MARTIN O'BOYLE,
Sir, - The reaction to Antoinette Clancy's letter of January 21st has been tremendous. The retirement issue has been taken up by several radio stations and the letters, telephone calls and comments to Antoinette have been extraordinary.
Comments from women and from one man were complimentary, exhorting others to take similar action. Comments from men were less favourable: "Get that lazy, good-for-nothing b**** off the programme" would have been about average, in both tone and sentiment.
Some expressed sympathy for the unfortunate husband, while one man felt so strongly that he wrote a letter of advice and sympathy to Mr Clancy.
Being Antoinette Clancy's "unfortunate" husband (though not Mr Clancy ) I read the letter. However, I did not act on his advice which was to "sell off the lazy mott at a knock-down price". Nor did I consider that I required his sympathy for "the public humiliation" he felt I had suffered.
Antoinette and I are both happily retired and we share the routine household chores.This leaves plenty of time for the more enjoyable things in life, some of which are shared and some undertaken separately.
I think it's very sad that some people should consider this arrangement to be anything out of the ordinary. - Yours, etc.,
MARTIN O'BOYLE,
The Cove,
Tramore,
Co Waterford.