Sir, - May I add to Frank McDonald's excellent articles on the desecration of the Irish country-side by mentioning the additional outrage of the variegated poplar - neither pretty, nor indigenous - which seems to come free with every roll-top garage door and is taking over the landscape.
Planting this tree within 30 feet of a building is seriously detrimental to drains and foundations. Maybe in time the awful growth will destroy the awful house. Who, then, will destroy the awful growth? - Yours, etc.,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.