Sir, - The letter of your American correspondent, Mr Hynes, in your issue of September 14th on the Taoiseach's visit and speech to the joint Houses of the US Congress calls for some comment. From the tone and text of his letter, one assumes that Mr Hynes is one of our exiles who sees himself as a pundit, with a mission to lecture or correct those of us who chose to stay in Ireland on how to conduct our country's affairs.
His first point is that the speech was broadcast on the Pacific Coast at 8.00 a.m. Does this not mean that it was broadcast on the East Coast at 11.00 a.m. or 12 noon? The Pacific Coast is not known as the most politically aware sector of America, and the fact that it was felt to be worth broadcasting even at 8.00 a.m. in that area must indicate some degree of interest.
However, it is in his criticism of the seasonal timing of Mr. Bruton's address that Mr Hynes really falls down. I question very much what the response from Congress might have been if Mr Bruton had stated that he might prefer to wait until the new Congress had been installed before delivering his address. I can imagine the attitude of both the present and the new Congress to such a statement. In any case, who is Mr Hynes to say that the present Congress did not give our Taoiseach a more sympathetic hearing than an unknown new Congress might have given?
Surely it is the duty of the Taoiseach to make use of any opportunity which arises to promote the national interest? Even Mr Hynes cannot deny that Mr Bruton was accorded the courtesy of a full attendance in Congress, as was evidenced on TV. Perhaps Mr Hynes should have paid more attention to the content and delivery of John Bruton's speech, about which most serious commentators expressed themselves in highly laudatory terms. - Yours, etc.,
Lower Mount Street,
Dublin 2.