Sir, – Richard Pine (February 2nd) claims that I wrote piffle, and irresponsibly so, in my earlier letter about Ireland and its identity.
More specifically, the charge is that I mistranslated the Greek word idiotes. I did not do so: I merely said that the word had been used in ancient Greece in relation to those who did not take an active interest in civic affairs, adding a comment of my own that “they were the people who couldn’t be bothered, the idiots”.
Mr Pine is correct in saying that idiotes meant a private person, but he seems to have overlooked the wider context that those who do not take an interest in what happens around them and in what is done in their name are acting in an idiotic manner. He might also have noted that idiotes evolved, albeit after the ancient Greek era, into the modern English word “idiot”.
I plead not guilty to the charge. – Yours, etc,