Sir, - In his letter of March 26th, (Prof) Max Ryan is oddly censorious of the manner of dress worn by our President, Mary Robinson, during her meeting with the Pope. He imputes to her a degree of studied indifference to what he regards as the norms of diplomatic correctness and protocol
The gracious lady who so splendidly holds our highest national office is, by virtue of that very position, proscribed from responding to his slur. No such limitation prevents this writer from so doing, however, and I would like to set out the following points for his consideration.
Firstly, President Robinson, as head of a sovereign state, was formally visiting the Pope - as head of a sovereign state. What she wore was, to my mind, charmingly appropriate to the occasion, and could not possibly be regarded as anything other by reasonable people.
(Prof) Max Ryan's allusion to Queen, Elizabeth and Hilary Clinton, vis a vis their "showing due respect and dignity to the leader of the largest Christian community", I find puzzling. What, precisely, did they wear that so impressed him? Such things as mantillas and all covering dark drapes a la sharia bound Moslem women are not the sort of couture I associate with - or have ever seen on - these good ladies.
Secondly, it cannot have been absent from our President's comprehension that her host represents a totally male dominated Church, implacably opposed to granting Women the right to become full ministers of its religion - or even to have a significant voice in the operations of a church, which has always seen fit to rule on and regulate the minutiae of how women should dress and behave, or obey their essentially patriarchal dominance of the female half of our species.
And finally, if the niceties of dress (and their supposed significance) are what matter to (Prof) Max Ryan, I might point out that the Pope was wearing a hat in the presence of our First Lady. She wore, a frock that was most becoming. So did he, albeit to a somewhat lesser degree. - Yours, etc.,
Mount Pleasant,
Waterford.