A chara, – As in Frank McNally’s Cavan (An Irishman’s Diary, November 9th), wakes are still very much the done thing in my home city, Derry. I attended one earlier this year, and my Scottish partner who was with me was very surprised that it was the tea-and-sandwiches variety, with no alcohol at all. The open coffin in the living room was a bit of a surprise for her too. – Is mise,
JOE McLAUGHLIN,
Bonnyrigg,
Midlothian,
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Scotland.
A chara, – Like Frank McNally, I was astonished to learn that a reader (from Howth, but long domiciled in London) had never been at a wake, nor his late parents.
My first wake was that in 1960 of my Uncle Hugh Downey, a former Labour MP at Stormont.
I was seven and when I told my friend Seamy Lavery where I was going, to the wake house in Andersonstown, he begged me to take him with me, because he had never seen “a dead Mister” before.
So, for an admission fee of tuppence, I brought Seamy to the wake house and he was mightily impressed. Frank’s correspondent doesn’t know what he’s missed. – Yours, etc,
DANNY MORRISON,
Belfast.
Sir, – Frank McNally mentions the traditional advice of “not starting from here” given to travellers regarding direction in Ireland. A variation on that advice was given to me a few years ago in Killarney when I enquired about a certain location. The woman asked where was I coming from and I said Limerick. “Ah”, she said “You’re after coming in the wrong way!” – Yours, etc,
JOHN GAFFNEY,
Carrick on Shannon,
Co Leitrim.
Sir, – I enjoyed Frank McNally’s article on Saturday. In what may have been a typo, he referred to a pamphlet on the history of the “constriction” of the Howth Road.
Surely you wouldn’t need to read a pamphlet to know that it all started with the introduction of bicycle lanes. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN McDERMOTT,
Killester,
Dublin 5.
