Sir, - IRTC Commissioner, Aiden Meade (April 24th), reproaches me for lacking a sense of humour; on the contrary, I can certainly see the humorous aspects of some of what has happened.
If, as he still claims, he received a letter seeking a subscription to my constituency funds, he was singled out as the victim of a strange forgery. He was quoted by your reporter recently as saying there must be a forger at work in Dublin 6." Funny, that!
Funnier still, he claims to have received the forged letter blare I went public on the IRTC matter; so any such forger must have been a clairvoyant as well.
Funniest of all, the clairvoyant forger would have to have been a pet psychologist too. How else could he rely on Commissioner Meade's dog to eat the letter - the explanation tendered by the Commissioner for its non production? If the letter had only survived, the media could have spent the last week hunting down the malefactor.
I can see the humorous side of being asked by the victim of a clairvoyant forger with a degree in animal psychology to explain myself on pain of having the matter reported to Geraldine Kennedy as a "PD/RTC fundraising scandal".
It was remiss of me to let the public in on the fun. It should have remained a private little joke between me, the Commissioner, and - of course - the mysterious forger of Dublin 6.
It really is a funny old world. Yours, etc.,
Dail Eireann,
Baile Atha Cliath, 2.