Sir, –Justine McCarthy’s article on this year’s “missing summer” in Ireland (“If Ireland has 40 shades of green, it has 50 shades of grey”, Opinion & Analysis, August 30th) brought to mind a passage from Brian Friel’s play Translations.
“For God’s sake! The first hot summer in 50 years and you think it’s Eden. Don’t be such a bloody romantic. You wouldn’t survive a mild winter here.”
Spoken by Owen, the local Irish translator to the visiting British soldiers and cartographers, in response to Lieut Yolland’s fanciful idea of permanently settling in the west of Ireland.
Perhaps you need, like Yolland, to be lovelorn even to contemplate the idea! – Yours, etc,
Ireland’s far-right activists don’t want what they say they want
Black Lives Matter was huge, impactful and momentous. Why did it collapse?
Graham Norton: ‘Angry people want you to lose rights. I hope young gay people are up for the fight’
Moving to Australia: ‘I would have had a very fixed life in Ireland. I feel very light here’
THEO J SCHULTE,
Cambridge,
UK.
Sir, – I did not know how to describe our non-summer to our children who live abroad but, thanks to Justine McCarthy, I can now let them know that we have been living under “sobbing clouds”. Perfect description. – Yours, etc,
ROSARY COX,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.