Sir, - At about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, September 8th I found that I needed to travel from Dublin to Cork the following day. Having driven that journey at least four times in the previous fortnight, I decided that it was time to go by public transport. I tried to contact Iarnrod Eireann to check times and fares. No luck by telephone: offices shut. Interactive teletext? No reply. No luck by Internet; page stalls repeatedly and refuses to load.
OK, let's fly. Tried to ring Aer Lingus: not a hope of a reply by a human operator. Got the information on flight times from the Internet but not sufficiently accurate fare details to make an informed decision.
I took the car. - Yours, etc.,
Michael Casey, Cabinteely, Dublin 18.