Madam, - "The new Ireland of the Welcomes is over-priced, under-serviced and distinctly unfriendly." A revelation from the new yet-to-be-published Bord Fáilte survey, or from John Travers's address to Ireland's hoteliers last week?
No. It's a quotation from a fine piece, "Frosty Fáilte", by Kathy Sheridan in your paper four years ago (January 23rd 1999). So why all the surprise now about what everyone knows and has known? Rather, the surprise should be about why the situation is just as bad - if not worse - four years later.
It would be a public service to remind your readers of what Kathy Sheridan wrote and also to reproduce Wendy Shea's superb illustration of the tourist's experience of "Dear Old Ireland." - Yours, etc.,
KEN MAWHINNEY, Clonard Drive, Dublin 16.
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Madam, - Anthony Burke is correct in his assertion about the disparity between the prices of Paul McCartney tickets in Ireland and abroad (March 10th) - and this will also have the depressingly familiar effect of raising the average price for other acts coming to the country.
Exploiting the willingness of fans to pay astronomical prices to see their heroes is yet another example of Ireland's post-Celtic Tiger greed, taking its place beside areas such as property, insurance, eating and drinking out, transport, accommodation and retail goods. - Yours, etc.,
PETER McDONNELL, Westport, Co Mayo.