Sir, - As Michael O'Loughlin's excellent and erudite commentary on modern Ireland lifted the spirits ("In the belly of the beast", Features, January 26th), so did Moore McDowell's riposte (February 11th) precipitate a return to the slough of despond. A prophet is never welcome in his own land, but only in Ireland is he subjected to a certain type of carping critique which I believe should not be left unanswered. Mr O'Loughlin is parodied as a "Rip Van Winkle" figure for positing, among other things, what I interpreted as the reasonable assertion that man doesn't live on bread and four-wheel drives alone, and that in the rush to embrace materialism, pre-millennium Ireland might be a couple of blind spots shy of 20:20 vision.
Mr McDowell assures us that the "storm" has "safely passed" and that basically we've never had it so good. While this is in many ways true, if Mr McDowell wants proof that his "nothing is rotten in the state of Denmark" analysis is less than watertight, he could do worse than to turn to page 7 of the edition in which his article appeared. There he will be informed by your Social Affairs correspondent, Padraig O'Morain, "that the number of people taking their own lives has doubled over the last decade". While the responsibility for this grim figure should not be laid solely at the paws of the Celtic Tiger, only a Celtic Ostrich could believe that the last decade has not seen increased levels of spiritual alienation among the population. A surge in alcohol and drug abuse combined with increased use of anti-depressants would suggest to me that there is little room for smugness or backslapping when it comes to a balanced appraisal of pre-millennium Ireland.
Maybe it was all those Latin phrases, but Mr McDowell's article evoked for me an image of the infamous Emperor Nero striking up another tune on his fiddle. I'm not saying Rome is burning, but, unlike Mr McDowell, I do believe writers of the quality and insight of Mr O'Loughlin should be encouraged to check the batteries on the fire alarm. - Yours, etc.,
Padraic McKiernan, St Lawrence's Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3.