Sir, - Kevin Myers is concerned that US diplomats are so unappreciative, after all his efforts on their behalf, that they cannot even get his name right (An Irishman's Diary, October 18th). They called him "Myles". Kevin Myers has indeed been assiduous in promoting US interests, taking on guest columnists such as John Pilger and the occasional unfortunate reader with a different point of view. He has also woven into his post-September 11th tapestry of world bogeymen his domestic gallery of Sinn FΘin villains.
As well as being unable to pronounce his name correctly, US diplomacy performed another "no-no" - the Ambassador attended the Sinn Fein ┴rd-Fheis. Kevin Myers's support is obviously conditional, to be granted only on the basis of accepting the whole Myers counter-insurgency package. There are two possible explanations for US diplomacy's grievous faux pas.
The first is that the diplomats were too well briefed and had in fact conducted an extensive historical study of The Irish Times. Having read Mr Myers's copy they would be forgiven for believing his heavy-handed sarcasm to be a form of satire (satirising pompous journalists who go in for heavy-handed sarcasm). They then confused Kevin Myers with Flann O'Brien's nom de plume, Myles na Gopaleen. This was an inadvertent compliment that Kevin Myers would do well to disabuse his US friends of by proclaiming the complete sincerity of his intentions. This may be unnecessary as the October 18th column does the job admirably.
To sum up, countries do not have friends, they have interests and Kevin Myers is of no interest to the US. He will have to continue ploughing his lonely furrow in, as he so eloquently, if a little forlornly, puts it, "a country the size of Maine".
I hope that clarifies matters. - Yours etc.,
Mick Finnegan, Bannow Road, Cabra, Dublin 7.