Sir, – I enjoyed Joe Humphreys’s interview with philosopher Brendan O’Donoghue (Unthinkable, Education, February 19th) and the description of the impact of O’Donoghue’s childhood bedroom door on his existential awakening. It is almost an analogy for that more imminent of existential departures: Brexit.
According to the immaterialism philosophy of the former Bishop of Cloyne, George Berkeley, as summed up by his motto "esse est percipi" (to be is to be perceived) it could be interpreted that in all reality Brexit, like O'Donoghue's childhood door, does not actually exist. Difficult to rationalise that notion, however, when your finger gets caught in the jam of the "door" closure that is fast approaching. – Yours, etc,
ROGER DERHAM
Forensic Physician,
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Barna,
Co Galway