Madam, - Hurrah for George Reynolds (Letters, March 17th). He has hit the pointy thing right on the head.
People frequently ask me why I have ceased contributing to the Irish Times letters page. My reply more or less concurs with Mr Reynolds's views, in that I no longer seem to meet the necessary criteria.
These include: Criterion 1 - The holding of an ecclesiastical position; Criterion 2 - The honour of having been elected by the general populace, in the recent past, to some political position or other, in order to warrant the inclusion of a suffix to my title; Criterion 3 - The distinction of being the chosen mouthpiece of an obscure special interests group, in order to inflict a vague and rambling dissertation about our purpose on your readers.
I fully agree with Mr Reynolds's sentiments, and support his call to return the Irish Times letters page to the hoi polloi, thus restoring it to its rightful place, which it once held with pride - that of being the Hyde Park Corner of Irish journalism.
Until this happens, however, I will conclude as follows: - Yours, etc,
Rev DK HENDERSON, TD, MEP, Spokesperson, Society of Disaffected Scribes, Literati, and Writers, Clontarf.