Madam, - Without in any way wishing to disagree with the substance of your Editorial of November 3rd, may I point out that President McAleese is far from being "the longest serving head of state in the world"?
The United Kingdom's head of state has been in place since February 1952. - Yours, etc,
KEVIN FITZGERALD, Sea Palling, Norwich, England.
Madam, - Yours is a small world where Ireland's president is the longest serving head of state after clocking up ten years in office.
A reality check would reveal, for instance, that Japan's head of state has clocked up 18 years, Egypt's 26, and the UK's 55 years and 9 months. - Yours, etc,
DONAL KENNEDY, London N13.
The phrase should have read: "the longest-serving directly elected head of state". The words "directly elected" were inadvertently removed.- Ed., IT.