Sir, - I believe Ita Eames missed the point in writing about the names appearing in your Births column (January 2nd). Of their nature, birth announcements are not representative of your readers, let alone Irish people in general.
First, they include many announcements from couples living abroad. This biases the selection immediately, particularly since one or both parents may be foreign. Also, this is not a random selection of your readers. These are parents who saw the birth of their child as an important public matter, whether or not this was objectively correct. Their choice of names is likely to be unrepresentative.
In reality, a high proportion of children in Ireland have Irish names, or names with a strong Irish link, like Patrick. Judging by the children who took part in a swimming gala recently, the proportion is about 40 per cent. Middle class children seem even more likely to have Irish names.
My estimate seems to extend to your adult readers. In Letters to the Editor on the same date nine people gave their full names. If you include one Patricia, 44 per cent of your correspondents had an Irish name or one with a strong Irish link. - Yours, etc.,
53 Castletown,
Leixlip,
Co Kildare.