Sir, – Fintan O’Toole opened his column with “We Irish do love our metaphors” (Opinion, June 19th). He went on to tell us “Euro ’88 symbolised the new ascendancy of urban culture”, Italia 1990 and USA 1994 “embodied the plurality of a hybrid Irish identity”, “Saipan 2002 dramatised . . . the tensions between an older Ireland and a new, success-driven economy”. Then he started on Poland and Ukraine 2012: “A paradox: impractical pragmatism”. I had to stop reading. There are only so many metaphors you can take with your cornflakes.
A better start might have been “We Irish Times columnists do love our metaphors”. We non-media Irish aren’t so smitten. Maybe we spend too much time watching the actual football. – Yours, etc,