Sir, - I think it was G.B. Shaw who said that the job of a true leader was to "chip away at his followers' prejudices" - not to follow the mob. So I found it deeply depressing to hear Michael Noonan's only explicit planned policy change was to take a more staunchly nationalist stance on Northern Ireland - a change supported by his rival Enda Kenny.
Do they believe that reverting to a traditional nationalist mind-set, marching shoulder to shoulder with the Pan-Nationalist Front and banging the same tribal drum will help the cause of tolerance, reconciliation and peace between the two warring tribes on this island?
Or is it a cynical, populist move to exploit the instinctive tribal racism latent in all of us? (This market has long since been cornered by Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein.)
If Fine Gael abandons its role of building bridges and conducting principled objective analysis of the conflict between us nationalists and unionists, it would be better if the party really did "close down". - Yours, etc.,
Dick Keane, Silchester Park, Glenageary, Co Dublin.