Madam, - Kate Holmquist ("Give Me a Break", October 30th) should give me a break. Her paean for the modern Irish man was quite difficult to read, what with spluttering with laughter at every misconceived sentence.
What unfortunate men she seems to know. The CEO who has to work and travel (gasp!); the handsome 30-year-old rich flat-mates who are too terrified of women to ask someone out.
Apparently these wealthy, single men never know "if you're meeting the real woman or what's in her glass or up her nose". What a quandary. I foolishly thought that a simple second date could be used to test compatibility.
According to her inane logic, when women complain we are guilty of "victimhood" but long-suffering men are "not allowed to talk about stress and sacrifice". Furthermore, female battleaxes consistently ignore men's "heroic efforts to keep up with social change", ipso facto, women are paid 25 per cent less than our male peers. So that's the excuse they use at employment tribunals, eh? If women are seen as "treacherous aliens" by men who can't get to grips with the fact that some women would like to enjoy a career as well as a family life, then I must admit that I do feel quite sorry for them.
Of course, all of the overwrought men that Ms Holmquist knows seem to be able to console themselves with their fat pay cheques, presumably bulging at least 25 per cent more than my own. If your esteemed writer reflected on the matter a tad longer, I'm sure she would see that things for her beleaguered male friends could be worse. - Yours, etc,
COLETTE BROWNE,
Redmond Road,
Wexford.