Sir, - Therese Kelly seems to be suffering from a mixture of premature adjudication and rose-tinted nostalgia.
The reason Smithfield looks like an ugly building site is because that's what it is. All building sites are ugly, but it is a temporary condition, and judging by the quality of the materials being used and by the work to date, the end product should compensate for the assault on Ms Kelly's sensibilities.
As to the horse fair, I for one would prefer an urban space of resort with apartments, houses, pubs, hotels, shops and an outdoor performance facility to the grafitti-covered dereliction of yore enlivened only once each month by the spectacle of urchins galloping neglected shire horses through layers of litter and manure. - Yours, etc.,
Terry Griffin, Aughrim Street, Dublin 7.