Sir, – While reading Lucille Redmond’s nostalgic piece on tea (An Irishwoman’s Diary, April 22nd) I was reminded of the day, in 1979, when the Pope visited the Phoenix Park in Dublin.
While waiting patiently in the corral for the helicopter to appear in the sky, I was joined by a man from rural parts who had arrived by train at Heuston Station. He slowly and methodically unpacked the contents of a shopping bag which his family had given to him as he left home in the early hours of that morning. He produced a mug and a flask. He then poured some of the contents of the flask into the mug, only to discover it was hot water. Bemused by this, he searched the bag, and underneath the “hang sangwiches” he found some tea bags. With a look of disgust on his face he approached me and asked “How do you work them tea bag things?” Then, a few minutes later, as he reluctantly sipped the obviously unsatisfactory tea the whirring of an approaching helicopter told me that, on that day in 1979, life in Ireland had changed forever. – Yours, etc,
TONY CORCORAN,
Fairbrook Lawn,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.