Fr. Mc Manus on Nesbitt's Reference to Harold Mc Cusker

The Editor

News Letter

Belfast March 29, 2012

Dear Editor,

I was particularly  interested in  Mike Nesbitt's reference to the late Harold Mc Cuske :  " the best leader we never had." ("Nesbitt pays tribute to ‘undervalued’ Elliott." March 29).

It so happens that just the day before, I learned that Mr. Mc Cusker had admitted to an eminent American writer that -- in order to stay in power -- he often said bigoted things in public, of which he was privately ashamed.

I had met Mr. Mc Cusker several times in Washington. After debating him on the TV Show," Crossfire," he and I were once waiting for a cab on the street,  having a very amicable conversation. As he was about to hop into his cab, he came back to me and in a friendly way prodded my chest with his finger and said : " Never forget this, Sean. There are more of us than there are of you."

I replied: "But what if your artificial majority no longer holds Up? What then?"

He smiled gently, shrugged, gestured with his hands,   as if to say: "What will be, will be." And he was off into the Washington night. I never saw him again, but I was sorry to learn of  his premature death. God rest him.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus