Sir, – Diarmaid Ferriter ("Exiting a new emergency, 75 years on", Opinion & Analysis, May 8th) notes that the emergency powers introduced on the outbreak of the second World War continued to be used for some time afterwards, and wonders how long the present emergency legislation will be kept.
The 1939 state of emergency was only repealed in 1976 – and was immediately replaced by a fresh state of emergency invoking conflict in Northern Ireland. That situation lasted until 1995, so at least we had some break from emergencies before the current pandemic. – Yours, etc,
BARRY DOHERTY,
Dublin 7.