Sir, – I enjoyed the entertaining and informative article on the Royal Irish Academy's A History of Ireland in 100 Words (Magazine, November 9th). It combined etymology with whimsical tales from old traditions.
I was surprised that the item on “Béarla” made no reference to the place of the word in Bunreacht na hÉireann, where it is consistently referred to on all eight occasions as “Sacs-Bhéarla” (Saxon-English), presumably to emphasise the view of those drafting the Constitution that the English language was particularly foreign. – Yours, etc,
JACK MORRISSEY,
Dublin 16.