I REFER to Michael Clifford's article last Sunday on the visit of Bob Dylan to play Dublin and Belfast concerts. He arrived in Dublin on Thursday morning, 5 May 1966, with the concert that evening at The Adelphi. Besides The Irish Times review, the Evening Herald of Friday 6 May, reviewed the concert with the headline, 'Wolf Tones walk out of Dylan concert', and proceeded to talk about people booing and slow-hand clapping, with no real talk about the main point, the songs themselves.

At the time, it never made any sense to me, why these people paid money to see Dylan at all, and why they were so shocked by the format of the concert. It had been well documented that Dylan had moved well beyond the narrow confines of the folk/protest genre. There was Newport July '65, then the concerts in Forest Hills and Hollywood in August '65, where the acoustic/band formula started. Dylan had not made a full acoustic album in two years; and his output at this time, particularly Highway 61 Revisited (October '65), was pure rock dominated by guitar/drums.

It seems obvious that those people who booed had not been following his career and were locked into some view of Dylan, the folk-singer, something that Dylan himself had moved light years away from by the time he got to The Adelphi in May '66.

The concert in the Adelphi remains one of the greatest concerts of all time and was so far ahead of anything at the time that it has taken nearly 40 years for people to realise the significance of the event.

Two days later, 7 May, '66, The Who played in The National Stadium. Forty years on, both Dylan and The Who are playing in Ireland this summer; who would have believed that, back in May 1966?

Bill Colman, Stillorgan Wood, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.

Monaghan brollies 'excellent product' From John Scully

IN A report (News, 16 April) about the sale of umbrellas by the Monaghan Supporters Club at the National Football League game between Monaghan and Cork, your journalist, Conor McMorrow, insinuated that the Monaghan Supporters Club were taking advantage of GAA supporters attending the match by selling umbrellas at the game for a rip-off price of 40. He also implied that this was done deliberately on the day because it was raining. The tone of this piece discredited the Monaghan Supporters Club.

This game was the fourth time that the umbrellas were on sale at our home NFL matches and to date there has not been one official complaint. We are about to reorder a second consignment. The umbrellas were purchased by myself and our county committee chairman (John Connolly) on the basis that they were an excellent and attractive product, durable and able to withstand the elements without breakage, they are finished in great detail and portray our county crest with distinction.

They can be used for many events and are more than twice the size of your normal commodity. This would be obvious to your reporter if he had the product in his hand but he chose to make his judgment at a distance, which is unusual for any prospective purchaser.

The only comments he made to the person attending the table was to ask the price of the umbrella, not once but three times and he eventually got a curt answer. Maybe it was this incident that influenced his thoughts on the matter.

Monaghan Supporters Club

PRO expressed a personal opinion on the matter and did not represent the thoughts or decisions of the meetings of the committee, he had no brief to make the statement to your paper without consultation.

Also, Mr McMorrow's estimate of the attendance was far from 10,000, and it was not raining when home fans arrived at Castleblayney.

I suspect that you like to think that you offer your readers something special, maybe quality or excellence or superiority and I respect that you do so without the suggestion of a rip-off. We, too, stand by the product on sale and will continue to sell our quality merchandise despite the adverse publicity and damage created by you.

Nobody has accused us of ripping off fans as stated and I am sure that the genuine Monaghan supporter will continue to support our players and hold his head high, with or without an umbrella.

Sean Scullaigh, Coiste Chontae Mhuineachain, Carraig Mhachaire Rois, Co Muineachain.

Sharing with the marginalised From Tim O'Sullivan

I AGREE with Diarmaid O Grainne's defence of Fr Peter McVerry, who is well recognised as a champion of the homeless in a country awash with money and luxuries which they are being denied just because they live in the inner city. I have great admiration for this priest who has done tremendous work for those shunned by society because they are economically and socially on the margins of Irish society in the 21st century.

Perhaps his critics could learn from this marvellous priest about Christian charity towards those who have no chance whatsoever of sharing the world of the Celtic Tiger.

Tim O'Sullivan, Marian Place, Cahirciveen, Co Kerry.

Setting the Home Rule record straight From DR O'Connor Lysaght I AM flattered that Maurice O'Connell (Letters, 7 May) regards me as "the doyen of Irish Left historiography."

However, I cannot allow my pleasure to interfere with the need to set his record straight.

The fact that a unionistdominated government was prepared to grant a limited measure of Home Rule in 1920 does not mean that that party would have been ready to do so in 1916.

What changed in the following four years was that the Irish people, voting in the most democratic general election the country had ever experienced, declared their aspirations went beyond Home Rule, and dominion status, envisaging a republic. It was then that unionism had to recognise that its cause was dead; it could pretend no longer that Irish nationalism was somehow unrepresentative of the real feelings of the majority. There was to be no negotiation with the elected leaders of the majority of Irish nationalists, only a truncated form of the Home Rule that this majority had made clear that it regarded as inadequate, enforced by increased repression.

Home Rule may not have been dead in 1916. It was certainly in a critical condition and there is no reason to suppose that the strategy that the Irish party had followed since the fall of Parnell could have resuscitated it.

DR O'Connor Lysaght, Clanawley Road, Dublin 5. (this correspondence is now closed)

Pilot defends airline safety measures From Ray Yeates

I AM a professional pilot and currently captain of an Airbus aircraft. I also have experience of other manufacturers' types. I am used to reading illinformed and sensational articles in the trashier newspapers about aviation but I am disappointed that your newspaper has now joined in.

"Aer Lingus is to go ahead with the purchase of two Airbus long-haul aircraft despite two serious incidents involving Airbus planes last week, one involving a fatal crash in Russia and another catching fire as it landed at Dublin airport.

"Ninety-seven passengers on board an Iberia airlines flight from Barcelona had to be evacuated via the emergency chutes after a power unit on board the Airbus 300 plane caught fire as it came in to land at Dublin airport last Wednesday. Fire services and ambulances chased the plane as it landed and the airport was shut down for an hour." The same auxiliary power unit is used on Boeing and other types. I don't really think that ambulances and fire engines chase aeroplanes.

"Earlier on the same day, an Armenian Airbus 320 aircraft crashed into the Black Sea off the Russian coast, killing all 113 people on board. The aircraft, which was on a short one-hour journey from the Armenian capital of Yerevan, had initially been refused permission to land at Sochi in Russia because of torrential rain. Airport officials then changed their minds but the plane crashed on its second attempt to land." There is no evidence at this stage that there was anything mechanically wrong with the aeroplane. Weather may be a primary factor in the accident but let's wait for the accident investigation to be completed.

"On top of the two accidents last week, the US National Transport Safety Board last year ordered detailed rudder inspections of over 100 European-made Airbus aircraft after the rudder of a Canadian passenger jet nearly fell off while in flight." Ongoing inspections and modification of all aircraft types are what makes aviation the safe industry that it is.

Also, just last week, the Airline Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) in Ireland published details of another near-fatal incident in June 2004 in which the engine of a 12-year-old Airbus A330 en route from Dublin to New York caught fire two minutes after take-off. Don't quite know what a near fatal incident is. The aircraft is a twin engined aeroplane that is certified to fly and land on a single engine. Pilots practice this in a simulator on a bi-annual basis. That is exactly what happened in this incident and the AAIU report makes no safety recommendations for the A330 as a result of the investigation.

Ray Yeates, rayyeates@gmail. com