Sir, - In an American city on St Patrick's Day the local river is dyed green. A nice gesture. In Dublin on St Patrick's Day we did not have to bother as the Liffey was already a slimy green.
Along with thousands of others I watched a band playing on a barge moored between O'Connell Bridge and the Halfpenny Bridge. It was low tide. The smell was horrendous. Strewn along both sides of the river were shopping trolleys, traffic cones, metal barriers and other objects in various stages of decay. It was a disgrace. There was even a cast iron bath dumped right beside O'Connell Bridge. It is obvious that some of the items covered in slimy seaweed had been there for some time.
Expensive projects aimed at enhancing the Liffey, such as the proposed boardwalk, the new Millennium Bridge, the "Time in the Slime" have been undertaken in recent years. It is a shame that officials responsible for these plans have not included a systematic and regular clean-up of the river. It is clear that a lot of hard work and money went into this year's St Patrick's Day celebrations, but it's a pity that tourists and citizens alike were let down by the state of the Liffey. - Yours, etc.,
Alan Cooke, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.