Sir, – Is it too late to hope that the parliamentarians in the organisation Vótáil 100 would scrap their hare-brained notion of installing a portrait of Countess Markievicz in the parliament buildings at Westminster ("Constance Markievicz to belatedly enter House of Commons", December 29th)?
Of course, the countess was the first woman elected to that parliament and should be remembered for that, but she stood for election on a determinedly abstentionist policy. Her later political career indicates that she never wavered in her view. To install her image now in Westminster seems to me to insult, rather than honour, the integrity of her stance. I have no time for the tiresome game of asking “What would X or Y patriot say if they were alive today?” However, in Markievicz’s case, I have no doubt her response would be the same as what she declared in December 1918.
Perhaps Votáil 100 could be patient and wait for the centenary of the first Dáil in 2019 to celebrate the fact that she was our first female cabinet minister? – Yours, etc,
LIAM CAHILL,
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Drumree, Co Meath.