Sir, In an article called "Kilbarrack" (Property, January 20th), Kate McMorrow quotes me as having said recently: "I wanted to see if I could copy Dickens. The high-rise landscape of Kilbarrack was the right creative choice - a universal landscape that people everywhere would recognise."
I'm sure I have said the first sentence, or words like it, quite often. I was referring to my novel A Star Called Henry, which is set in the first two decades of the century in inner-city Dublin. The second sentence also looks familiar. However, I was referring to Ballymun, where the television series Family was set, not Kilbarrack. I never said those sentences in that order, and I have never referred to `the highrise landscape of Kilbarrack'. Why would I? Two blocks of flats don't make a landscape. I had never read the Property section before and its style puzzled me. I am referred to seven times in what is essentially an article about house prices. The laziness and inaccuracy of the research annoyed me, but if the repeated use of my name and the inclusion of statements that I never made help keep house prices at a reasonable level, so that working-class people can continue to live in Kilbarrack, then I am glad to be of some small service to my country. And you have my permission to use the above quote in any area portrait, in any future Property sections. Simply delete "Kilbarrack", and insert "Foxrock", "Dalkey", "Kinnegad" - wherever you want.
In return, I ask one favour. Ms McMorrow quotes Dr Michael Woods - though it may not be what the man actually said. After all, she got his address wrong (he lives in Kilbarrack Grove, not Kilbarrack Road.) Dr Woods, according to Ms McMorrow, says that Kilbarrack "has improved a lot since Roddy Doyle's time". Dr Woods seems to be under the impression that I am dead. I have known and liked Dr Woods since I was a child. I met him recently at a funeral in Kilbarrack (my presence kept the costs down.) Could I now use your page to assure Dr Woods that I was not the man being buried? - Yours, etc.,
Roddy Doyle, School Avenue, Killester, Dublin 5.