Sir, - Does nobody in Government find it embarrassing that after 75 years of independence, we do not have an educational or medical facility of world renown that we can show to world leaders, rather than taking them to a pub or foreign brewery?
It was bad enough having to watch President Clinton being glad-handed by Oireachtas members who caused our country's economic retardation for the last 30 years, without watching him being force-fed alcohol in the kind of place that causes our social and emotional retardation.
Our dependence on alcohol as a conduit for socialisation is something we should be ashamed of, rather than flaunting it, like a bunch of lushes at a Christmas party. - Yours, etc.,
John Devlin, Erne Terrace, Baile Atha Cliath 2.