Sir, - According to Brendan Glacken (January 20th), Theresa Ahearn TD has taken exception to what she calls the "disparaging comments" about men allegedly made by Noirin Byrne of the National Women's Council to the effect that "The feeling is, why bother to live with them (men) and wash their socks? Just go out and play with them."
But surely this is one of the most sensible questions ever posed about gender relations (could anyone ever really want to wash a man's socks?). It is also one of the nicest and most inclusive statements that has been made about men for ages. Your see, the real sub text here is tennis. It all goes back to that historic decision made a few months ago by the Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club to change its sexist rules to admit female members. This step, was publicly applauded by Ms Byrne on these pages as she, by her own account, searched for her tennis racket. So all she is doing is reminding women of these revolutionary new opportunities to "play with" men. No problem! I, for one, would be happy to be Noirin Byrne's doubles partner any day. - Yours, etc.,
Sydney Park, Cork.
PS: I'm surprised that a man with a serve and volley (and such sparkling white socks) as Brendan Glacken's didn't work this one out for himself.