What would Oscar Wilde say?

A chara, – Frank McNally (An Irishman's Diary, July 2nd) asks what Oscar Wilde would have made of the current Irish propensity for persistent profanity – particularly of the "effin" variety.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde makes clear that "Swearing should be an exclamation mark, not a comma". – Is mise,

ANGELA POLSEN-EMY

Rathmines,

Dublin 6.