Madam, - Mr David Burke of Tuam (August 19th) is correct: the spelling of patrimoine was incorrectly given as "patrimonie" in my Irishman's Diary of August 13th.
As I trust he'll allow, it is not so much a spelling error as a typing error, involving merely the transposition of two side-by-side letters, which is easily done when typing; as it happens, not even a French acquaintance of mine happened to notice it. The fault does not lie with any sub-editor but with me, as I wrote the piece and the duty lay with me to do the checking. I can only offer the rather lame excuse that I was travelling at the time.
My apologies to France. It won't happen again. - Yours, etc,
FRED JOHNSTON, Carn Ard, Circular Road, Galway.