Despite all our affluence, poverty and illiteracy are still flourishing

WHILE supping a nice pint of stout during the week, I was startled by the landlady who had been quietly reading the newspaper.

Suddenly she slapped it on the counter, looked up and, with an air of disbelief, demanded to know: “Is it true that almost a quarter of the people of Ireland can’t read?”

The truth of what she had just read she found hard to grasp.