Madam, - Henry Kelly's account of my late father's telephone encounter with Queen Elizabeth (An Irishman's Diary, August 27th) is inaccurate from start to finish.
My father was waiting by the telephone, not "lurking", for a booked call to his Manchester office. The phone rang, he answered, and a voice said: "I wish to speak to Princess Margaret".
My father said "You have a wrong number" and the phone went dead. There was no conversation about trees or anything else.
Further, my father was not "one of the Daily Express's Dublin correspondents". He was its chief reporter and bureau head and went on to be night editor of the London office. He was a highly respected journalist, and honorary secretary of the Oireachtas press gallery.
Above all else, he was a man who got his facts right before putting pen to paper. - Yours, etc,
AIDEEN BRADY-KIT, Howth, Co Dublin.