Sir, - The RTE version of the history of Irish railways, "Ironing the Land", included in its final episode on May 12th an excerpt from a speech made by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke, apparently at the opening of the new booking hall at Dun Laoghaire station. She stated: "We must applaud those railway people of long ago who overcame the resistance of the local hoteliers and the posh lords and ladies of the land and who decided that the people of this area needed a railway."
What a pity that the people of the areas in the vicinity of the abandoned Harcourt Street rail line did not have a Minister with the guts to stand up to the modern-day version of those hoteliers and lords and ladies who have succeeded in delaying the construction of the new light rail system, which is now running almost two years behind time, because of their objection to its running on-street into the city centre.
Her acquiescence to their demands has resulted in the delayed line now terminating at St Stephen's Green, pending an investigation into the cost and feasibility of burying it in a tunnel, merely to satisfy the demands of a tiny handful of influential objectors. - Yours, etc.,
Joseph Walker, Barton Road East, Churchtown, Dublin 14.