Sir, - Harry Ferguson and Fergus Hogan, who are researching fatherhood (The Irish Times, June 3rd), talk a load of rubbish. I became a father in 1961 when fatherhood was not an issue for public debate. The pram was an excellent method of transporting groceries. Also, I took the baby to race meetings, football matches, the betting shop and the pub, not to enhance my public image or to improve my promotion prospects or to look trendy or to communicate better emotionally, not even to prove I was as good as a woman, but simply because it made life easier.
When most young men of my age were protesting, screaming obscenities at South African rugby players, I had a child in my arms. Apartheid was not on my priority list. That was before Dennis Wise, Mick Galwey, Ronan Keating, David Beckham, Harry Ferguson and Fergus Hogan were born.
Tony Blair's statement that having a baby is more important than being PM is empty political rhetoric. To conclude that men actively caring for children are more successful in the workplace is laughable. Before retirement I was trapped in a job I detested. All the child-caring in the world would not have changed that. Messrs Ferguson and Hogan attempt to give the impression that responsible fatherhood is a 21stcentury phenomenon. Not so, gentlemen! Like taxation and sex, it has been around for a very long time. - Yours, etc.,
Brendan Newman, Greenfields, Limerick.