Sir, – Frank McDonald (An Irishman's Diary) is correct that the American philanthropist Henry McElhinney, who donated Glenveagh Castle to the nation, derived his fortune from the coin-operated gas meter, invented by his Carrigart-born grandfather.
It was Edmund McIlhenny of Louisiana, also the grandson of a Donegal man, who made a fortune from Tabasco sauce.
Successive Irish governments have done their best to continue the export of human capital from Donegal.
The lack of a dual carriageway to Dublin or Belfast entrenches the disadvantage of Ireland’s most northerly county.
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The labour force is declining, unemployment is 18 per cent, and 16 per cent of Donegal’s young people have shown their ambition by emigrating in the last five years. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Dhún na nGall.