Sir, - We in Ireland have been stunned over the years by images on our television screens of street children in far-flung places such as South America and India living in underground sewers. But, believe me, you don't have to travel that far at all to witness comparable phenomena.
On Saturday afternoon I took a walk along the Rock Road. As I approached the waste ground opposite the Tara Towers Hotel, I observed a white-haired man busily engaged in washing his hair from a billy can. He had heated water on a fire constructed from a couple of cement blocks. A few yards further along, I came across his "des res" - a concrete sewer pipe blocked off at either end with plastic sheeting and old carpet. What fortitude and strength of character he must possess to actually get up each morning, let alone bother to keep up his appearance. - Yours, etc.,
Mrs Zara Brady, De Vesci Terrace, Monkstown, Co Dublin.