Madam, - The photograph in Wednesday's edition of a hooded person attending the Irish Rural Dwellers Association protest outside Kerry County Council offices represents a new low for The Irish Times. The person depicted is not a member of the organisation and his appearance in Tralee was as much a shock as it was unwelcome to the organisation.
To highlight the image is in my view an outright attempt to drag down the honourable name of the IRDA.
We have organised three large conferences on planning, as well as holding dozens of public meetings throughout Ireland involving thousands of people in the past few years, and it was utterly disproportionate and reprehensible of The Irish Timesto jump on the opportunity presented by this lone, unwelcome figure for the sake of cheap anti-rural sensationalism. Given the oft-repeated anti-rural-housing position of your environmental editor Frank McDonald, I am not very surprised, but I am bitterly disappointed by this latest "low life" effort by The Irish Times.
Neither will I be surprised if this letter suffers the same fate as a few others I have written in recent years - ie, the bin. - Yours, etc,
JIM CONNOLLY, Acting Secretary, Irish Rural Dwellers Association, Kilbaha, Kilrush, Co Clare.