Sir, - "I hope this very sad chapter of our history will be closed as soon as possible," declares the Sinn Fein leader. But perhaps it is a chapter that we should keep open, so that we can read in it again and again the record of our great failure, from which we have much to learn.
For the question put to us by these dead bodies, now resurfacing, is this: How could we tolerate for all those years the deeds of a fascist organisation dedicated to torture and murder? What cowardice or connivance prevented us from speaking out against these atrocities? Were we any better than the denizens of Buchenwald who couldn't smell the smoke from the crematoria or the Serbs who thrice elected Milosevic?
Even when all the bodies have been found, we must keep on digging. The deep rot behind all this will take a long time to explore, and we haven't even begun. To say "all is forgiven and forgotten" is to insult the dead, give solace to the murderers, and let ourselves off the hook.
Irish people have posed as immaculate victims of history for far too long. It is now time for us to learn to live with guilt, and with an indelible brand of shame. - Yours, etc.,
Rev Joseph S. O'Leary,
Nakano-ku, Tokyo, Japan.