National famine monument vital

Without wanting to cast a shadow on the very worthy JFK visit commemoration, it’s worth remembering that barrel maker Patrick Kennedy’s voyage to the United States took place a mere 10 years after the holocaust of the Great Famine.

Yet there is not, in 2013, a national famine memorial or interpretative centre, or a memorial day. A shameful omission, and one which cries out for explanation.

Clearly, we are a nation in denial. Any nation that builds 90,000 houses a year (if only they’d been built in Soweto or Haiti), when only 15,000 were needed, has a serious sickness at its heart.