Sir, - So, Mr Bertie Ahern has shown the teachers the smack of firm government.
This man is truly the Teflon Taoiseach: nothing sticks - in his mind. that is Mr Ahern knew nothing about the cheques he signed for Mr Haughey. Mr Ahern knew nothing about land rezoning. Mr Ahern knew nothing about Mr Burke and political donations.
But not to worry: Mr Ahern, like the hedgehog, knows one big thing - that the problem with Ireland today is not FMD, BSE, hospital waiting-lists, under-age drinking, drugs on the streets, carnage on the roads, or all the still-thriving, politicians, financiers, beef barons, captains of industry, property developers, planning officials, accountants, bankers and tax-lawyers, who exploited and subverted the State during the long years of recession and high unemployment, no - IT'S THE TEACHERS, STUPID!
Those same teachers were busy helping to deliver a "world-class education system" (Mr Ahern's phrase) while some of the Taoiseach's Dail colleagues and their business supporters were delivering the coup de grace to the ideals of 1916, of which Mr David Andrews gave us such a timely reminder (The Irish Times, March 17th). Significantly, Mr Ahern and two thirds of his Government colleagues were not in the country on our national day to read it. - Yours, etc.,
Denis O'Donoghue, Countess Grove, Killarney, Co Kerry.