Sir, – It is depressing to observe that, under Eamon Gilmore, our foreign policy is as bankrupt morally as our exchequer is financially.
His pathetic attempt to justify the decision to close our embassy to the Holy See made clear that Ireland’s diplomatic activity is now exclusively concerned with its “economic return”. The same week we saw that approach at work in the Seanad where the government refused to condemn systematic and egregious human rights abuses in China.
I have no doubt that turning a blind eye to the evils perpetrated by governments such as that of China brings an “economic return”. It is no less shameful for that. – Yours, etc,