Sir, – What an excellent and thought-provoking column by Catherine Mack in Saturday's Magazine on the value and importance of letters and letter-writing ("On writing letters", September 24th).
For a large part of the last century, a letter was the only means of communication between family members who lived abroad and their loved ones at home. These letters were treasured and read again and again. They brought news of births, deaths, marriages, work, passtimes, as well as local and international happenings.
There is still something special about sitting with a nice cup of tea and reading a long letter from a friend or relative.
Writing a letter often enables one to communicate in a unique way that is somehow different to communication by telephone or other means of modern technology. Indeed it is still a favoured way of correspondence for many of the older generation.
Br Forde, who taught me in Dingle CBS many years ago, used to say “the written word remains” when he tried to encourage us to write neatly, using proper punctuation and sentence structure. How right he was, as Catherine Mack’s article illustrates. – Yours, etc,
TOM LYNCH,
Ennis,
Co Clare.