Sir, – It was a great treat to have an update on the current doings of Vinny Fitzpatrick, sometime bus driver and longtime resident of Clontarf ("Against the Odds", Sports, December 21st).
As a lifelong sportophobe, I had rarely looked regularly at the Sports section, until a Wednesday, some years ago, when I first came across this wonderful feature, with its heady mix of bus lore and fanatical sports enthusiasm.
I don’t think I missed a column from then until the feature was discontinued last summer, Sherlock Holmes-style, with several weeks of doubt as to whether our hero had survived a potentially terminal event, before the final revelation that he had lived to see, if not necessarily fight, another day.
So to the enigmatic, but perhaps not entirely unidentifiable Roddy L’Estrange, many thanks for the cliffhanging moments, as well as others of great emotion. The requiem for the No 10 route was a real tearjerker!
I hope we may encounter Vinny again, even intermittently, perhaps on transport occasions.
It’s too late for him to have been found wandering disoriented in the Phoenix Park tunnel when the new train service started, but I reckon he’s just the person to become embroiled in some adventure when the cross-city Luas starts. And how about an e-book of the best (or all) of Vinny down the years? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL J WALSH,
Glenageary, Co Dublin.