Sir, – We have much to thank our chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan for as we begin to emerge from this challenging period of our history. His expertise, common sense and wisdom, not to mention his calm, clear voice have been a balm during the most troubling days.
I’d like to thank him and his fellow scientists and medics for something else too: the reintroduction of the word “death” into common parlance. I was getting terribly weary of the increasing use of the dreaded Americanism “passed away”, or more commonly, and worse, “passed” to described what happens when a body breathes its last. We die. Death comes to us all. What can be wrong with saying so? Does the event become less upsetting if we avoid the word?
Thanks too to the news reporters who have called a spade a spade. And by the way, there’s a “th” at the end of the word; it does not rhyme with “debt”. – Yours, etc,
DOIREANN NÍ BHRIAIN,
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Rathmines,
Dublin 6.