Sir, - There seems a note of, dare I say it, hysteria, in Kevin Myers's Irishman's Diary (August 22nd). Not the serious issue of male suicide rates which he raises, and which is of concern to many of us, I'm sure, both men and women, but in the language he uses to describe the straw women he sets up: "feminist quangos", our "State-sponsored femidiocy" and the "blinkered whingers" on the National Women's Council of Ireland. Rather rich, if not redolent of what we used to call misogyny, for a piece that goes on to deplore the "genophobia" targeted at men! And while I don't doubt that some men are at risk in the home, the argument for a kind of parity of abuse - in which men and women are equally responsible for starting domestic violence - would be risible, were it not so mischievous. - Yours, etc.,
Anthony Glavin, Iveragh Road, Dublin 9.