The UN is a theatre of the absurd

TRÓCAIRE’s director, Mr Justin Kilcullen (Irish Examiner, October 14) is so far out of touch in his adulation of the UN as to be beyond belief.

The Speaker of the US House Of Representatives, the late Tipp O’Neil, put it best when he called it a “theatre of the absurd” It is all the more nauseating to see all and sundry toadying up to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on his Irish visit.

Multilateralists take it as an article of faith that any life-saving action requires the blessing of this diseased institution for validity. On Kofi’s watch, Bosnia, Rwanda and now Darfur have happened and - in the case of the latter - is continuing to happen. What is Kofi’s reaction? The usual impotence, with a resolution or two and a few pious platitudes, echoing from the hollow citadel in New York’s 46th street.