Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh resignation

Madam, - I must take issue with Proinsias Mac Fhearghusa's view (October 26th) that my article on his late grand-uncle Cearbhall…

Madam, - I must take issue with Proinsias Mac Fhearghusa's view (October 26th) that my article on his late grand-uncle Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (Opinion & Analysis, October 24th) was biased.

Firstly, my contextualising of Paddy Donegan's attack on the then president by referring to the murder of Garda Clerkin and to Donegan's car accident does not in any way excuse the disgraceful attack. I could not give more details about the background to the Emergency Powers Act purely because of space limitations.

Secondly, the view that Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh was the wrong choice for president was universal across parties at the time. Few people, however, said it on the record.

Thirdly, regarding my assessment of President Ó Dálaigh's mental heath, I concluded, after discussing the matter with others, that the president was severely depressed by the time he resigned.

READ MORE

This was based on a number of facts, not all of which I could include in the article. These include a physical and mental deterioration in the entries among his papers during the period; an indecisiveness over whether to resign or not (five decisions, one eventually acted on, in a six-day period); out-of-character personal attacks on critics; his strange conduct over his letter to Ted Heath demanding an explanation for Heath's description of him as a "menace to civilisation". (He refused to post the letters in the Áras and insisted on travelling himself to the GPO to post them. Was he afraid that his own staff or the government would prevent the letters from being sent if posted in the Áras?)

In my view, on the evidence, Ó Dálaigh probably shouldn't have been made president. He had neither the temperament nor the political judgment for such a sensitive post. His resignation was, I believe, inevitable on some issue, sooner rather than later.

It was probably in the interests both of himself emotionally and the office politically that he resign. The tragedy was that, instead of his being able to choose the time and issue, a wrong-headed attack by a Minister brought the ongoing problems to a sudden conclusion.

Given his distinguished service to Ireland over 30 years, President Ó Dálaigh did not deserve that. - Yours, etc,

JIM DUFFY, Glasnevin, Dublin 11.