Sir, - I wonder if it has ever dawned on those bowler-hatted gentlemen of the Royal Dublin Society that perhaps our President is not the kind of person who wishes to indulge in the pomposity and elitist behaviour that is so well practised within the RDS.
The Nation's Cup may be considered an Irish event, but in reality it's only a kind of an Irish event - one that is tinted with the red white and blue, with little relevance to modern Irish society.
It's an event where can be seen the oddity of men, in the height of summer, dressed in three-piece pinstriped suits, stiff collars and upper lips, bowler hats and umbrellas, prancing around those hallowed grounds of Dublin 4, putting on clipped English aristocratic accents. And they expect our President, with the background she comes from, to take the event and those who take part in it seriously.
I say we have a wise President who is her own person. She will conduct her Presidency as she sees fit and will not bow to the whims of pretentious, pseudo Irish men and women.
Let us hope she has set a new precedent of the President of Ireland not attending the Aga Khan Cup or any other event put on by this archaic and decaying organisation that calls itself the Royal Dublin Society. - Yours, etc., Jim Yates,
Cill Cais, Old Bawn, Dublin 24.