Madam, - I greatly admired Joe Humphreys's tribute to the late Fr Fergal O'Connor (An Irishman's Diary, October 15th) and am grateful for being introduced to his prophetic voice.
It was especially encouraging to read this Diarist's thoughtful and generous appreciation of a teacher and teachers, expressed with such quiet and graceful eloquence, when so much of current opinion seeks to subject teaching "outcomes" to the measurable parameters beloved of technocrats and when so many journalists seem to have traded the art of civil discourse for the bludgeon of shrill opinion.
In this brash new marketplace Fr O'Connor's voice might find little public space; Joe Humphreys's article, in its sentiments and in its tone, reminds us of our loss. - Yours etc,
EAMON SHEPPARD, Shankill, Co Dublin.