A chara, - I was heartened to see in your edition of November 16th that Mr Tom Manning of the Railway Procurement Agency has (finally, one would hope) laid the myth that the two Luas lines run on different gauges.
Two other myths that materialise in the columns of The Irish Times from time to time might also be buried. One, most recently perpetuated by your obituarist on November 13th is that the Constitution contains an article about "cherishing all the children of the nation equally". It does not, as the most cursory glance through the text would show. The reference appears in the 1916 Proclamation.
The other is that the coalition government fell in 1951 because of episcopal opposition to Noel Browne's mother and child scheme. It did not. Despite Dr Browne's resignation on April 11th that year it continued on, shaken possibly, but not stirred, until early May, when, as Mr Anthony Jordan pointed out in your letters page of October 29th, three TDs withdrew their support on the question of milk subsidies. The then Taoiseach, John A Costello, had the Dáil dissolved and on June 13th the new Dáil voted against Mr Costello's government and in favour of a Fianna Fáil one with Noel Browne supporting Eamon de Valera as Taoiseach.
The mother and child issue did, of course, figure in the intervening election - as did the price of milk. - Is mise
GEARÓID O'SULLIVAN, Upper Kilmacud Road, Dublin 14.