Terrorism and the corruption of public life

WE live in a world where it seems legitimate to spread democracy and freedom by dropping bombs (as recently on the citizens of Baghdad), or to express grievances by the slaughter of innocent travellers (as recently in Madrid).

We in Ireland know that an incalculable price has to be paid by the generations to come for any ill-judged resort to violence, whether by the state or by individuals and groups of individuals within the state.

We also know in Ireland that there is a corresponding responsibility on the part of leaders to ensure that the ways of peaceful protest prosper and that the oppressed everywhere can hope to remove their sense of oppression by democratic rather than violent means.