Sir, – If you ask anyone old enough to remember Ireland in 1986, they will probably tell you of how difficult it was trying to get by in a stagnant economy, pay their bills and say goodbye to many friends departing in the mass emigration of that time.
Yet if you look at the coverage of the state papers over recent days all we see is an obsession with high politics, what FitzGerald said to Thatcher and vice versa, Northern Ireland affairs, and maybe something about the first divorce referendum.
There is nothing about the despair of most people; the rise of the PDs out of nowhere, and their effect on government; the botched cabinet reshuffle that took place early that year in response; the breakdown of the Fine Gael and Labour coalition by the end of that year; the crisis in the public finances and the 17 per cent unemployment rate.
Shouldn’t your researchers pick material from the state papers which is more representative of what was actually going on and affected those of us who actually lived here? – Yours, etc,
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CIARAN O’MARA,
Booterstown,
Co Dublin.