Madam, - The jokey, tongue-in-cheek article by Noel Whelan on Saturday's opinion page seemed to poke fun at tribunals.
There is room for a serious debate about tribunals, as well as about restrictions on media reporting, the weakness of appellate law in Ireland, and the difficulty in establishing the truth about grave failures in public life. Articles such as Mr Whelan's could lighten such a debate from time to time.
But on the day the paper of record carried the story of the Taoiseach's apology to the Carthy family, its publication was a serious failure of editorial judgment, and a piece of very bad taste. - Yours, etc,
FRANK FITZPATRICK, St Kevin's Parade, South Circular Road, Dublin 8.
Madam, - Noel Whelan (Opinion & Analysis, July 22nd) maintains that there is still a mystery surrounding the bombing by German aircraft of Campile in August 1940.
I feel there is no great mystery. Germany, flushed with its victory in the west, wanted to show a neutral state such as Ireland that there was no profit in supplying food to the UK and decided to teach us a lesson.
Another example of this bullying tactic happened at the end of 1940 when Germany wanted to reinforce its Dublin Legation with more attachés and proposed to send them via Rineanna (Shannon) Airport. However, a stern warning from Ireland put an end to this plan.
If Mr Whelan would like to contact me, I have some peripheral information that might interest him. - Yours, etc,
DONAL M. MacCARRON, 4 The Chyne, Gerrards Cross, Bucks SL9 8HZ, England. donmacs@onetel.com