Sir, - Recently a cousin from Dublin on a visit to New Zealand gave me one of the fine commemorative medals issued by the Irish Government to commemorate the millennium.
On reading the explanatory material on the plastic case which came with the medal (itself encased within a protective covering of its own), I was surprised to notice an obvious grammatical error in the use of the apostrophe: it's, instead of the correct its (the phrase as printed referring to "it's protective case" instead of "its protective case"). There was a reference to the scholars of Ireland in the wording on the medal itself, but it seems there must be a dearth of them nowadays in the Irish Mint, or whichever department of State was responsible for composing the explanatory material written on the container.
For the sake of the reputation of Ireland now and over the forthcoming centuries (as I have no doubt the medals will be rightly prized and handed down over the years), might I suggest that it is not too late to retrieve the mistake and issue a new container with correct wording. - Yours, etc.,
B.J. Cullinane, Trinity Avenue, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.