Sir, - John Waters (Opinion, May 14th) extols the virtues of our erstwhile political leadership and deprecates those of us who dared to criticise. I have to own up and say I was and still am among the latter group. Mr Waters calls us "mediocrities". The extenuating circumstances in my case were that I, as an ordinary citizen, thought I was exercising my democratic right to criticise those who purport to represent me at the highest level of government. I perceived that individual politicians and political parties were being corrupted by receiving large donations from those few who could afford it to the detriment of the interests of the rest of us, and I took to giving out about it. If that is being a "mediocrity", then I am one.
John Waters's school of political philosophy does not seem right to me. He might as well argue that Bingham, Cromwell and Castlereagh were decent men trying to impose the rule of law (a rule of law which we still use) on a band of ungrateful "mediocrities" on this island and that we should ignore the barbarities and humiliations that went with it.
Mythologising individual politicians, either through excessive criticism or veneration, is a distraction from the most important issue to arise from recent history. Our political system, as currently funded, is very corruptible. John Waters, in common with the whole of the political system, seems to be in denial about this. I hope there are many other "mediocrities" who will persist in raising the issue until it is adequately dealt with. - Yours, etc.,
A. Leavy, Shielmartin Drive, Sutton, Dublin 13.