Sir, - In a recent article in The Sunday Tribune (June 22nd) on "Ireland's 60 most influential women", Helen Callanan amply demonstrated the bountiful crop of female talent patiently awaiting harvest. One of the most outstanding was Professor Mary MacAleese, currently Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Queen's University of Belfast (QUB).
In a country which elected the first female representative to the Mother-of-all-Parliaments (when that parliament simultaneously resisted the Suffragetist Movement), 60 years was a long time to await the election of a woman head of state. While no one is suggesting genetically cloning the outgoing incumbent, it is imperative that we capitalise upon the Robinson dynamic, by seeking to redress this historical inequity.
Few of the candidates thus far proposed remotely approximate Mary McAleese's academic acumen, cultural credentials, or feminist profile. Originating from the country's industrial capital, her election could prove a unifying factor in relationships on these islands, assuaging feelings of nationalist abandon festering since 1922, whilst providing a unique insight into the peculiarities of the unionist temperament.
To the extent that the office is outside the political process, surely retired politicians are a distinct liability. It remains to be seen if Fianna Fail will repeat Labour's progressive foresight of 1990, failing which a cross-party coalition of female TDs, with pro-feminist colleagues, might persuade her to throw her mortarboard into the ring.
Failure to re-elect a female president hazards portraying the Robinson tenure as an exception to the rule, risking a relapse to masculinist mediocrity. Mary is young, dynamic and intelligent, precisely the self-image we wish to project as we approach the next millennium. Male candidates might prove their egalitarian bona-fides by disqualifying themselves from competition! - Yours, etc., CIARAN KENNEDY,
Lr. Rathmines Rd., Dublin 6.