Sir, - The ASTI may unwittingly be giving the students of Ireland a gift that will enrich their lives and make this a better country to live in.
As a child of the 1960s, I have spent the last ten years bemoaning the fact that our young people were apathetic, inactive and just plain boring. I work in adult education but once each week I have the privilege of working with a group of secondary students, mainly in transition year. My weekly fix of teenagers has kept me from becoming everything I despised in adults as a teenager.
How my soul sang when I say the young people of Ireland on the street, protesting, accusing and giving all the middle-aged, middle-class and middle-of-the road adults a good kick up the behind.
I hope they treat with total disdain the patronising attitude of Bertie Ahern in the Dail when he verbally smacked them on the wrist and told them to be good boys and girls and go back to school. Long live the next revolution. - Yours, etc.,
Liam Egan Cunnagher, Castlebar, Co Mayo.