Sir, - There are many reasons for the decline of Dublin's O'Connell Street (news feature, June 14th) a boulevard and a shopping thoroughfare once akin to London's Bond Street and the Champs Elysees in Paris.
Many decision makers in local authority, at national level and in the capital's commercial life are from provincial Ireland. As such they would have no empathy, no gradh, no pride and little communion with Dublin's history, its traditions and its great people. There is no Dublin lobby with power and leverage as exists in provincial Ireland.
The manager of the Dublin City Centre Business Association is from Waterford; the manager of the Dublin Regional Tourism Organisation is from Donegal; and the manager of Temple Bar is from Cork. The curse of St Munchin applied not only to Limerick: "The strangers shall flourish and the natives shall perish".
For Dublin's O'Connell Street to revert to its former glory it needs to be entrusted to a Dublin authority managed and manned by Dubliners. Yours, etc.,
Upper Kilmacud Road,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.