Madam, - Dan Keenan's desire to extract something light-hearted from events in Hillsborough is welcome (The Irish Times, March 5th), but he should know Hillsborough Castle is not a royal residence. It was purchased by the British government in 1922 as a home for the Governor of Northern Ireland, and remains government property. If Queen Elizabeth stays there, she does so as a guest, not the proprietor.
And why should Hillsborough be somewhere in the Cotswolds rather than Co Down? Has "understated Georgian elegance" no place anywhere in Ireland, not even Dublin? Are "neat streets lined with quaint shops" culturally alien - unique to middle England? As for the residents of Hillsborough occasionally pretending they don't live in Northern Ireland, can you blame them, or the rest of us? - Yours, etc.,
DENNIS KENNEDY,
Belfast 7.