Sir, - Following the decisive rejection by Dublin City Council of the proposed by-laws restricting protests in O'Connell Street, the Corporation was referred to by Cllr Ciaran Cuffe as having "misjudged the public mood" (The Irish Times, April 3rd).
In fact the public's image of O'Connell Street as a place for spontaneous assembly, meetings or protests, confers a hallmark of civic character of which any town should be proud.
An eminent town planner, Gordon Cullen, has described such a town function as being taken for granted throughout the whole of civilisation:
"You might assemble in the forum of Pompeii or round the market cross but you still assembled; it was a ritual proper to man, both a rite and a right. Nor in the general way did you have to explain whether your motives were proper or profane." - Yours, etc.,
Niall Meagher, Gleann na Greine, Naas, Co Kildare.