Sir, – I very well remember being surprised that the IDA should spend our money employing Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers to sing the praises of “Ireland’s industry” and only later found out that the song title was in fact Islands in the Stream. Alison Healy’s Irishwoman’s Diary (July 28th) also brought to mind a school memory concerning one of my classmates in Macroom who acted as an altar boy in the local church.
At that time the Latin Mass called for a phrase “mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa” Until the end of his short career on the alter he sadly chanted “my cowboy, my cowboy, my Mexican cowboy”! – Yours, etc,