The lost art of letter writing

Sir, – The contributions from Fiona Daly and Tony Corcoran (Letters. February 3rd and 4th) on the lost art of letter writing are most appropriate.

Having grown up at a time when many Irish households did not have telephones, I learned at a very young age that writing, receiving and answering letters was a vital, practical part of exchanging information before it was a pleasure.

Decades later, I am most grateful to have in my archives letters from my relatives and friends who are no longer with us, written in their own very distinctive and recognisable handwriting and in a wide variety of emotions and moods.

In the age of the mobile telephone and social media, it is all too easy to forget that much of what we learn from history is drawn from diaries and letters. Biographies, in particular, would be much shorter without either. In the white heat of the Treaty negotiations in London in 1921 even Michael Collins found time to dash off letters to a range of correspondents.

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When delving into the current age on what shall future historians base their analyses and comments? Shall they have access to SMS and Facebook messages exchanged, videos shared and emails dispatched and received many years previously? And even if they can be recovered, shall any of these provide an insight similar to that found in letters? – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN O’SULLIVAN,

Paris.

Sir, – I will remember my sister’s first letter home from London in the 1960s. No “St Anthony Guide” (Letters, February 4th) on the back of the envelope from this aspiring nursing student. Instead the following was printed in bold letters: “Postman, Postman don’t be slow, be like Elvis – go man go!”

Mother was not impressed! – Yours, etc,

MARY O’CONNOR,

Fermoy,

Co Cork.