An old tallyman misses the census message

IMAGINE my chagrin when Noel Whelan’s column (Irish Examiner, July 3) turned out not to be a celebration of the ethnic richness of the recent census of population, but an old tallyman’s scrutiny of the figures for the prospect of a bit of social engineering in swing constituencies like Cork and Kildare.

Probably the sort of mentality which Terry Prone had in mind in her thought-provoking Monday column.

If Garret FitzGerald, God love him, couldn’t even match up his socks in the dark, for fear of disturbing the wife, what chance is there that our politicians are likely to come out in favour of same sex marriage (Canadian-style) as a match made in heaven. But that’s what ethnicity does for you.

It gives you a multinational window on the world and a little insight into the national soul.

The boundaries of taste and tolerance are the ones most likely to change forever, not the elastic electoral ones which are so dear to our political hearts.

Richard Dowling,

Coote Street,

Mountrath,

Co Laois.