Madam, - I never envisaged being ashamed of the university of which I am a graduate, as I now am at the news of the discontinuation of Trinity's superb full-time acting course (The Irish Times, January 17th).
According to the source quoted, the college authorities believe this course "is not financially viable". I should have thought that those who make such decisions would take the civilised collegial approach that enables financially weaker schools or departments to subsist alongside those which are better placed to obtain funds from, for example, commercial or industrial sources.
Those in control of the money in Trinity have clearly rejected the notion of subsidiarity. An ethos of philistinism - surely abhorrent to most foundations concerned with the education of the young - appears to prevail, by which I mean that there is an apparent inability to recognise the worth of a minority discipline which substantially illuminates national (and indeed world) culture.
Graduates of the Samuel Beckett Centre in TCD have, since 1984, contributed to the theatre, film and broadcasting professions at home and abroad to an extent far beyond what might be expected from their numbers. Congratulations to the Gaiety School of Acting on its initiative to create a course at Dublin City University which may help to fill the space left vacant by the yobbish attitude of Trinity.
I hope, however, the latter may reconsider its myopic decision. - Yours, etc,
CHRISTOPHER FITZ-SIMON, Richmond Hill, Monkstown, Co Dublin.