Sir, - When is a mantilla not a mantilla? The dictionary definition of a mantilla is as follows: "a kind of veil covering the head and falling down upon the shoulders."
President McAleese, for her private audience with Pope John Paul II, had a form of headgear specially designed for her by one of her favourite designers. She then turned up in the Vatican wearing a thing on the back of her head which the newspapers referred to (inaccurately) as a mantilla, but with much the greater part of her head uncovered, so far as one could judge by the press photographs which later appeared.
The message conveyed was fairly clear. "I do not propose to repeat the ill-mannered gaffe previously committed by President Robinson, but if anyone thinks I am going to cover my head as a mark of respect for the Pope, he/ she has another think coming."
One of Aesop's fables tells the story of a frog who found that he could make himself bigger and more important than any other frog, if he held his breath for a very long time. Unfortunately, the story did not have a happy ending. - Yours, etc., Rory O'Hanlon,
Kilternan, Co Dublin.