I MUST concur with Mark Steele (Letters, October 12) when he says Transport Minister Noel Dempsey has “lost the plot”.

I WONDER if your columnist Steven King has any idea of just how offensive was his column (October 6) on the US Tea Party?

GIVEN that both Anthony Leavy and I have made clear our complete support for the visit of Queen Elizabeth in previous correspondence, I was surprised Declan Doyle should accuse us (Letters, July 24) of “stupid nationalism” as part of a long and completely unjustified diatribe against us.

I AM pleased to note that Seamus Kearney (Letters, July 14) no longer objects to a visit from Queen Elizabeth next year. However, if his earlier objection (Letters, June 25) to her visit on the grounds that her great-great-grandmother visited here in 1861 does not constitute “digging up the past”, then I have no idea what this phrase means.

ACCORDING to Declan Doyle (Letters, June 28), the Catholic Church made this a “far more oppressive society than the fantasy Oliver Cromwell ever did”.

IT seems Seamus Kearney (Letters, June 25) objects to Queen Elizabeth’s visit on the extraordinary grounds that it would coincide with the 150th anniversary of a visit paid here by Queen Victoria in 1861.

YOUR columnist Steven King’s self-proclaimed pro-Americanism must be of a very shallow kind indeed if it can be undermined by the results of a single poll on which he largely based his column and which he later admitted was flawed in its methodolgy and execution (‘America’s political wingnuts create an ugly mood of fear and loathing’, April 14).

IN his letter (March 20), Jason FitzHarris seems to conflate what the Catholic Church “thinks” with what particular members of the clergy or hierarchy think or do.

I CANNOT let Linda Kelly’s knee-jerk response (‘When condoms are not on a plate’, Letters, September 12) to Sister Annunciate Forde go without comment.

I WOULD like to thank Dr Sandra McAvoy (Letters, December 2) for bringing the August 2008 report by the American Psychological Association (APA) to my attention.

SO Alison McCulloch (Letters, November 17) believes there is no connection between abortion and suicide risk.

ACCORDING to Denis McMahon, (Letters, August 30), Senator Joe Biden was one of only two US senators to write a letter of support for a stamp commemorating Wexford-born Commodore John Barry.

SINCE Sarah Palin has been chosen as John McCain’s running mate she has been subjected to the most personal and unwarranted attacks regarding her private life and family.

I READ with interest Oliver Broderick’s letter of July 28th in which he pointed out Barack Obama’s extreme pro-abortion record.

YOUR editorial on Castro was appalling (February 20). You say de Valera, Lemass, Lynch, Cosgrave, Haughey, FitzGerald, Reynolds and Bruton “all came and went, proposed policies, lost elections and changed their country for better or worse, and all the while Cuba’s leader of nearly half a century endured”.

DIARMAID FERRITER’S column headlined ‘American hero who threatens to wound a whole New generation’ (February 7) lambasted John McCain. Since when did you engage writers who could be from the Obama and Clinton campaigns to write opinion pieces?

IN the week that Joe Rea died, you published a letter (July 4) complaining about a “divisive” remark he once made.

THIS is a little beauty — plain and simple.

IN his column (Irish Examiner, April 22), Ryle Dwyer cannot “understand the mentality” of those who had difficulties with Fr Iggy O’Donovan’s invitation to Rev Michael Graham to concelebrate Mass on Easter Sunday.

EDWARD HORGAN (‘Irish clergy’s silence on Iraq is inexcusable’ (Irish Examiner letters, February 14) presumes to lecture the Irish clergy for not preaching on the morality of the Iraq war.

THE feature article by Fr Brian D’Arcy on priestly celibacy (Irish Examiner, January 27) was one of the most disingenuous I have ever read on that topic.

THOMAS HERLIHY (Irish Examiner letters, January 23) thinks the whole of Africa cannot support a cattle herd of 15 million.

EVELYN CLEARY (Irish Examiner Letters, September 16) says she received an anonymous letter from a cowardly religious crank, criticising her for her views on abortion.

ALEX MARSHALL (Irish Examiner letters, September 5) makes a number of remarks to which I feel compelled to respond.