Madam, - I have no wish to kick a man when he is down. It is likely that Kevin Myers needed to lash out at somebody or something. State support for Irish was the best to hand. And that's OK. But why call Mr Éamon Ó Cuív by the name "Eddie O'Keeffe" (An Irishman's Diary, February 15th)?
The Minister's father was the eminent scholar Brian Ó Cuív and his grandfather was Shán Ó Cuív, a journalist who was put in charge of the Government Information Office and who favoured simplified spelling. The Minister was named Éamon after his grandfather de Valera. It is the Irish form of a name brought to Ireland by the Anglo-Normans.
It is more than likely that the Minister's Ó Cuív great grandfather was an Irish speaker, there being 300,000 speakers of the language in Co Cork according to the 1891 Census - probably too low an estimate. I am sure that many readers are puzzled as to why Mr Myers should call Mr Ó Cuív by names other than those by which he is known to all and under which he came into the world.
Can we now expect to hear of Nigellus Tobin, actor, and Columba Tobin, novelist, not to mention the late Eddie Andrews, broadcaster, and, improbably, Caoimhín Ó Midhir, journalist? - Yours, etc.
DIARMUID BREATHNACH, (alias the lowly Jer Walsh), Sidmonton Gardens, Bray, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - I note that Liam Carson (February 17th) refers to "the wonderful work of modern Irish writers". I'll take his word for it.
For most of us, any fondness for the Irish language developed in primary school was completely destroyed at secondary school by the mental torture inflicted through the mind-numbingly tedious works of Peig Sayers (Peig) and Seamus Ó Grianna (Caisleán Óir and Cith is Dealán).
Don't blame Kevin Myers for his dislike of the language. Think of the many ministers for education who left the schools' Irish curriculum unchanged for decades, effectively killing the language though neglect and mismanagement. - Yours, etc.,
JACK O'DONNELL, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.