I WAS interested in the article, in your issue of 28 January 2007 by Shane Coleman concerning the proposed removal of an advertisement for toothpaste because it featured a dentist who may be a candidate for the PDs in Dublin in the forthcoming general election.

My interest was increased when I noticed that towards the end of the article my own experience in this area was evoked.

I did indeed have difficulties with RT�? in the run up to the last election. A very considerable time before the election was even announced, a series, which had been a long time in gestation without much assistance from RT�?, had its showing aborted on the alleged basis it might favour me in the election. This was despite the fact that, even had the entire series been shown, it would have been over before the election was announced. This was in contrast to previous behaviour by RT�? and I believed, and still do, that there was an element of spite involved in this decision.

This was compounded when I discovered that my two sitting colleagues and virtually every other candidate were given open access to radio and TV programmes, including political discussion fora, where they endlessly discussed their senate campaigns, while mysteriously I was left out of this golden circle.

It was one of the most halfwitted decisions I have ever come across and naturally I wrote a detailed case, first of all to the responsible authorities in RT�? and then, when I got no satisfaction whatever, to the RT�? Complaints Commission.

Well, I needn't have bothered there either.

My letter disappeared for a long time into thin air after a formal acknowledgement and then, without any probing of my side of the case, I got a judgement. Guess what? RT�? had been right all along and I, the complainant, was out of step. I received no substantial argument explaining why this was.

I still cannot understand why a cultural programme, with no political side to it whatever, which would have ended before the election was announced, had to be taken off the air while my colleagues were given free rein. As you can imagine, I sympathise with Keith Redmond. We are surrounded by cautious bureaucrats.

There must be something in toothpaste. It obviously makes officials very nervous. I had a rolled-up, squeezed-out tube of toothpaste removed from me some weeks ago while taking an internal flight from Cork to Dublin. As I said to the authorities at the time, what the hell did they expect me to do with the toothpaste, burst into the cabin and squirt it all over the pilot. These days you never know. Lunacy is everywhere!

David Norris, Seanad �?ireann, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

NDP is cold comfort for commuters

Sunday Tribune by Claire Byrne on the quality of people's lives and commuting, I have to commiserate with her.

I am one of the fortunate people who works in the area they live in. Over 14 years in north Co Wicklow, I have seen the commuter belt of development sprawl further and further out of the city with people having to commute longer and longer distances.

Byrne is right that the new National Development Plan will give cold comfort to commuters. Indeed, the new plan is not a new plan but an old one dressed up, and it will be more of the same.

Councillors don't listen to people when they talk about quality of life but they listen to developers when they talk about rezoning!

Evelyn Cawley, Creeslough, Upr Kindlestown, Delgany, Co Wicklow.

Has Enda Kenny had a change of heart?

ENDA KENNY wants a debate on immigration. Is this the same Enda Kenny who, as leader of Fine Gael, told a racist anecdote at a party function?

Robert Rooney, Opal Gardens, University of Manchester.

Jumping the Irish hurdles of ID change

EVEN though I don't speak Irish, I recently decided to start using the Irish form of my name. To that end, I started looking into ways of changing my official identification information to reflect the Irish form of my identity. My birth certificate, driver's licence, bank account and passport were the first documents that I tried to change. Imagine my surprise when I found the weight of officialdom against me.

The first hurdle I encountered was my birth certificate. It seems that unless you were registered in Irish at birth, it is impossible to get a copy of your birth certificate in Irish. Surely in this day and age, it is possible to provide Irish forms of our birth certificates. Many parents were unaware that they had the option of registering their child's birth in Irish or were told that they could only register their children's birth in English.

My next hurdle was the passport office. I need to be able to prove that I have been using the Irish form of my name for two years before I can get a passport in our first official language. To prove this, I will need to produce documents with my name in Irish.

Hurdle number three. I went to the bank (Bank of Ireland) only to be told that they won't change my account information until I produce some form of official ID in Irish. What kind of official document do they want to see? A passport, of course.

Hurdle number four. The driving licence situation ditto; needs another form of ID in Irish.

It's a vicious circle; you can't get a passport without ID and you can't get ID without a passport. So much for the government's recent declaration that they want Ireland to be a bilingual society, when the civil service and Irish institutions are doing all they can to sabotage attempts by Irish citizens to express our national identity. I can't wait until the canvassers from the main political parties come to my door looking for a vote.

Attack on Fogarty had its own inaccuracies

CAPACITY of Stradey Park: 10,800. Capacity of Thomond Park: 12,000. It is not only Fogarty got his facts wrong. If you are to allow your letters page to be used to attack someone, surely you have responsibility to see that such attacks are reasonably accurate.

Tim Murphy, tadgomurcu@eircom. net Poll shows sick society against murder victim WE ARE proving once again how sick our society has become if 65% of the population agree that the acquittal of Padraig Nally for the murder of John Ward is correct, as in the poll in the Sunday Tribune (21 January).

Over 100 years ago, JM Synge wrote the play, The Playboy of the Western World, in which a man boasted about the killing of his father, and was lauded by the community as a hero; when the play was shown it caused riots. It would now seem that when someone is actually killed, the riots would be against the victim or a fellow traveller.

The poll does explain the total silence of politicians in this whole sorry affair; they could see which way the wind was blowing. There was a time when some politicians would try to lead public opinion instead of cravenly pandering to it, especially as an election is due.

Charles Dickens wrote that "the law is an ass". In the Irish context, I would say 'donkey', except that I have too much respect for donkeys.

Jimmy Doherty, 10 Cloncha Avenue, Carndonagh, Co Donegal.

Larkin's anniversary deserved more

THIS week's 60th anniversary of the death of James Larkin deserved fuller media coverage.

'Big Jim' Larkin was the founding father of Irish trade unionism. His charismatic leadership inspired the struggle of the proletariat during the Dublin lock-out (1913).

Larkin's partnership with socialist republican James Connolly led to the establishment of the Irish Citizens' Army. The latter - in league with members of the Volunteers - struck for national liberation (1916).

J A Barnwell, 5 St Patrick's Road, Dublin 9.

Do you remember the Saipan furore?

I AM currently researching material for a television documentary on the near civil war we had in this country in May 2002 when Roy Keane was sent home from the World Cup. Part of this documentary examines the Republic of Ireland's history in the competition and its qualifying campaigns over the years.

I am really keen to hear from ordinary people who were extraordinarily affected in any way by the events of that particular week and, in particular, engaged in extraordinary activities, such as organising protests or boycotts, as a result of Keane's departure.

Joss Crowley, 20 Harcourt Green, Dublin 2.

joss@wildfirefilms. net