Sir, – Long may Mary O’Rourke remain a cherished national icon, but her suggestion that she’s just dreamed up the idea of a Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil coalition government is way off beam (Editorial, August 12th).
I put the idea to her at a lunch of the Irish section of the Association of European Journalists she was addressing as minister for education in late 1989 or early 1990, and she rejected it out of hand.
Looking startled at the very idea, she simply replied, “It would be too big”. Mrs O’Rourke was clearly thinking of former taoiseach Jack Lynch’s downfall after his record 1977 electoral majority, which gave Haughey dissidents their chance.
Nor can I myself claim the slightest originality. The Irish coalition idea was around from 1798, the Kilkenny Parliament, Brian Boru and so on. – Yours, etc,
ANDREW SHEPPARD,
The Chase,
Ramsgate Village, Gorey,
Co Wexford.