The bracing blast of a dissident

OVER THE COURSE OF 40 YEARS Kevin Myers was a draught of fresh air in the often conformist fug of Irish journalism. In the way of draughts, he was persistent and uncomfortable for the “Official Liberal Opposition” of Kavanagh’s poem. He still is.

By 2017, the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement was approaching. Myers, angular and unclubbable, had reason to believe he had done the Irish state some service and that at least some of it had been recognised.

For decades he, with a few others, had unambiguously opposed the violence of the Provisional IRA. He had pointed to the direct connection between the savagery of the Provos