Sir, - Touched by the plight of your correspondent Eamon Delaney (November 7th), who complains of being hectored by such columnists as Dick Walsh and Eddie Holt when he settles down for a restful read after a heavy week at the office, I have a few pieces of practical advice for you.
In order not to disturb the leisure of Mr Delaney and other hard-working burgers of this State, my advice is that from now on The Irish Times should give no coverage to UN reports which show us to have the second-highest level of inequality in the developed world, ESRI studies which show us to have the second-worst problem of low pay among OECD countries, NESC reports which highlight "the emergence of a pervasively marginalised segment of the working class" as a feature of Irish development over the past two decades (NESC: 1996), or OECD reports which show us to have the highest level of functional illiteracy among OECD countries. Further, I advise that you remind your aforementioned columnists of Mr Delaney's observation that Irish politics has shifted towards the centre, a fact from which Mr Delaney presumably concludes that sharp social critique has no longer any place amid what he describes as "the changes in Irish life". Were you to heed my advice, Mr Delaney could be assured that nothing would disturb the complacency of his privileged life. - Yours, etc., Peadar Kirby,
Casimir Road, Dublin 6W.