The culture of derision

Madam, - I appreciated Kevin Myers's perceptive analysis of the Northern "culture of derision" (An Irishman's Diary, May 7th). …

Madam, - I appreciated Kevin Myers's perceptive analysis of the Northern "culture of derision" (An Irishman's Diary, May 7th). However, his own treatment of those who hold differing opinions from himself is often a master-class in the art of the sneer - in particular, recently, in relation to the Greens and to anti-war protesters.

It is time he took his own advice: it should not be the norm to "seek to humiliate or patronise or diminish those. . . about whom one is talking." - Yours, etc.,

J. MULLINS, St Anne's Park, Turner's Cross, Cork.