Sir, – I am curious as to when it became customary for people of a certain status to list their job description and name of employer as part of their name and address details when writing to newspapers. As an example, I refer to The Irish Times letters page of February 11th. In that edition, three contributors described themselves variously as an associate professor of biotechnology, a professor of psychiatry and a retired professor of sociology, followed by the names of their respective colleges. Would it be correct to assume that the other 11 letter writers on that day were either unemployed or did not consider their humble occupations lofty enough to be mentioned in a newspaper? – Yours, etc,
THOMAS NAGHTEN,
(Retired Taxi Driver,
School of Hard Knocks),
Maynooth, Co Kildare.