Sir, - Leaving aside the dire prognostications about the demise of Irish (An Irishman's Diary, December 15th), I must take Kevin Myers to task over his comment about "the mysterious argot of Ferns and Bargey". Wexford folk in general will be puzzled to learn that Ferns has or had "a mysterious argot". The erstwhile capital of Leinster had many assets, some of which, dating from Celtic times, are still being discovered. But "an argot"? Never.
I think Mr Myers is confusing Ferns with Forth, and "Bargey" with Bargy - the two southern baronies which certainly had a dialect all their own. But its "mystery" has long since been dissipated, especially as a result of the research and study of Diarmaid O Muirithe and T.P. Dolan, who concluded that the dialect, or Yola, was "a conservative kind of English" leavened by Norman-French, Flemish and Irish, which survived from the time of the Cambro-Norman invasion in the 12th century until the middle of the 19th century.
Mr Myers needn't be afeard that a fair chi of unket words do be used and understhoane in Foorth and Bargy to this daay. - Yours, etc.,
Richard Roche, Kincora Avenue, Dublin 3.