A chara, - I refer to John Waters's letter of November 28th, in which, inter alia, he responded to my letter of November 26th. It appears that my letter touched a very raw nerve, in that Mr Waters felt compelled to denounce my opinion as "extremely hostile, inaccurate and misleading". Mr Waters is apparently outraged at my describing his previous column as being vitriolic in tone. Well, I reiterate my opinion: it was vitriolic and similar ire was contained in his pugnacious response to my letter.
What I wrote simply represents my opinion. As far as inaccuracies are concerned, I merely quoted directly from the columns to which I referred, so I fail to see how I could have misled anybody.
Mr Waters acknowledges that, as an Irish Times journalist who writes an opinion column, he should be prepared to take what he calls "the rough with the smooth". Clearly Mr Waters cannot do this, as evidenced by his seeming inability to cope with an opinion at variance with his own and, in the case of my co-respondent Mr Delaney, in his inability to take a simple joke. - Is mise,
Nicola Sheehan, The Northumberlands, Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2.