Irish Examiner View: An unfortunate error of judgement

Peter Brooke is best remembered for his appearance on the Late Late in 1992, when he sang ‘My Darling Clementine’ — a jarring note given seven Protestant workers had been killed that day by an IRA bomb

 Peter Brooke's Late Late mis-step shows how one error of judgement can throw a shadow over an entire political career. Picture: RollingNews.ie

The passing of Peter Brooke, former secretary of state for Northern Ireland, will bring many readers back to the terrible days of the Troubles, when accounts of atrocities were almost a daily feature of news reports.

Brooke played his role in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland, as has been reported since his passing, in his time as secretary ‘deniable’ talks got under way between an MI5 agent and Republican paramilitaries in 1990, while he also helped with moves to bring constitutional parties and the Irish Government towards negotiations — ‘talks about talks’, the so-called Brooke initiative.