Do mention the war, Enda

Given the time that’s in it, perhaps the next time Enda Kenny jets off, cap in hand for his customary pat of approval from Angela Merkel, would it not be opportune to remind her, that over 60,000 Irish citizens were mercilessly slain in the killing fields of Flanders, the Somme, Ypres and the many other infamous locations at the hands of the German military in the two World Wars?

Countless others were unimaginably maimed and brutalised by unspeakable but well-documented atrocities perpetrated by Germany and its allies throughout those times.

At the same time, he could remind her of the extraordinary generosity and vision demonstrated by the American people through the Marshall plan which, while also protecting against the advance of Communism, pumped $130bn in today’s values into Europe and Germany, resulting in a remarkable resurgence of the German economy in a few short years.

It is probably equally significant that the expansionary and far-sighted Marshall plan afforded Germany the gift of hope and confidence to successfully emerge from its most savage and destructive epoch, to be assimilated again into civilised society.

When extending the begging bowl for some generosity of spirit in the retrospective capitalisation of Irish banks, Enda would do well to demand a similar gesture for today’s hapless Irish citizens, who, apart a coterie of politicians, the rich and the elite, are again being brutalised and humiliated by the inhumane and destructive austerity policies, mainly driven and insisted upon by Germany and German unyielding fiscal ideology.

Unfortunately, the reality is that, rather than seek some recognition and retribution for past German atrocities against our young men in the two World Wars, Edna will touch the cap and will be happy simply to accept further German acclamation for his and his government’s abject compliance and obedience in the irreparable, visionless decimation of the Irish people, economy and society.

John Leahy

Wilton Road

Cork