Madam, - Ciaran Cuffe and Louis Walsh should be asked to hand in their Irish passports. They have shown themselves guilty of gross un-Irishness. They both lack that defining quality that distinguishes us from all other peoples.
Mr Cuffe sits in a chamber that comfortably accommodates liars, tax-dodgers and gun-runners. He made what appears to be a genuine mistake and then committed the almost treasonable act of resigning. No one resigns in this country, Mr Cuffe; it is just not done.
Mr Walsh is guilty of an even greater sin. He dared to rock the boat of Irish vanity. This country does not care about the disabled. It cares about being patted on the head by the international community for being good little Paddies. To contend otherwise is to deny the atrocious reality that our intellectually challenged, physically infirm and mentally disturbed citizens have to endure.
Our hypocrisy is what defines us as a nation. When public figures such as Cuffe and Walsh fail to adhere to this over-arching social norm, they threaten the very fabric of our society. So, until and unless they master the intricacies of grand hypocrisy, their very citizenship should be suspended. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL BOWLER, Grosvenor Park, Dublin 6.