Madam, - This is my second letter to The Irish Times - the first was written in the 1970s when Douglas Gageby, RIP, was editor and I owned a small hotel just outside Belfast. Completely coincidentally to my letter, he was booked to stay in our hotel, and while I did not know him to see, I knew what room he had. I happened to be at reception when he gave his room number for a morning call, and I said "You are Douglas Gageby?"
"Yes", he said and I introduced myself. He said: "Oh, you have a letter in the paper today" and I said that I had not read the paper yet.
"Well", he said, "When your letter came in, I said to my secretary 'I am staying in that fellow's hotel tomorrow night - you had better put his letter in the paper!' " - Yours, etc.,
HARRY TONER,
Holywood,
Co Down.