Sir, - I was surprised and disappointed with The Irishman's Diary in your issue of September 17th, which dealt with the alleged incompetence of women drivers. Whether the piece was written provocatively and tongue-in-cheek, or was meant to be taken seriously, it will have left a bad taste in many mouths, both male and female.
Kevin Myers presents as a "scientifically demonstrable truth that the most incompetent, discourteous, unseeing and stupidest [sic] drivers on the road are invariably women". Having made this assertion, he fails to present any scientific or statistical evidence to support it. In fact his argument contains a glaring non sequitur, namely: "Of course, men cause most accidents; but for bad driving women take the blooming biscuit." The logic inherent in this is that better drivers are a greater danger on the roads than bad drivers - surely not in accordance with scientific evidence or with plain common sense.
Apart from the absence of any tangible evidence to support his argument, Mr Myers weakens his case further through gross exaggeration:
"women invariably worse drivers than men" (my italics);
"women driving in the fast lane at 25 m.p.h. (my italics);
"women parking as if they were docking the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower";
- all good for a laugh, of course, but at what price to the argument?
The case is discredited further through the use of some offensive language and imagery. That a journalist of some standing should refer to a woman driver as "a witless cow" and refer to her "bovine eyelid" - even in tasteless jest - is disturbing. That The Irish Times should publish such material is even more disturbing. Readers of The Irish Times expect and deserve better from a quality newspaper. - Yours, etc.,
Patrick Boland, Fremont Drive, Bishopstown, Cork.