Moral compass in Bunreacht and proclamation

Tom Cooper’s support (Jul 28) for the inclusion of former residents of the Magdalene laundries and the Bethany Home within the redress scheme is admirable.

However, his reference to Alan Shatter’s comment about this state losing its moral compass by excluding Jewish refugees during and after the Emergency as being equivocal, and not cherishing all the children equally in comparison, is “taking the Michael”.

The same state also left neutral Irish-born merchant seamen in a slave labour camp and only moved to get them out after the D-Day landings when it saw the writing on the wall for Nazi Germany; it was so-called Irishmen who, in collaboration with Nazi Germany, formulated the plan which led to their incarceration.