When criticism gets personal

No place for comments on personal appearances

Sir, – I enjoy reading Una Mullally’s column in your paper. Accepting that she is often well short of the mark, her opinions are often thought provoking.

Her recent column on the Toy Show musical is spot on (“Problems with Toy Show musical plain to see from start”, Opinion & Analysis, July 10th).

But did she really have to comment on Noel Kelly’s personal appearance – “Noel Kelly looks like he walked straight out of a Graham Knuttel painting”?

I would have thought that good journalism does not have to stoop to criticising a person for how they look.

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And I wonder whether Una Mullally would have felt so free to comment had the subject been a woman. – Yours, etc,

JOHN DEATON,

Dundrum,

Dublin 14.