Urban and rural are poles apart

YOUR backpage picture (May 1) was captioned ‘Poles apart: telephone poles in a field of maize near New Ross, Co Wexford’.

A more appropriate caption would have been: ‘Urban people are poles apart from their rural counterparts’.

It is obvious no research went into this caption; in fact the only thing that was accurate, presumably, was the location.

Anyone with a degree of commonsense should have realised the poles shown were in fact ESB poles carrying three cables. Telephone poles are much lower and carry only one cable.

The second inaccuracy was the reference to the field of maize. With such importance now placed on renewable energy, did it not dawn on anyone in the Irish Examiner to ask what was growing in the field? It was of course oilseed rape — not maize. Oilseed rape is being grown in ever greater quantities here now for the production of biodiesel.

Your failure to identify the crop embarrassed country people and showed urban pleas for a greener Ireland to be false if your urban staff cannot tell the difference between maize and oilseed rape. It proves urban people do not care where their energy supply comes from as long as they have a constant source.

Brian Murphy

Killura House

Mallow

Co Cork