Madam, - One hesitates to disagree with Kevin Myers for fear of being called a cretin, an imbecile or, worse still, a bore. Even Chomsky is a "chump"! But I must put in a good word for the month of February, so unfairly denigrated in his Irishman's Diary of March 1st.
February 2006 was one of the driest on record. So much for the "cold, wet weather systems from a cold, wet sea". As for the landscape consisting of "various shades of clay", the view from my front window was, and still is, bright with the cheerful colours of crocuses, daffodils, primroses, japonica and camellias, all set against the green of Milltown golf course.
Perhaps, like Robert Frost in his poem "Tree At My Window", Mr Myers was concerned with inner as well as outer weather. Any month can be nasty at times in Ireland, but at least February flowers are a symbol of new hope after the dark winter. Too bad they didn't work for Kevin Myers, but I suspect that, behind it all, he just likes to stir things up. - Yours, etc,
JAMES EVANS, Lower Churchtown Road, Dublin 14.