Trying to get guests to go home (Letters, 6 October)? No problem in lots of Irish homes years ago. Simply start to frantically search for spare rosary beads, expressing the number of visitors you need them for, and then start moving chairs around in preparation for the rosary. Usually worked.
Siobhán Ní Chuanaigh
Dublin, Ireland
• My father would bring a sociable evening to a close by quietly getting up from his chair and saying: “I’d better go and let the cat out.” There followed the sound of the front door opening and shutting. We never had a cat.
Caroline Alexander
Shoreham, Kent
