Sir, - Some years ago visitors to this country used to refer to the "Irish mile", a measure which either exceeded or foreshortened an actual mile depending on the whim of the sign-maker.
I recently experienced what can only be described as the "DART minute", a measure of time based, perhaps, on an unknown twist in the laws of relativity.
Waiting for a train at Lansdowne Station last Friday, I was advised by the electronic display that it would arrive in seven minutes. Then two minutes and 22 seconds elapsed before the arrival time changed to six minutes. The next three "DART minutes" lasted 96 seconds, 61 seconds and a racy 38 seconds respectively!
Perhaps Dr Stephen Hawking should return to the Ballsbridge area, where he once gave a talk on quantum physics, and study these interesting anomalies in the space/time continuum. - Yours, etc.,
Colm Doherty, Blackrock, Co Dublin.