Sir, – I am surprised that no representative of the Irish State or Government, and no bailed-out banker, has yet suggested to MP Mac DomhnaiIl the obvious solution to his family’s hunger problems: cake. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Two of last weekend’s most deeply felt impressions are those of MP MacDomhnaill ‘s torment of facing hunger for himself and his loved ones, alongside Bertie Ahern’s lavish and superfluous cash handouts, which, taken together, recall the haunting words of Oliver Goldsmith: “Ill fares the land,/To hastening ills as prey,/Where wealth accumulates/ And men decay”. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – MP Mac Domnaill’s letter (August 26th) provoked a lot of response. His experience of poverty is news, it appears. However, for those of us and our families whose experience is of long-term poverty, which may result from, or possibly lead to, serious illness, or desertion, the pain of long-term poverty is no less. The only difference may be that one is unlikely to own a home! – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Surely the Marie Antoinette Award for Thatcherite Condescension has to go to Mary P Wilkinson (August 30th)for her “let them eat oatcake” solution to MP MacDomhnaill’s, and an apparently increasing number of our citizens’, economic predicament. It does not seem to occur that a diet of gruel for the mega-EUsurers might be prescribed.
It has often been observed that our Irish political ascendancies seem intellectually incapable of organising a binge in a brewery. It seems, however, despite our pretensions to independence, that they are still as capable as ever of organising a famine in an expanding agricultural-export boom. – Yours, etc,