Sir, - A central purpose of the White Paper on Foreign Policy is to encourage the maximum degree of ownership of policy by the people. Joe Lee plainly points out (Irish Times. September 9th) that is easier said than done.
Without lay language and lay participation, ownership of policy by the people is little more than a political platitude if policy remains a haughty, academic, closed shop preserve. Events influence policy, rather than the reverse; the context shaped them.
The White Paper also sagely says: "To understand fully the background to Ireland's foreign policy, it is necessary to recognise the influence of our geographical location and our historical experience on the formulation of that policy". A lay look at the varying time and space geographical context and the sequence of the historical context of Ireland's foreign policy would encourage debate about all aspects of policy and promote the people's ownership.
Where is it? The academics won't let the lay person open his mouth about it. It's theirs!
The trouble is that academicians tend to treat lay historiography as a brain surgeon would treat cranial advice from a snooker player. That barrier has to be broken through, if the green fields of ownership of policy by the people are to be reached and the pious "ownership" aspiration of the avuncular White Paper is to be realised. We'll see! Soundbites will be worn. - Yours, etc.
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.