Sir, - Aquinas, granted the beatific vision, dismissed his Summa as so much straw. I confess to similar feelings about my 30 years' output as a professional humorist after seeing Hugh Leonard refer recently in his column in another newspaper to a publication he has taken to calling "The Irish Crimes". How I laughed. Judge, therefore, my amazement when I found his zinger topped by Brendan Kennelly, who in his Book of Judas puckishly adverts to a journal he dubs "The Squirish Mimes"! Swift must lean out of heaven in envy at this sort of thing.
Is a hat-trick possible, do you suppose, or would that constitute an exercise in lily-gilding? One contender springs to mind: Hal Roach, jester royal to our isle of smiles. - Yours, etc.,
Tom Mathews, Clareville Road, Dublin 6W.