Covering events in the UK

Sir, – Characterising The Irish Times’s coverage of the UK as “increasingly unbalanced ... immature vituperation”, Jane Mahony appears to see a form of commentary unrecognisable to me looking at the same newspaper. The copy in which her letter appears (September 13th) has a front-page photograph of a Northern Irish politician signing a book of condolence to Queen Elizabeth. Pages two and three are entirely devoted to coverage of King Charles and the overlapping issues of succession and of the funeral arrangements. The first page of the sports section is largely concerned with the involvement of English clubs in European football.

Meanwhile, last Friday’s edition had a colour supplement on Queen Elizabeth’s life, with a wide range of columnists, and she and Charles were featured as front-page photographs on Friday and Saturday respectively.

Ultimately the point about the lack of perspective and balance “in some pages of your newspaper” is unreasonable. The balance and other viewpoints can easily be found on many of the other pages. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN O’BRIEN,

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Kinsale,

Co Cork.

A chara, – Reading the words of the eminent herd of columnists in The Irish Times in the week following Queen Elizabeth’s death, I was struck by a common theme: why can’t the British be like the Irish? – Is mise,

LIAM KENNEDY,

Belfast.