Sir, – Felix M Larkin's letter (December 23rd) on the role of "rising expectations" influencing revolution is indeed apt regarding most of the instances which he cites.
In the case of the campaign for civil rights in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, however, he errs. Terence O’Neill initiated no reforms – at least none relevant to the six demands of the civil rights movement at that time – until after the second demonstration which took place in Derry on October 5th, 1968.
All of O’Neill’s reform measures represented a response to that event; at no stage did he anticipate it. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL J DONNELLY,
Shrule,
Co Mayo.
A chara, – Mr Larkin quotes the great Alexis de Tocqueville, but truncates the quote. The quote in full is as follows: “Experience teaches us that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one that witnesses their first steps toward reform. A sovereign who seeks to relieve his subjects after a long period of oppression is lost, unless he is a man of great genius. For evils that are patiently endured when they seem inevitable become intolerable once the possibility of escape from them is hinted at. The very redress of grievances throws a sharp light on those that are left unredressed, and adds fresh poignancy to their smart . . . It is almost never when a state of things is at its most detestable it is smashed but, rather, when it starts to improve, permitting men to breath, reflect, to communicate their thoughts with each other and to gauge by what they already have the extents of their rights and grievances. The weight, though less heavy, seems all the more unbearable.”
On reading this quote in full, it is clear the revolution is not one of rising expectations, but rather of unequal outcomes. – Is mise,
BRENDAN KELLY,
Celbridge,
Co Kildare.