NEWTON'S OPTIC:A LITTLE-KNOWN fact about Dick Roche, the Minister for European Affairs, is that he was the first Irish citizen to be awarded a United Nations Human Rights Fellowship, writes NEWTON EMERSON.
It is not Roche's fault that this fact is little known; it receives a mention on his website, his Wikipedia page, his Hotpress profile, in many of his Oireachtas debates, most of his speeches to human rights groups and on pretty much every other opportunity he can get.
Roche received his 1978 award for research into "non-judicial institutional arrangements for the protection of the rights of the citizen".
This has given the Minister "a lifelong personal interest" in non-judicial institutional arrangements for the protection of the rights of the citizen, according to a speech he made at the Council of Europe in 2002.
A considerable part of this lifelong interest must have flashed before Roche's eyes in Wicklow on Monday morning when he found himself staring down the barrel of gun.
His first thought would obviously have been: "How can I blame this on Declan Ganley?" But his second thought must surely have been: "How can this be addressed through non-judicial institutional arrangements for the protection of the rights of the citizen?"
The need for a non-judicial approach is quite beyond dispute.
The robbers made their getaway in a Volvo, indicating that they are socially disadvantaged. Roche believes that they did not recognise him, indicating that they are also politically marginalised.
No injuries were reported and no shots were fired, making this merely a crime against bourgeois property.
Only €20,000 was taken, which is barely enough to decentralise one quarter of an equality expert to Roscrea.
Clearly, there is no need to imprison anyone over such a minor matter.
The best place for Roche to begin his search for non-judicial justice is the January 2007 Report on Restorative Justice from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights.
Noting that "incarceration is not an effective means of reducing recidivism in Ireland", the report declared it "essential that we in Ireland should be open to new ideas and new approaches to dealing with crime".
The committee was not open to the idea that recidivism rates for the incarcerated are generally zero.
New ideas the committee was open to included victim-offender conferencing based on "the practices of indigenous populations in New Zealand and North America" and "sentencing circles" based on "practices operated in many native American populations".
In March 2007 the Department of Justice set up the National Commission on Restorative Justice to take these heap-big ideas further.
Its interim report, published in March 2008, also considered "community panels, healing circles and other community-based initiatives" and recommended using restorative justice for "serious offences, violent crime and adult crime".
So there can be no objections to applying it in the case of Roche's temporary inconvenience.
The Minister should erect a wigwam outside his office and invite the robbers to a victim-offender conference.
There they can consider the impact of their crimes upon each other and the community, then offer apologies for their social circumstances and promise never to let those circumstances drive them to crime again.
Who knows?
In the warmth of the healing circle, they might all find a strange sense of fellowship.