Madam, - Barry Purcell's comments concerning the Irish language (October 24th) make one consider the cultural vacuum in which we would exist if his argument about the language's "irrelevance" were to be carried to its logical conclusion and applied to other minority interests.
On the basis that they are utterly irrelevant to the majority of the nation's population, and therefore unacceptable, the National Gallery, National Library and National Museum would all be shut down with immediate effect.
A fair number of the faculties in our universities would be jettisoned. Even the grand old game of hurling would be laughed off as an esoteric irrelevancy. I suspect even the Houses of the Oireachtas would be abolished and Roy Keane installed as dictator, with Eamon Dunphy continuing his role as PR man, encouraging the masses to laugh uproariously each time a deadpan Roy denounces the dissenters as "muppets".
Then perhaps we would finally have the society - suitably joyless and sufficiently devoid of indigenous character, culture or expression - that Mr Purcell's sentiments envisage. - Yours, etc.,
MARTIN RYAN,
Blanchardstown,
Dublin 15