Frightening words of Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King - the appalling
silence of good people

Justice Minister Alan Shatter, opening a conference to mark the centenary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish doplomat, who saved the lives of more than 50,000 Hungarian Jews from the death camps, quoted Martin Luther King: " The greatest tragedy of this generation which history will record is not the vitriolic words of those who hate, or the aggressive acts of others, but the appalling silence of the good people."

In the context of the years of my lifetime, the Ireland in which I have lived and the work that I have done, they are indeed frightening words.