Sir, – Cormac McMahon (May 8th) should not put words into my mouth. I said nothing about “a lower class of person”. I do not believe that there are lower classes of people anywhere. I do believe that there is good speech and bad speech. It was Bernard Shaw who referred on one occasion to “the degradation of speech that occurs in big cities”.
Mr Mahon gets into a patriotic rage at the thought of any Irishman consulting the Oxford English Dictionary . As I said, I consulted four other dictionaries as well and they told the same tale. Éamon de Valera on one occasion in the Dáil had recourse to the Oxford Dictionary for a precise definition of the word "republic". If it was good enough for him, it is good enough for me. – Yours, etc,
EDWARD THORNLEY,
Strand Road,
Sandymount, Dublin 4.