A chara, - Kevin Myers's attack on the recently deceased Joe Cahill is well below the normally high standard of journalism appropriate to The Irish Times.
Myers castigates all things republican from 1916 to the present day. This is of no great surprise to most of us but it is particularly galling when the focus for his vitriol is Joe Cahill, the veteran republican, who is deceased a mere 10 days. He spares no thought for Joe Cahill's family at this difficult time - perhaps he believes they deserve no sympathy for the dastardly sin of having been related to a republican.
Mr Myers also displays poor journalism by casually defaming the recently deceased Cahill. His statement that Cahill "let" Tom Williams hang cannot be proven because we are not now in a position to ask Joe Cahill for his opinion.
For many years I have read Kevin Myers urge us all to respect and commemorate those who have fought for the British army and its allies in various wars which have taken place. The often needless violence and horrific killings which took place during those wars rarely gets a mention. It is a pity that Kevin Myers's sympathetic and thoughtful analysis of all wars involving our neighbours in Britain appears to miraculously disappear when he is required to analyse our own country's past. - Is mise,
E.F. FANNING, Whitehall Road, Churchtown, Dublin 14.
Madam, - I agree with most of Kevin Myers's sentiments (An Irishman's Diary, August 4th) on the "career" of the IRA man Joe Cahill, who helped to visit so much suffering and devastation on so many innocent people. Odd, therefore, to see that The Irish Times would give half a page to the funeral of this wretched man, and even more mystifying that you devoted additional space in last Saturday's Obituary page, a place normally reserved for people who have contributed something worthwhile to society. - Yours, etc.,
DERMOTT BARRETT, Clyde Road, Dublin 4.