“I NEVER expected that I would be living in a society with no one to give leadership, no one to make decisions, no one to ensure our prosperity and no one to promote the development of our economy or our society”.
“But that is where we find ourselves today”.
“In that respect, it is time for change, time for our politicians, right across this island and the neighbouring island, to get their respective acts together and make our current lives easier and our future lives better”.
Thus, leading Fermanagh business and GAA figure, Peter Quinn, moved towards conclusion of his typically forthright analysis of the current political situation, presented through his talk, ‘The Past, The Present and The Future’ delivered to Aughakillymaude Historical Society.
His keynote message was focussed on the future which he passionately felt:
“There appears to be by a total lack of leadership, a complete betrayal of those in greatest need and a shameful disregard for the potential of our economy and of our wider societ,” Mr Quinn pointed out.
Citing Brexit as the major contributory factor to that pessimistic outlook, he was emphatic in his opinion that there will be a ‘hard border’ outcome which, “Is being promoted in some quarters for political reasons, when commercial arguments indicate clearly that it should be avoided if at all possible”.
As well as restricting access to markets “which have the potential to create a need for further investment in both jobs and physical assets” and seeing the end of the single farm payment, a hard border, he predicted, “will also result in the further devaluation of sterling, with a consequent probability of rapid inflation and a lowering of living standards”.
On a happier note, Peter traced the past from the perspective of his own family history, “a sort of personal retrospective which reflects the background to most parts of rural Ireland over most of a century”.
Recalling that his grandparents, “were all children of famine survivors” he revealed the fascinating historical nugget of the first recorded instance of the potato blight, which led to the Great Famine, relating to;
“Somewhere along what is now the Kinawley-Swanlinbar border though history does not appear to have recorded which side of that border it was first noticed”.
In conclusion to his stimulating, perceptive and challenging delivery which engendered an ensuing lively discussion session, he declared;
“Our history may not have been the happiest, but our people survived and made the world around them work to their advantage”.
“Our present was created from that past and we have been making it work to the advantage of our economy and society”.
“But our future, which could and should be fantastic, runs the risk of being damaged by zealots with a one-eyed agenda, supported by a failure to do what needs to be done and can be done, but may not be done out of sheer misplaced political opportunism,” he added.
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