Madam, - In highlighting the position of Liam Cosgrave in relation to all of this State's heads of government, Dermot C Melia (April 24th) writes: "It certainly must be remarkable in a democracy that a prime minister sat in parliament at the same time as five predecessors and five successors to be."
In fact another man with Dublin connections, Viscount Palmerston, actually exceeded Cosgrave's total of 10 in the 19th century, as did Gladstone.
However, their achievements pale in comparison with Winston Churchill's total of eight predecessors (from Balfour) and eight successors to be (to Thatcher) with whom he sat in the House of Commons. This total even excludes Churchill's first prime minister (Salisbury), who was by then serving in the House of Lords. - Yours, etc,
KEVIN O'SULLIVAN, Ballyraine Park, Letterkenny, Co Donegal.