Madam, - It was with dismay that I read in last Thursday's paper that Mr Eugene Terreblanche was so happy to hear that the recent constitutional referendum was passed.
I think Mr Terreblanche's well-documented support for the former apartheid regime in South Africa will dispel the myth that the referendum was not a racist issue. Mr McDowell's proposal was sold to the Irish people on the back of fear of immigrants, it was not based on any reasonable arguments. The considerable majority of Irish people, who voted Yes in the referendum, are now considered by Mr Terreblanche as supporters of his vision of how the world should be, a white supremacist far-right world. I suspect that the majority of people were hoodwinked by the agenda of fear whipped up by Mr McDowell. These are the ones who will be dismayed by the thought that they are being praised by such an unrepentant racist. The others who voted yes are probably happy that Ireland is now recognised as a racist nation, where céad míle fáilte is only extended to people of the correct colour and ethnic background.
These people in the second group no doubt will be quite pleased that they are being congratulated by such upstanding characters as Mr Terreblanche and Mr David Duke, a former grand Wizard of the Ku-Klux-Klan.
I wonder will the revelation of the kind of people who are supporting him give Mr McDowell any qualms. - Yours, etc.,
JIM HERON, Glebemount, Wicklow.