Madam - Ita McCormack (February 14th) is under the quaint delusion that letters in The Irish Times are published on merit, regardless of the title or prestige of the signatory. From experience, I can share with her the real guidelines which must be followed:
1. Never criticise The Irish Times itself. 2. Do not depart too far from the "dominant narrative" as contained in Irish Times Editorials. 3. Never antagonise the Letters Page editor by demanding a right of reply when you are criticised by name on the Letters page. 4. Sarcastic or silly one-liners have priority. 5. If writing a longer letter on a more serious and necessarily complex subject, always lend your letter some spurious authority by signing it as President of the Lesser Spotted Bumpkins Society or some such worthy organisation, or by claiming to be a "think tank" such as "Libertas", which is anything but a think tank as a simple perusal of its website will confirm.
Failing the above, write instead on some serious online forum which is not limited to contacts of the small-minded coterie which now runs The Irish Times and seeks to pass itself off as a serious forum for open debate. Most of us have long realised that it is anything but and have moved on the bigger and better things elsewhere. - Yours, etc,
FRANK SCHNITTGER, Red Lane, Blessington, Co Wicklow.