Emigration

Sir, – Michael Harding's "Subtle and awkward silences as families say goodbye at Knock Airport" (December 31st) was very good. But one John Healy wrote about this many years ago. As emigrants left the now-disused railway station in Charlestown by train, parents and relatives used run along the platform as the train moved away waving goodbye until it was out of sight.

The trains have gone, the planes arrived, but the story has not changed. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN CAFFERTY,