Sir, - With all the corruption and venality that is coming to the surface in Irish public life, the following true story may be a small antidote.
The late Jim Kemmy TD, when he was a Limerick city councillor and Limerick secretary of the Stone Masons' Union, arrived home to his house in Garryowen to find that a Limerick contractor had left in a bottle of whiskey. It was Christmas Eve. Jim took up the bottle, and as he never owned a car nor a bicycle, walked to the contractor's house. He knocked at the man's door and thanked him for his generosity, but told him that he did not wish to accept the gift. He felt that it might compromise him in some way in his dealings as a trade unionist.
I was in his clinic another day when a young man came in and touched him for a tenner. "Will he pay you back that money?" I asked. "I wouldn't think so," said Jim. This was a regular feature in his clinic and indeed on the streets of Limerick. To Jim money was mere dross.
When he died, he did not own a house or a car, nor even a humble bicycle. His worldly goods were a room full of books.
But he left behind a legacy of decency and honesty and openness and of commitment to public service without fear or favour. - Yours, etc.,
Pat Feeley, Claremont Villas, Glenageary, Co Dublin.