Madam, - Kevin Myers should perhaps be warned that he may be in some danger of ensuring for the nation the achievement of that goal which has proved so elusive to successive Governments since the founding of the State - the restoration of the Irish language.
The illiberal and oppressive outlook manifested in his increasingly frequent diatribes against the language is such that, were our political masters to adopt it, in all likelihood the people's response would be so wholehearted an embrace of the language as to ensure its revival.
Admittedly, the most rational response to the brutishness and sheer ignorance which inform (for want of a better word) Myers's arguments is to dismiss them laughingly as merely the ravings of an unbalanced and deeply prejudicial mindset. Clearly he has no idea of the ordinary affection in which the language is held by a great many of our people, in spite of the general lack of proficiency. One marvels at the gross offensiveness and monumental brass neck of his complaints that the predictable response to his column "will either be the ranting, frothing denunciations from Séamus Mac Giolla Fada and Anguosa (sic) Mac Craic, or a studied neglect" - ranting, frothing denunciations being Myers's very own stock in trade.
Less palatable is the possibility of his turgid offerings actually influencing the policy-making of some of our decision makers. Thankfully, the prospect of the inevitable language revolution which would follow any Myerseque shift in policy dispels the fleeting alarm. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID HICKEY, Friarsland Road, Goatstown, Dublin 14.