TED McSWEENEY,
Madam, - Kathy Sheridan's article in last Saturday's Weekend Review was a timely answer to the nay-sayers who have been having a field day over Dublin City Council's imaginative plan for O'Connell Street.
By all means let us have a public debate about the details of the plan, but let it be one that is informed by knowledge of the overall proposal and by an appreciation that you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs! In my lifetime we have swung from tolerating the wanton destruction of some of our most important heritage (for instance, the Lower Fitzwilliam Street façade) to being a people that opposes all change in a knee-jerk fashion.
Stagnation is the alternative to change and the Greens and other reactionaries would do well to realise that the environment is the set of external conditions or surroundings in which we live. I for one applaud the efforts of the City Council to improve my environment. - Yours, etc.,
TED McSWEENEY, Blackrock, Co Dublin.