Madam, - As an elected representative and a member of the Fianna Fáil party I wish to register my protest at the proposed citizenship referendum.
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Michael McDowell, said that the proposed change "is not racist in intent".
This may be so, as far as he is concerned, but one thing is certain, it is racist in substance.
The proposed referendum is designed to remove what has always been a fundamental right in this State, namely a person's right to citizenship by virtue of birth.
The corollary of the proposed change is the underlining and increased supremacy of citizenship by virtue of blood.
Comparisons with racial persecution which culminated in the Holocaust are not extreme or alarmist.
The proposed referendum will fuel racism and feed the basest instincts of those with racist tendencies.
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it."
Finally, would John F. Kennedy have become the first Irish Catholic President of the United States of America if similar provisions existed when his forebears first set foot on American soil? - Yours, etc.,
Cllr. PAT F. O'CONNOR, Lough Guitane, Muckross, Killarney, Co Kerry.