Madam, - I made an abject error in a review for The Irish Times last Saturday when I referred to Mrs Margaret Gaj as "the late Mrs Gaj". I do not know whether to ascribe the mistake to my fast-approaching senility or my gin-addled brain; in any case, I can only apologise profusely for it. Margaret Gaj is robustly alive, and the altogether deserved and much honoured heroine of Anne Stopper's study of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement, Mondays at Gaj's.
If it is any consolation, something similar happened to me last year: I approached a lady with a view to doing an interview. "Oh, but you're dead," she said. "My husband saw your death in the paper." I claimed that I was not dead. "Oh, but you are. He's certain."
These confusions do arise when someone of a similar name or association passes from the scene. I offer this as an allusive comparison, though not an excuse for my error, for which I again apologise.
- Yours, etc,
MARY KENNY, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.