A chara, – Trevor White ("A hug to Dublin", People, March 17th) suggests that the fate of the capital is compromised by a lack of regard for the city by its very own inhabitants. In the same article, he also decries the rise of childhood obesity in the city.
What links them both, but what he fails to acknowledge, is the sheer dominance of vehicular traffic that prevails in Dublin. This most outdated prioritisation for cars and the lack of respect given to pedestrians allow little room for appreciating the city, not to mention the serious consequences in terms of childhood obesity.
One wonders when this imbalance will be addressed so that the people of Dublin can truly feel proud of their city again. From a culchie, otherwise in love with her city. – Is mise,
FIONA McDERMOTT
Dublin 8.
Sir, – Trevor White decries the national detachment between Dublin and the rest of the country; yet, by declaring “four kinds of people in Ireland today: Dubliners, Dubs, culchies and foreigners”, he amputates Belfast, an Irish city neither foreign nor culchie.
Perhaps it was a very smart meta expression of Donagh MacDonagh’s “arrogant city”, but even it acknowledged the existence of the North! – Yours, etc,
COLM DORE,
Belfast.