EDWARD BURKE,
Sir, - Kevin Myers, even when attacking the British state, is entranced by it or at least what he perceives to be it (Irishman's Diary, August 21st).
He detects the wonderful "British sense of fair play" in the laudable efforts of one Briton to seek justice for the wrongfully convicted Annie Maguire. How does Mr Myers equate the diligent humanity of one citizen of Britain with a national characteristic? The answer is to be found in the conclusion of his narrative when Mr. Myers links British justice and "fair play" with that nation's "fighting for freedom in the last world war".
I find Mr Myers has made a habit of this - his misperception of contemporary Britain. The socalled "British sense of fair play" that Mr Myers alludes to, derives from a reflective association of this attribute with the officer-class of that nation around the time of the second World War. This "that's just not cricket" mentality that Mr Myers holds to be so prevalently British, is epitomised by such gentlemen officers in the film version of The Bridge over the River Kwai. He would do well to remember that these "Hollywood Brits" are not an accurate portrayal of the character of Britain today.
His Britain is a land of small, neat villages with church steeples, a war monument and a cricket field. His Britons are part of an upstanding, poppy-wearing, Anglo- Saxon community which votes Tory, reads the Daily Telegraph and, in time of national threat, display the very same British qualities we have seen on the film sets of California.
Close the comic book Mr. Myers. Have a curry, a pint of lager, watch the Premier League on Sky Sports and you may find yourself closer to a Britain many people have lived in for a long time. - Yours, etc.,
EDWARD BURKE, Rosscarbery, Co Cork