Madam, - I write to express my dismay at the news that the Chair of Old Irish at University College, Dublin, is to be abolished, with the consequence that the subject is downgraded to the point where it is no longer possible to get an undergraduate degree in Old Irish at that institution.
The importance of the study of Old Irish for those wishing to understand the history and culture of Ireland is plain. For the leading academic institution in Ireland to turn its back on this fundamental aspect of the country's history and culture is simply astonishing.
In my view, such a decision cannot be defended on narrow grounds of short-term cost and provision of resources. When the study of an ancient language is abandoned, the history and culture embodied in that language is soon lost to posterity.
Surely this is not what the administration at UCD intends as the consequence of the recent decision. I would therefore urge that every effort be made to reconsider this move, and to reinstate the study of Old Irish to degree level. University administrators have a broader responsibility than merely rationalising resources; they must also take the broader cultural context of their decisions into consideration. - Yours, etc,
IAN G. ROBERTS, Professor of Linguistics, University of Cambridge, England.