Sir, - Whatever about the rights and wrongs in the votes for emigrants issue, I am astonished that you saw fit to print the letter from D.K. Henderson in which he likens emigrants to rats abandoning a sinking ship. This kind of bilge serves only to insult, and fails completely to address the question of emigrant involvement in domestic politics.
I would remind him that the very President, to whom he attributes much of the country's recent success, has herself been instrumental in highlighting the Irish "diaspora". Given the tone of his letter, I can only speculate as to the method that Mr. Henderson would use to quench the candle in the window of the Aras, no doubt while humming A Nation Once Again.
Regarding his obviously Third Alan inspired sneer at the Swiss, he might wish to consider that Switzerland has been at peace for four centuries. Perhaps we could learn a thing or two from such a country, which despite its "cuckoo clocks and cowbells", is also quite unlike Ireland in that it is capable of supporting its own population. - Yours etc.
Appian Way, Dublin 6.