Sir, - The chairman of the St Patrick's Festival, Senator Feargal Quinn, and the chief executive Maria Moynihan, must be congratulated on a great colourful parade last weekend. And it was wonderful to see the saint himself in the parade, in a dignified yet jovial manner, greeting people along the way.
But where is St Patrick the rest of the year? It might interest readers to know that the Millennium Committee appointed by Bertie Ahern TD and chaired by Seamus Brennan TD, with a budget of £33 million, refused to support requests to have a statue of St Patrick in O'Connell Street or anywhere else in Dublin.
Earlier this year, when I wrote to Bertie Ahern on behalf of Millennium Ireland, a voluntary group, to put a mere £300 plaque in O'Connell Street to commemorate some Christian aspect of the millennium, he passed the letter to Seamus Brennan who has so far ignored it. - Yours, etc.,
John O'Halloran, Bantry Road, Dublin 9.