The main thing that endears the United Nations to member governments, and so enables it to survive, is its proven capacity to fail, and to be seen to fail.

Alec Foster was headmaster at the time of Belfast Royal Academy and was a former Ulster Irish International and British and Irish Lions rugby player having captained Ireland three times between 1912~1914. Under pressure from a range of international interests he eventually resigned and wrote To Katanga and Back (1962) which is still considered a classic of both modern African history and the inner workings of the United Nations. Shortly after starting as editor he sent a memo to Mary Holland the Observer's Northern Ireland correspondent whose coverage had won her the Journalist of the Year award:
Holland subsequently left the Observer and joined the Irish Times as the Northern Ireland correspondent.

At the 1969 general election he was elected to Ireland's parliament as a Labour Party TD for Dublin North–East becoming a Minister from 1973–77. He summarised his position as "I intend to administer a shock to the Irish psyche". Although his opinion on the role of Britain in Northern Ireland changed over the course of the 1970s and 1980s he always acknowledged values of as he saw the two irreconcilable traditions.