Sir, Reading Father O'Hanlon's objections to President Robinson's attire. and other correspondents' objections to his objections, etc, I can't help feeling that his points have a ring of truth, and theirs do not come across so well.
Of more significance was The Irish Times report of March 13th from "Vatican heavyweights" that the Pope . . . had been impressed by the President's "humanism" (dictionary: puts human interests and the mind of man paramount, rejecting the super natural).
Did his Holiness really say "humanism", speaking in English or was it an Irish Times interpretation? If the Pope did use that word, it reinforces a lot of Father O'Hanlon's points, about whom Mary Robinson really represents.
Alternatively, if the word was chosen by The Irish Times, is there a hidden agenda working to reclassify the Christian President of a Christian country? - Yours etc.,
4 Clonlea Wood, Ballinteer Road, Dublin 16.