Irish farmers receive €1.2bn in grants each year.

I am invariably shocked reading the Sri Lankan denial stories, one of which you elected to publish. (Re: Sri Lanka hits out at UN civil war report).

The failure of EU leaders to agree on a budgetary strategy is ominous for Ireland’s economic future.

I was present at a recent meeting at St. Patrick’s, Upton, Co Cork, where we were informed that this institution and others which care for the most vulnerable people in the country are being constantly subjected to cuts on State allowances, and the recent ones make it very difficult to make ends meet.

Last Saturday, Nov 24, over 20,000 people turned up to a magnificent pre-budget anti-austerity demonstration in Dublin.

My wife and I just received our UK Christmas bonus of £100 each on our old age pensions from Britain. Eat your heart out Joan Burton.

I recently availed of the Irish Pension Board’s pension calculator, which is widely advertised on the internet, to do some analysis.

I read your article on stroke politics (Nov 26) and suggest you re-examine your own pragmatism.

So the inevitable has happened and it is our fault.

My abiding memory of Larry Hagman was when, at the height of his Dallas fame and fortune in the early 1980s, one of Dublin’s great “Madmen”, Don O’Connell of Doherty Advertising, which had the Health Education Bureau account at the time, persuaded Mr Hagman to appear in one of the most memorable and effective anti-smoking commercials of that era.