Sir, - I have read with much interest the views on O'Duffy and Mac Liammoir from Denis Staunton (November 2nd), Donal Taylor Black and Richard Pine (November 3rd), and Molly O'Duffy (November 4th).
There is an increasing tendency "in the public interest" to attack the character of historical figures who can no longer speak for themselves.
The silent majority of your readers, I am certain, deplores the kind of gratuitous invasion of the private lives of individuals, based on acknowledged gossip ("rumour") and hearsay. Writers would not dare go into print and publishers would tremble at the probable consequences if the victims were still alive.
Facts are sacred and comment is free, is a maxim that has long guided conscientious journalists. Unhappily, society at large has need of a code of ethics to protect from trial by media the vulnerable dead, not least the patriot policeman Eoin O'Duffy.
The mistakes he made in the political maelstroms of the 1930s, whatever they were, are another matter. - Yours, etc., Gregory Allen,
Upper Kilmacud Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin.