Fergus Finlay’s loyalty to his former colleagues is admirable . . . to a point! (Irish Examiner, July 14).

I see one can now travel 90 kilometres per hour on approximately 60% of the route from Dublin to Wexford due to motorway and dual carriageway.

It does seem surprising, shortsighted and potentially counter-productive for the South African Embassy in Ireland to contemplate diplomatic immunity as a defence in the case of the domestic employee of its former charges d’affaires involved in the alleged ‘slave labour’ row at the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

With regard to Fianna Fáil’s bill on variable rate mortgages the following should be noted. They are not proposing that the Central Bank should intervene ( not interfere which has connotations of sticking your nose in where you shouldn’t) on the question of variable rate mortgages.

Having read your excellent balanced article on the city and county council mergers I note that Fianna Fáil deputy, Michael McGrath has no desire to see Cork become an ‘urban sprawl at the expense of an identifiable city centre core’.

Now that the operation of one local authority for Cork is being considered, the first item on the agenda has to be the removal of the chicane at Inchigaggin bridge on the Model Farm Road where the city and county authorities have drawn their border.

The terrorists/jihadists/fundamentalists identified with so-called Islamic State sank to a new low, a new level of depravity, when, as a training exercise, they booby-trapped a baby, an orphan.

I was thrilled to get my new and long-awaited Eircode in the post this morning. No more problems sending coordinates to my far flung friends and relatives to feed into their sat-navs.

I wish to express my thanks to various members of Iarnrod Eireann staff.

Once again a platform is afforded to one of your columnists – Ms. Suzanne Harrington in this case – to put before us, with increasingly smug insouciance, a virtual litany of evasions and half truths attempting to justify in the name of “progress” and “compassion” the barbarism that is abortion.