Sir, - The religious significance and magic of the approaching millennium has been all but destroyed by the media, advertising and technology. Instead of quietly celebrating the 2,000th year (give or take a few years) of the birth of Christ, we are relentlessly informed that in buying a new car, pension or shampoo, our lives will be transformed in the new millennium.
Instead of being humbled by the dawning of a new century, businessmen and technocrats drivel on about how their computers may malfunction in "Y2K". Would any other culture - Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist or Hindu - allow their sacred beliefs to be so trivialised and debased?
The only small consolation for me in all of this is that I am looking forward to telling tales to children: "When I was born, in the middle of the last century. . . !" - Yours, etc.,
Julian Campbell, St Luke's, Cork.