Sir, - So the official from the Department of Foreign Affairs got it wrong. Mary McAleese never intimated that she would be pleased to see Sinn Fein do well in the Northern Ireland local elections. Okay, let's give her the benefit of the doubt on that one. However, I draw the line at giving her the benefit of the doubt on her ludicrously inappropriate campaign slogan, "Building Bridges". On the record of the candidate's career to date, her public utterances and the causes she has identified with, she has shown no capacity for building bridges. Quite the contrary.
Is Mary McAleese a person who could build a bridge to people in Northern Ireland who are outside the nationalist tradition? I doubt it. Is Mary McAleese a person who could build a bridge between those who want a confessional Constitution and those of us who believe Church and State should be separate? I doubt it. Is Mary McAleese a person who could build a bridge to people who need to resort to in vitro fertilisation in order to have a child of their own? I doubt it.
If, to date, their candidate has walked like a duck and talked like a duck, why are Fianna Fail and the poor, pathetic PDs trying to sell the electorate a swan?
What do they take us for? Geese? - Yours, etc., John White, Lakelands Close, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.