Ms Maeve Donovan:

Of course. My job was to head them off at the pass. I have lost count of the number of times over the years that various people from all walks of life and strands of business would contact me complaining about various aspects of the paper. It could be content, positioning, price or any one of a range of factors. In truth, where content was concerned my response essentially would be to listen. A lot of people simply wanted to vent and decided "I am going to ring The Irish Timesand give them hell". It was to my desk that they came.