Sir, - Last weekend, during her round-up of the week's programmes on RTE Radio, Ruth Buchanan re-broadcast a piece by Kevin O'Connor, originally aired on Lyric FM.
Mr O'Connor blames magpies for the decrease in the numbers of garden songbirds (yes, that old chestnut) and said that domestic cats were playing their part in putting this right. He described, in gory detail, the demise of one juvenile magpie caught by his own pet cat. Ms. Buchanan said the piece was "delightful".
My own garden attracts a wide range of birdlife (from sparrowhawks to goldcrests) and magpies are just as welcome as the many, many varieties of songbirds which spend a great part of their day there.
A most unwelcome visitor, however, is a particular neighbourhood cat (owner unknown) whose sole purpose in life appears to be to rid the garden of small birds. One day, I even spotted this cat taking a collared dove and skulking into the shrubbery with it before I could react.
I believe cats (domestic and feral) do much more real damage to our songbird population than the much-maligned Pica pica. A "one-for-sorrow" attitude to magpies still prevails - not too far removed from the mentality which allowed women to be burned alive as witches or because they had been taken by the fairies. - Yours, etc.,
Kieran Fitzpatrick, Redford Park, Greystones, Co Wicklow.