Madam, - The good people of Waterford and Kilkenny, and their public representatives, may be trusted to choose an appropriate name for the proposed new high-level bridge over the River Suir without any prodding or arm-twisting from the former Fine Gael leader John Bruton (The Irish Times, April 14th).
Mr Bruton's adherence to the ideals of his hero, John Redmond, has been a little patchy in the recent past, to say the least. His legalistic cavilling over the Anglo-American war in Iraq is in stark contrast with Redmond's clarion call to so many young Irishmen of his day to volunteer and join the British army to fight "for the freedom of small nations".
Unlike Mr Bruton, I suspect Redmond would have had no difficulty pledging his unqualified support for the brave young men and women of the Irish Guards and the Royal Irish Regiment in the recent struggles in Iraq.
Equally, Mr Bruton is insensitive to local opinion in his assertion that it was a "small-minded approach" to choose the name of Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice for the current bridge. Rice's name and his foundation school at Mount Sion are revered to this day by Waterford people, despite recent controversies surrounding the Christian Brothers.
People are well able to distinguish between Rice's unsurpassable idealism and the behaviour of his successors. His foundation of a school for poor boys in New Street, Waterford in 1802, was one of the few truly seminal moments in Irish history.
Perhaps if Meath County Council ever get around to completing the badly needed flood alleviation measures around Mr Bruton's native Dunboyne they may build a bridge or a culvert or two that he can name away to his heart's content. - Yours, etc.,
LIAM CAHILL, Clowanstown, Co Meath.