Madam, – Miriam Lord's dismissal of John Gormley's keynote speech to the Green Party convention as "grand and bland and instantly forgettable" was a joke too far ( The Irish Times, March 9th).
When Mr Gormley spoke to delegates (of whom I was one) about their elected representatives not having being seen "in Dublin Castle answering questions about bribes and planning corruption", or "on RTÉ's Prime Timeprogramme attempting to justify decisions that have seen our villages and towns destroyed by unsuitable development", Ms Lord may have been unmoved. I was not. It instantly reminded me of two of the reasons why I was sitting in that sweltering conference hall.
In case your correspondent has already forgotten, may I remind her of Mr Gormley’s closing remarks, which aptly echoed the words of E.F. Schumacher that “we must do what we conceive to be the right thing and not bother our heads or burden our souls about whether we’ll be successful. Because if we don’t do the right thing, we’ll do the wrong thing. And we’ll be part of the disease and not part of the cure.”
I commend the referencing of these words from the past during the present turmoil. May I suggest that some members of the Opposition, as well as the country at large, might do well to heed them? – Yours, etc,