Sir, - For many years I have been a realist and I have subscribed to realism's guiding principles, clarity and truth in depiction. However, after David Trimble's self-proclaimed realist declamation in Oslo I fear I will have to seek a new definition of the term!
David Trimbles's cut and paste job, a medley of mismatched quotations, was not only intellectually flaccid but also preachy and arrogant, mean-minded and bad-mannered, self-serving and hypocritical and, sadly, totally inappropiate to the occasion.
Pity he did not follow the advice given by a previous peace laureate, Nelson Mandela: "You make peace with your enemies, not your friends." Unfortunately, David Trimble chose to use the occasion to gratiously insult and patronise his political opponents.
Regretfully, Trimble's Oslo adventure, to paraphrase the Irish writer Eoghan Harris, reeked of "bad authority". - Yours, etc., Robert Ballagh,
Dublin 7.