Sir, - The Letters page of The Irish Times has never wanted for prim admonitions from those exercised by notions of correctness in speech and writing. The excoriation of RT╔ presenters by Victor Feldman (November 16th), however, marks a new nadir of facile snobbishness.
The "th" sound to which Mr Feldman refers is simply not present in some dialects of Irish English. This is a result of the natural evolution of spoken language and is no more to be lamented than the curious inability of speakers of British Received Pronunciation (or "BBC English") to give voice to the terminal "r". Whatever about teachers of "speech and drama", modern linguistics has no truck with the concept of "correct" pronunciation and grants no precedence to the features of any single dialect.
For one, I am of the opinion that our national broadcaster should provide greater representation of the richness of our dialects, from Donegal to Dingle. God forbid that this natural diversity should ever be homogenised by "speech coaching" and its na∩ve and anachronistic obsession with gentility. - Yours, etc.,
Paraic O'Donnell, Herbert Park, Bray, Co Wicklow.