Madam, - Some observations on your perceptive Editorial of July 2nd, "The Constitution 70 years on":
It was George Colley, not Seán Lemass, who chaired the All-Party Constitution Committee in 1966-67. In one of his last acts as Taoiseach, Lemass set up the committee, which he subsequently joined after he retired as taoiseach.
As the youngest member of Seanad Éireann I was very privileged to serve on this committee and to listen to the contributions of senior political figures such as Tom O'Higgins, Gerard Sweetman, Seán Dunne and particularly Lemass himself, who never missed a meeting, and whose observations were treated with a mixture of respect and wry amusement by all.
One classic comment from himself is worth recording: "I've been reading a history of the Egyptian dynasties recently and wondering what was going on in the years between the great Pharaohs whose achievements are widely recorded for history. I think I've just got the answer: a crowd of politicians, like ourselves, were trying to make the damn thing work."
The true greatness of this remarkable man was underlined by this self-effacing observation. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL O'KENNEDY, The Sweepstakes, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.