attitude to status that allowed the blight of clerical child molestation to spread in this country, unchecked by ecclesiastical authorities or secular authorities, such as the Garda Siochána and the political class.