Singing a different tune

Sir, – Alison Healy laments the fact that she is not blessed with a singing voice (An Irishwoman’s Diary, May 20th).

I can relate.

In the two-roomed national school where Mrs Murphy put manners on us, with a tap on the tip of her tuning fork, one day instead of the usual singing “le chéile”, she held solo auditions for an upcoming event.

She gave me the first verse of Báidín Fheilimí, which I mangled, and saw only pity in the eyes of my classmates, knowing even then that I didn’t ever want to see pity again, so at age eight, I gave up the singing. – Yours, etc,

Luxembourg landlord Marc Godart renting beds to refugees in premises without fire certificate

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‘Knives and Kalashnikovs’: violent drug gangs torment French city of Marseilles

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The Irish philosopher who was father of ‘cathedral thinking’

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We no longer try to understand why Real Madrid win the Champions League final - we just accept

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ANNE MARIE KENNEDY,

Craughwell,

Co Galway.