Madam, - I was surprised to see in a report concerning a GAA player sentenced for assaulting a Garda, a reference to the former "persistently acting the blaggard" ( The Irish Times, November 25th).
May I point out that this word - not often heard today - is in fact spelled "blackguard"?
The word is defined in my Oxford English Dictionaryas "a man who behaves in a dishonourable or contemptible way".
I sometimes heard it used by my late father (coincidentally also a judge in Co Donegal), but the expression is now somewhat dated. Hence, no doubt, the confusion over its spelling.- Yours, etc,
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Dr BRENDA O'HANRAHAN,
Park Lane,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.