Sir, - The sucking of blood by vampires from young girls' necks is not an activity normally associated with a civilised people. Yet An Post has just issued not one, but four new stamps honouring Dracula and his creator, Bram Stoker.
Just now, as we are struggling to create a good image of ourselves abroad, it is amazing that any Irish company would want us to be associated with such satanic activities.
In other countries, people are less keen on such associations. For instance, in Whitby, Yorkshire, residents have decided that the vampire connection is harming the town's good image. So, when a local group organised a masquerade parade and midnight ceremony in the graveyard of St Mary's Church, they were forced to cancel the event when the parochial council threatened to serve an injunction against them.
Rev Graham Taylor, assistant curate of the parish, said the residents were anxious to play down Dracula's association with Whitby. "It's such a negative book," he said. "It's about sex, rape and men's power over women. It is thoroughly destructive and not something with which it is healthy for Whitby to be associated."
But it is not just Christians who abhor being associated with Dracula. In Pakistan there was uproar last March when the actor Christopher Lee, who had merely played the role of Dracula on film, was proposed as a suitable actor to portray Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Thousands protested saying that it would be an insult to Jinnah, to Pakistan and to Islam if Lee were allowed to play the part.
If we have any regard for the good name we have earned over the years, we should avoid using these stamps. - Yours, etc.,
Bantry Road, Dublin 9.