Sir, – Amid all the wonderful tributes to Maeve Binchy that have followed her death, mine will be small beer indeed. Newly arrived in Ireland in 1974 (and high on ginseng at the time) I sent her an impertinent criticism of one of her pieces in The Irish Times. Her response was both gracious and disarming and I felt utterly chastened.
We laughed about it later when she interviewed me for your paper, and our paths crossed several times over the following years, when she was never less than her bubbly, engaged, amusing, and effortlessly regal self. It is not the high tide of emotion that has led so many to suggest that her enduring memory be commemorated in the new Liffey Bridge. She puts all other candidates in the halfpenny place. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – At last a worthy person after whom to call the new bridge. Could I suggest however that we just call it “The Maeve”, nice and friendly, just like the lady herself. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – In the long list of suggestions to name the new bridge after a literary figure one name is absent. A Dublin writer, through his character Paddy Maguire, brought Dublin into the 20th century. His play, Goodbye to the Hill, had the longest run of any production in Ireland. (It could be described as our The Mousetrap.) The Lee Dunne Bridge? – Yours, etc,