'Our moral deficit' explored

The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev John Neill, has said it was "sad" there was no attempt to provide moral justification for the use of Shannon Airport in the Iraq war.

Instead, we were still hearing "that to do otherwise than to give tacit support to the war would not have been in our economic interests. Is morality now merely a matter of economics?" he asked.

In a sermon at St John's Church, Sandymount, yesterday he said that "in this country we get very anxious about the moral implications of personal sexual morality.

"Last year, there were many questions raised by politicians and church leaders as to the motivation for the war in Iraq. The main protagonists did make some attempt to provide a morally valid reason for going to war, even though that justification now lies in tatters." This failure in Ireland "to address a serious moral dilemma reflects badly on our claim to be a moral society. We are obsessed with certain sins, but blind to the fact that far greater issues press upon us," he said. It was "our moral deficit".

Speaking to the The Irish Times last night, the archbishop said we were "very bad at entering debate on ethics or morality other than on personal issues".

When it came to debate about war we tended to limit it to neutrality, which was more a political than a moral issue.