Fergus Finlay: Poor political decisions leaving lifetime scars on public psyche

I can’t recall when an Irish government last sat down to make an important decision, knew they were going to hurt an awful lot of people, and went ahead anyway, writes Fergus Finlay

 A member of the crowd at a recent protest at Parnell Place, Cork. Picture: Cian O'Regan.

Good politics often leaves a mark. Bad politics leaves scars. All our lives, whether we know it or not, are shaped and informed by politics. We depend on good decisions being made after careful analysis by rational and decent people.

Over the weekend, and I guess for the next few days, we will get a fair few reminders of the art of good politics that brought about peace in Ireland. It’s a strange peace, we know that — nobody seems to want to build on it, but nobody wants to break it either. But it’s there. I wrote here recently about the 1,500 days between the Downing Street Declaration and the Good Friday Agreement. They were 1,500 days of highly skilled politics aimed at one over-riding purpose.