Madam, - Now they are arguing in Dáil Éireann whether it is appropriate or not to study and enjoy Cathal Ó Searcaigh's superb poetry. Maybe some faceless committee will come up with an answer. It wouldn't do to leave the decision to teachers - or pupils. What would they know?
When you think about it, it might be safest to get rid of all poetry, once and for all. Or how about a sanitised poetry created by machines? We have the technology. What's stopping us?
By the way, how many TDs who think Ó Searcaigh should be expunged from school texts have actually read him? Have they studied his latest outstanding volume Gúrú i gClúidíní? It is reviewed by the undersigned on the website of the publisher, Cló Iar-Chonnachta.
Shaman poet Galsan Tschinag in his Defence of Poetry (Poetry International Web, 1999) made a chilling prophecy when he said that as civilisation advances, people suffering from the madness that is poetic sensibility are less and less tolerated. "Defence of poetry thus means," he says, "defence of humanity." - Yours, etc,
GABRIEL ROSENSTOCK, Gleann na gCaorach, Co Átha Cliath.