Sir, - When Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith came to Ireland as American Ambassador in 1993, she was to make an important contribution in the achievement of the ceasefire in September 1994. Since then, the tragedy of Northern Ireland has attained a high profile in the United States.
This has not always been so, and I well remember while living in the United States in the 1970s how the domination of the State Department by anglophite bureaucrats had a pernicious effect on our relations with America. The improvement since the arrival of Mrs Kennedy Smith has been marked and Ireland owes much to her and to President Clinton, who appointed her.
Her instalment, of course, did not exactly send our friends across the Channel over the moon. Much about them. But then, a "special relationship" can often cause trauma when it breaks down. However big boys should grow up. - Yours, etc.,
Fairfield Park,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.