Reform Alliance - Who needs an Irish tea party?

Next Saturday, the Reform Alliance will hold its long-trumpeted, long-threatened, day-long conference in Dublin.

The event will be marked as much by those who decide not to attend as those who do. The principals seem to want to attract the great and good, the active and committed, though maybe not too many so charismatic that they might want to share the limelight or, heaven forbid, take a leadership role.

Even though the appetite and need for reform, at every level of society, in every nook and cranny, and in every aspect of our public life, could not be more pressing, huge questions remain about the validity and potential of this project. The motives behind it deserve careful consideration too.