Sir, – In 1988, my wife and I were in Dublin’s National Stadium when Leonard Cohen, taking in the dilapidated state of the venue, remarked that in the city’s millennium year that it was “A great honour to play in one of the original buildings!”
In 2008, as we joined in the ecstatic ovation that greeted his arrival on stage in Kilmainham, somebody shouted “Don’t make us wait another 20 years, Leonard!”
“I don’t have another 20!” the great man replied.
How sad it is that this was true. So long, Leonard! – Yours, etc,
FINBAR O’CONNOR,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – It’s the summer of 1969 and I’m in Atlantic City. Every day, all day, I wash dishes in a seafood restaurant and every evening, all evening, I have Leonard Cohen for company on the record player. Happy memories. Rest in peace. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – Leonard Cohen was one the greats. His wonderful, doleful melodies are the perfect antidote to the chirpy anthems of modern pop. He could invest his lyrics with a strange, serene sadness, showing a sensibility and depth quite different from pessimism, and gloriously opposite to the drenched sentiment of much of the rest of commercial songwriting. His death is a great loss. – Yours, etc,
COLIN WALSH,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.