We have learned all the bad habits of the British

Tim Pat Coogan’s excellent biography of Michael Collins highlighted the method that successive British governments employed to sate public opinion when they controlled Ireland.

Coogan wrote that the British dealt with serious public issues by buying time, being seen to be doing something, setting up a tribunal, a commission, a forum, an assembly, a convention.

The history of Ireland is strewn with such pretexts that I’m sure that Collins would have been gratified to learn that nothing has changed and that the old traditions are flourishing in the new Ireland of today.

The establishment in Ireland has surpassed our former masters and with a vengeance, more so over the past 20 years or so. The title of the relevant chapter in the Collins biography is ‘Kicking Down a Rotten Door’ — how appropriate.

Denis Moloney

Tinkers’ Hill

Kilnagurteen

Macroom Co Cork