Sir, - I am by nature an easy-going person - tolerant of what I regard as the "arty-farty" contingent - some of whom hangs around The Irish Times. So I followed with interest the exchanges between your various contributors on millennium "magnum opus" Messiah XXI.
I realise that we have a licence fee here, but I did not realise that it extended to pay-per-view! Judging by my experience of the rubbish I saw and the anticipated audience figures (no doubt massaged by RTE), the £700,000 contributed by the Millenium Committee (i.e. we the taxpayers) probably represented about £4 per viewer. Some value! - Yours, etc.,
John McCann, Clanmawr, Corbawn Lane, Shankill, Co Dublin.