A Chara, – Conor O'Clery, in his very interesting article ("Did the end of the Cold War sow the seeds for a new one?" November 29th), tells us that with the end of the cold war "the threat of a nuclear holocaust became history".
Unfortunately this is not the case. There are approximately 20,000 nuclear weapons owned by a growing number of states and until they are all decommissioned the threat of a nuclear holocaust will remain.
What has happened however, is, as Donald Clarke pointed out ("Should we continue to fear another world war?', August 9th), that "the fear has largely gone away".
Clarke tells us that nuclear holocaust is no longer deemed terrifying enough as subject matter for Hollywood’s apocalypse movies, and he adds that “The denial of collective death continues. We don’t even whistle in the dark any more. Almost nobody seems to notice the dark. Can we get away with our hubris forever?”. Can we? – Yours, etc, MARY McCARRICK ICND (Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) PO Box 6327, Dublin 6