A chara – Declan Kavanagh (”The island of Ireland”, a tautology, Letters, June 6th) protests too much. It is not always obvious that islands are, well, islands. In any case, it is quite normal in colloquial English for the name of an island to be thus introduced. Is Mr Kavanagh also going to object to “the city of Dublin”?
Moreover, the island of Ireland has a poetic ring to it and feels pleasant to say, for reasons of repetition, scansion and alliteration; if Mr Kavanagh has not noticed this, I cannot easily explain it to him.
– Is mise le meas,
TERRY WALSH,
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Murcia, Spain.