Bertie found hiding in a cupboard

CRYOBIOLOGY still belongs to the realms of science fiction, although it has its followers in the US who wish to be frozen immediately after death in anticipation of possible future revival.

This idea hasn’t really taken off in Ireland, except in politics.

Your picture of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern enjoying a morning cuppa in “a cupboard” (October 4) is a delightful example. Since the Mahon Tribunal and all that Monty Pythonesque stuff about suitcases of cash, the former Taoiseach seemed to have become extinct, preserved in ice somewhere in our little island, never again to appear in the Dáil to utter the statesmanlike rhetoric that kept us riding the Celtic Tiger to exhaustion.

Lo and behold, on a stormy October day you were able to reassure us that all is well with Bertie Ahern as he grinned disarmingly at us from what is clearly not Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard.

We have already provided laughter for the audience of American comedian Jay Leno, but now laughter should be unconfined.

The former Taoiseach’s wit and charm is preserved in cyberspace so that generations as yet unborn can enjoy the sight of Bertie Ahern on YouTube when wondering whatever happened to the 21st century Atlantis, the little island on the western rim of Europe that had proclaimed its independence less than 300 years previously.

Maureen O’Donnell

Haig Gardens

Ballinlough

Cork