That’s Ireland

Just to recap: I wrote a prank letter to Albert Reynolds when he was Taoiseach, about the very silly concept of dogbowls modelled as dinner plates. He wrote back that he would check with the IDA about it. I then wrote to the head of the IDA, who wrote back to me. Now here is what happened next:

• The Taoiseach’s office wrote to the IDA, enclosing a copy of my letter to him.
• The IDA wrote back to the Taoiseach, enclosing a copy of his letter to me.
• The Taoiseach’s office wrote again to me, enclosing a copy of the letter from the IDA to the Taoiseach telling the Taoiseach that the IDA had written to me.

Ah, the wonders of democracy. Here are those letters: >>>

Letter from the Taoiseach’s Office to Me

Dear John,

In the absence of the Taoiseach, Mr Albert reynolds TD, who is abroad at present on Government business, I enclose herewith a letter received from Mr Kieran McGowan, Managing Director, Industrial Development Authority of Ireland, in response to representations the Taoiseach made on your behalf.

The Taoiseach hopes that this clarifies the matter for you.

Yours sincerely,
Jim Stafford,
Private Secretary to the Taoiseach

Enclosed Letter from Head of the IDA to Taoiseach

Dear Taoiseach,

I refer to the note from Mr Jim Stafford of 10 march regarding the letter you received from Mr John Mackay.

I have also received a letter from Mr mackay and have attached, for your information, a copy of my reply.

Mr Mackay is not planning to manufacture the dogbowls himself. He is primarily interested in ascertaining the viability of producing the dogbowls and also of seeing if we can identify any company that would manufacture them on his behalf.

The best way forward is for one of my colleagues to meet with Mr Mackay and go through all the possible options. To this end I have arranged for Mr Colm MacFhionnlaoich to contact Mr Mackay to arrange a meeting.

Yours sincerely,
Kieran McGowan,
Managing Director, IDA

More Prank Dogbowl Letters

And there’s still lots more to come over the coming days!