Madam, - "Lives of great men
all remind us
We can make our lives
sublime,
And, departing, leave
behind us
Footprints on the sands
of time."
The words of Longfellow came to mind on reading Finian Cunningham's dismissal of the President's "bridge-building" as a "cloying pandering to Northern Unionists, a contemptible mindset shared by many others in the South" (September 9th).
Little does Mr Cunningham realise that President McAleese is following the footsteps of Thomas Davis, who (shortly before the 1916 Rising), was named by Pearse as a father or evangelist of Irish nationality.
"If you would liberate Ireland", Davis wrote, "and keep it free, you must have Protestant help - if you would win the Protestants, you must address their reason, their hopes, and their pride".
The fact that Pearse (and indeed Collins and de Valera) failed to honour that advice does not excuse Mr Cunningham or the rest of us from ignoring it. After all, the white strip of the national flag supports the President's crusade by calling for a "lasting truce between Orange and the Green". - Yours, etc,
JAMES McGEEVER, Kingscourt, Co Cavan.