Sir, - The cartoon referring to Limerick as a black hole (Business This Week, September 11th) illustrates an insular, ignorant, and hopefully vestigial view among some Irish journalists about life outside the Pale. In its attempt to become a true national newspaper, I had hoped The Irish Times had left these irrationalities long behind. Any editor who deliberately lets such schoolboy trash be printed in a so-called quality national newspaper is guilty of a more sophisticated form of bad manners than may appear elsewhere, but bad manners demeans us all, including The Irish Times. Since Frank McCourt's financially successful, twisted-truth, semi-fictional story, which masquerades as social history, about my native city, some may feel that Limerick is fair game. However you should know better and treat all parts of Ireland with equal respect. - Yours, etc., Gerard Stockil,
Bancroft Park, Tallaght, Dublin 24.