Madam, - I am delighted Knock Airport is making plans for the year 2020. Things didn't always look so rosy for "the white elephant on a foggy, boggy hillside in Mayo".
I was one of the Dublin-based journalists who railed against the building of the airport. Unlike most of the others, however, I went to Knock to talk to Mgr James Horan.
He brought me to the top of Barnacuige Hill to look down on the desolate plain where his airport would be built - though we couldn't see the plain. Fog.
He invited me to lunch in the parochial house. I wasn't the only guest. A dozen or so sat down to eat. The monsignor kept a very good table. There were three roasts - beef, lamb, pork - and you were expected to partake of each. Wine flowed generously.
Before I left for Dublin I had a moment alone with Mgr Horan. "You know, of course, your plan is completely daft". His reply? "I do, but how else was I going to get £10 million from central government for spending in Mayo. If I'd asked for the money for something like roads I wouldn't have got it".
So Mgr Horan and I agreed he was embarking on a doomed project. I am glad we were both proved wrong. - Yours, etc,
JIM DUNNE,
Margaret Place,
Dublin 4.