Sir, - I see that Kevin Myers is once more having difficulty with Irish (An Irishman' Diary, September 18th). I'm sure that by now most of your readers will have suspected that his only object is to stir up controversy. Surely he cannot have any literary or philosophical pretensions. He does have what is termed an agenda, nonetheless. One hopes that it is nothing more sinister than a purely private, personal agenda.
Mr Myers informs us that "any language which even contemplates making the plural of `bean' the wholly unrelated `mna' is not lightly going to succumb to my palsied attempts to master it . . ." His beloved English has no such difficulties, of course! Learners who attempt to pronounce words ending in -ough - through, plough, lough, though, enough, etc. - take it all in their unpalsied stride, one imagines.
He compares what he sees (or what he would like to see) as the inevitable decline of Irish to the migration of swallows. They leave and that is that. Nothing much we can do about it. If his brilliant, scientific mind can "work out what makes the swallows leave for Africa", how is it he cannot presage their joyous return? - Is mise,
Gabriel Rosenstock, Gleann na gCaorach, Co Atha Cliath.