Madam, - So, after a decade and the expenditure of over €25 million the Irish public is witness to a series of findings regarding the former taoiseach, Charles Haughey which will surprise nobody in the least. Was it all worth it? What has been achieved?
There is a prevalent but simplistic idea that corruption in this country began and ended with Mr Haughey and his cronies, and those who dare mention the man's significant achievements are billed dishonest partisan revisionists. A more balanced assessment - and this requires a certain portion of the Irish public at large to put its hand on its heart and swallow a large dose of honesty - is that Haughey was merely a larger, perhaps more grotesque extension of our own and this country's way of operating. Corruption is endemic. In that sense, perhaps the part of Bertie Ahern's grandiose graveside eulogy where he stated that the former taoiseach was "one of us" isn't really all that wide of the mark. The "nod and wink" culture was widespread long before Charles J Haughey entered the scene. He just indulged on a grander scale than a lot of others, because he was in a position to do so, and wasn't questioned. And this culture still hasn't been eradicated. We delude ourselves if we think it had. It is simply operating in different, maybe more subtle, ways.
A little perspective, collective self-examination and maybe a modicum of charity wouldn't go amiss. "The ultimate judgment of history will be positive", Ahern said in his graveside oration. When the dust has settled and we're able to look at the man's achievements in the round, I think he may be proved correct. - Yours, etc,
DAVID MARLBOROUGH, Kenilworth Park, Dublin 6w.
Madam, - It appears that Mr Haughey had €200 in cash sent to Mrs Ann Linehan at Dublin airport as she left to comfort and assist her husband during his treatment and recuperation.
One may say that Mr Haughey gave her the Charvet shirt off his back. - Yours, etc,
GERARD O'KEEFFE, Kanturk, Co Cork.
Madam, - Judge Moriarty and his team are to be congratulated for doing not just some service, but a great service to the State. - Yours, etc,
PAUL O'REILLY, Park Lane, Dublin 4.