Madam, - The Taoiseach's Office recently issued a letter which Fintan O'Toole (Opinion, August 19th) describes as "a third-person brush-off from a minion". The term "minion" refers to the Taoiseach's appointment secretary, who signed the letter.
The letter itself is described as being that of "a clumsy oaf, treating traumatised victims like bothersome peasants at the gates of the manor", and as "lacking in all vestiges of courtesy and refinement, of decency and good manners". But it is odd, in an article complaining of lord-of-the-manor attitudes, to find this use of the word "minion". It may be that the intent is satirical, referring to the supposed attitude of the employer to his staff, or it may be that the word implies contempt for a mere secretary.
In any case, this thoughtless slighting of a (named) individual might be described as clumsy, if not oafish, and perhaps even as lacking in courtesy and refinement.
Have Irish Times columnists come to despise secretaries for being outside the gates of the manor? Secretarial workers carry out the directions of superiors, as do many other workers, and they are preponderantly female, but I was mistaken in the editorial policy of The Irish Times if indeed it permits the expression of contempt for any group on those grounds. - Yours, etc.,
ANNE NOLAN, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin 1.