Madam, - Iain MacEochagáin (May 7th) believes that "we may soon face cultural extinction". I disagree.
He also claims that "we do not celebrate our own nationhood". We celebrate our nationhood every day with our vibrant economy and hard-working, creative youth (who no longer have to emigrate).
Mr MacEochagáin complains: "Our supermarkets are flooded with cheap English imports". Perhaps he would like to return to de Valera's Ireland? Irish people voted with their feet to reject such an inward-looking nation lacking in self-confidence, with our best and brightest emigrating to the four corners of the world.
I may speak English, but not as an Englishman. As a Dubliner I speak our dialect of the English language with all its glorious grammatical inaccuracies. This is part of my culture, and I'm proud of it.
As a Dub, an Irishman and a Republican, I'm sick to death of elitists attempting to foist upon me Padraig Pearse's limited and narrow sense of Irishness. Most Irish people have a far more confident and inclusive concept of Irish culture. - Yours, etc.,
STEPHEN NOLAN, Delaford Avenue, Firhouse Road, Dublin 16