Sir, - I would like to congratulate Timothy O'Connor (October 17th) on his honesty and for so accurately voicing my own views.
I am an Irish citizen who has being living in New York for the past 12 years. I have come to love this city and its people. Not once has a New Yorker made me feel anything but welcome as one of their own.
However, I have in the past had the misfortune to return to Ireland on holidays with some American friends. The sanctimonious, finger-in-face preaching we encountered on just about every social occasion left me horrified and mortified to be Irish. All too often the words, "Let me tell you the problem with your country", ruined what would have been a great night and left me apologising for my fellow countrymen.
The shocking justifications of September 11th I have been reading in letters to your paper disgust me. This is coming from the country that had a national day of mourning?
What these arrogant, ignorant "philosophers" are so blissfully unaware of is that, apart from Aran jumpers, Guinness and Riverdance, Ireland contributes very little to the world. Thankfully, these people's opinions are insignificant. - Is mise,
SinΘad Murphy, New York, USA.