Madam, - The leader of the Opposition, Deputy Enda Kenny, is to be commended for asserting that there is room in the State for only one army.
He is, however, quite wrong in claiming that the Irish Army was established by his party, Fine Gael. Óglaigh na hÉireann, the Irish Army, was founded on November 25th, 1913. Its inceptor and first Commander in Chief, Eoin Mac Neill, designed the cap badge and insignia worn by every serving soldier in the Army to this day. In his Foreword to A History of the Irish Army by John P. Duggan, the late Professor Father F.X. Martin wrote as follows: "One notable feature emerges from this history. The modern Irish Army began and has sustained without compromise the principle that, as called into existence by Professor Eoin Mac Neill in 1913, it is a Defence (not an aggressive) Force."
It is the Army's misfortune that the country's largest political party, Fianna Fáil, misappropriated for political purposes the name shown by the acronym FF in the Army's cap badge while another, Fine Gael, makes spurious claims to be the Army's inceptor and creator. The great virtue of the Army and its personnel is that it has always risen above the posturings of politicians and has remained true to the principles of its founder and first Commander in Chief, Professor Eoin Mac Neill. - Yours, etc.,
MARTIN TIERNEY, Glenageary, Co Dublin.