Ahern should apologise for IRA ‘safe haven’

We are now in the age of government apologies for alleged past misdeeds.

For example, Tony Blair's apology for the British Government's treatment of Irish people during the famine it would be appropriate for Mr Ahern to issue a public apology for the Republic's government's active involvement in financing and training the IRA, for providing a 'safe haven' for IRA terrorists during the 35-year guerrilla campaign, for refusing to extradite known terrorists to Northern Ireland, and for his country's decades of discrimination against Protestants which barred them entering the Irish civil service and the Garda Siochána.

Such an apology would build confidence in the Protestant/unionist community and serve the interests of good neighbour-building in the years ahead.