Madam, - I couldn't agree more with Frank E. Bannister (May 19th) about the lack of honour in Irish public life. An Irish politician would never do what Robin Cook did last year: resign his position as Foreign Secretary because he objected to the war on Iraq. When was the last time an Irish politician resigned a position of power on a point of principle - Noel Browne in the 1950s?
It probably has something to do with the fact that most Irish politicians, being descended from peasants, retain vestiges of the peasant mentality, along with the effects on the Irish psyche of 800 years of subservience.
Darwin would probably cite "homo publicus Hiberniae", whose main distinguishing characteristic from his counterparts in other countries is his sheer brass-neckery in a crisis, as a perfect example of his theory of natural selection - i.e., the tendency of members of a particular species to select, through successive generations, those characteristics most conducive to their survival. - Yours, etc.,
JOE PATTON, Hillcrest Walk, Lucan, Co Dublin