Sir, – Sadly, Rosita Boland is not the first Irish Times journalist to suffer at the hands of chatty taxi drivers (‘‘‘Am I annoying you, love?’ If you’re asking you already know”, Life, January 5th).
Almost three years ago, Denis Staunton wrote eloquently about the trauma he experienced at the hands of a loquacious London cabbie (“He was calling me ‘mate’. I felt the blood rush up through my chest”, January 19th, 2018).
No doubt many other scribes are too upset to relay their ordeals.
Surely it is time that The Irish Times assigned its writers private jarveys operated by cultured graduates of refined institutions like Gonzaga, the Rock, Alex, etc. Since Leo Varadkar, Eamon Ryan, Mary Lou McDonald and Richard Boyd Barrett are all past pupils of such places, perhaps they could recommend suitable candidates who would fit the bill.
That would free-up taxis for us talkative commoners. – Yours, etc,
KARL MARTIN,
Bayside,
Dublin 13.