No friend to Ireland

LIKE many Irish people I have relatives buried in France.

They went there as young men to fight in wars which were, in part at any rate, about keeping France free of German domination.

If the poor devils could only have known what was to come some decades down the road.

Ireland is now in dire financial circumstances and France, a country we always thought of as a special friend, is working with Germany to make our recovery a great deal more costly for each and every citizen.

This crisis will pass and we will get back on our feet. Sadly, however, our relationship with France, in particular, is changed forever.

Dan Murphy

Passage West

Cork