Sir, - At a time when the character of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid in being thrown to the wolves, may I record some personal reminiscenses of the man which show a very different side to his character?
His good friend was my cousin the artist Evie Hone, whose work he particularly admired. Because of this, as a young girl I met him perhaps half-a-dozen times in Drumcondra and in Killiney. Because of his relationship with Evie, he showed a great interest in my education and a great generosity to my family.
My memory of him was of a gentle, if somewhat awesome presence, kind and considerate. That he should now be categorised as a paedophile on the basis of unattributed second-hand or third-hand allegations, is a travesty and an insult to a man who, whatever his attitudes at that time, was in my experience a kind, considerate and decent human being. - Yours, etc.,
Geraldine Hone, Bath Avenue Gardens, Sandymount, Dublin 4.