Sir, - It is important that Irish citizens are adequately informed of significant events in the United Kingdom, because of the close political, economic, cultural and historical links between the two countries.
However, the saturation media coverage of the British general election reached ridiculous levels, especially on RTE. For example, last week we were subjected to approximately three minutes of uninterrupted dialogue between Peter Mandelson and one of his constituents in Hartlepool. They chatted about the weather and dogs. No relevance, no news, no interest. Some days later, on RTE radio, the BBC's senior news correspondent, John Simpson, related how he had volunteered to cover the presidential election in Iran to escape the boredom of the British general election - and who could blame him?
Meanwhile, the very real dangers posed to Irish democracy by institutionalised corruption continue to receive adequate coverage but practically no indepth analysis. - Yours, etc.,
Anthony Sheridan,Carraig Eoin, Cobh, Co Cork.