The early Irish believed bad judge­ments by the king or leader led to disasters such as famine, death, wars and inclement weather. Cormac Mac Airt became king of Tara when his predecessor gave a bad judgement and the sloping trenches began to collapse. Cormac stopped the slide by giving the correct ruling.

Since construction on the M3 began some 15 months ago our economy has collapsed, the banking system is endangered, unemployment is rising, the government coffers are empty, Brian lost the Lisbon vote, inflation keeps rising and it has rained non-stop for two summers.

How appropriate that one of the acronyms used in America for the solution to the current financial crisis is the Troubled Assets Relief Act, Tara (The Financial Times, 25 September 2008) while the original of the name is being destroyed by government-sponsored vandalism.

Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin,

Laurence Avenue,

Maynooth, Co Kildare.