Gillian Sherratt and Stephen Morrison called on the Tánaiste to step down over the broken promise he made as health minister in 2017 that no child should have to wait more than four months for scoliosis surgery, as well as for failing to meet them to hear their anguish while Harvey was alive. Harris has since agreed to meet them.
Yesterday afternoon, more than 1,000 people marched in Dublin from the Garden of Remembrance to the Custom House to support their campaign. In a statement on social media on Friday night, Harvey’s parents said that anyone blaming Harris for their son’s death was doing so “against our own wishes” and that “our issue with him is purely political and not personal”.
It was an extraordinary gesture, given that public discourse has become so divisively toxic.
Last week, former chief medical officer Tony Holohan ended his interest in the presidential race, saying he wanted to protect his family from the “kind of personal abuse which is becoming increasingly normalised in Irish politics”.
There were surely other reasons behind his decision not to run, but the bearpit of social media in particular is proving ever more hostile to the vital act of agreeing to disagree.
A similar call by Pieta House founder and 2018 presidential hopeful Joan Freeman that we build a road to the Áras that “challenges without crushing, scrutinises without shaming and tests without breaking” is unlikely to be heeded this time round, but could also not be timelier.
Nuance is sacrificed for ideological blinkers that cast the world in black and white, good and evil, them and us
That the presidency, a ceremonial role with little real power, has become a magnet for much of this venom is a curious phenomenon in itself. Too many contenders are being scared off before voters even get the democratic chance to have the last word.
The war in Gaza has likewise inflamed passions to boiling point. It has become commonplace to accuse those who fail to show sufficient ire in denouncing Israel of being complicit in genocide. Nuance is sacrificed for ideological blinkers that cast the world in terms of black and white, good and evil, them and us. This may be understandable when scenes of death and destruction are beamed in real time on to those invasive devices in our pockets, but it is to the ultimate detriment of public discourse.
It will not stop at Gaza. It is fast becoming the new normal. The temperature urgently needs to be dialled down before the mutual civility on which all social and political interaction depends is immolated.
Compassion for the suffering of others abroad can never be an excuse for importing a dangerous discord into dialogue at home.
When politicians call for restraint, it is usually out of self-interest and easier to dismiss.
For Harvey’s parents to do so is both touching and commendable in what must be the worst imaginable circumstances for any family. The country would do well to learn from them.
Read more on Irish Independent
