Sir, - I am glad to see Kevin Myers (An Irishman's Diary, December 27th) following the pattern set upon publication of the first letter I sent to The Irish Times in late 1994. On that occasion I wrote to on behalf of the Falls Road-based community group for which I worked at the time to complain about the refusal of the British Government to provide funding for Meanscoil Feirste.
As a result, the group received a rambling, incoherent letter accusing me of being a charlatan writing from the sectarian safety of west Belfast. Now it would seem I am a charlatan writing from the bourgeois comfort of Donnybrook. At least Mr Myers has the decency to put his name to his diatribe.
Had I put the address of the residence where I lived until recently - next door to Sandy Row Orange Hall - on either letter, I am sure I would have been on the receiving end of much worse than Mr Myers' patronising cant about "suffering being the norm in that terrible place". The fact that my scribblings cause people to rail so fulsomely against me indicates that I must be getting something right. Perhaps Mr Myers might like to back my presidential candidature in seven years time. Pip, pip, indeed. - Yours, etc.
Anglesea Road, Dublin 4.