Sir, - I rang Iarnrod Eireann's advance ticket sales office at 5.15 p.m. on April 1st, to be informed by a recorded message that the office was now closed and would re-open at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 6th. Undaunted, I then rang passenger telephone information at 8366222. Having spent 20 minutes listening to a honky-tonk version of "Carolan's Concerto" and frequent admonishments to hold on and I would be answered in rotation, I was cut off.
Is this the way to run a rail service on a bank holiday weekend - or was I an unwitting victim of an April Fool's joke? - Yours, etc.,
Louis O'Flaherty, Lorcan Drive, Santry, Dublin 9.