Madam, - Appropriately - or ironically - it was while buttering my usual morning toast in Bewley's in Westmoreland Street this morning that I read that Bewley's Cafes are soon to be no more. This is dreadful news; not only for the staff of Bewley's, who face redundancy, but also for the city of Dublin, as one of its last great institutions passes away.
Bewley's Westmoreland Street cafe is one of the few things in life that has remained unchanged since my childhood. It was there that I sat with my mother and godmother after the hectic shopping trip that kitted me out for my First Communion. Later, in the 1960s, I sat there with school friends at the end of the September school-book purchasing expeditions. I studied for exams there later again, revising feverishly at the last minute, to the background rattle of crockery and the comforting Dublin accents of the staff. When I came home on holidays during the years I lived abroad, Bewley's in Westmoreland Street was one of my first ports of call, and there it always was, unchanged from my previous visits. And for the past four years, I have had breakfast there every morning, secure in the knowledge that Julie knows that I like my toast well done on both sides, and will make sure I get it that way.
Dublin will not be the same without Bewley's. I mourn its passing. - Yours, etc.,
NOREEN MACKEY, Daletree Park, Ballycullen, Dublin 24