Madam, - I read with much interest Anthony Garvey's Irishman's Diary of December 28th, followed by Dr Una Hunt's letter of January 5th concerning the profile of Percy French in modern Ireland.
Perhaps the situation is not quite so negative as Dr Hunt suggests. Our Percy French Society Concert Party has given some 50 concerts in the form of musical theatre all over Ireland in the past 10 years. We have enjoyed full houses at venues as far apart as the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, the Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen, the Market Place Theatre, Armagh and the Arts Centre Theatre, Roscommon.
We have been part of the Waterford Festival of Light Opera and, on a number of occasions, the Belfast Festival at Queen's University. We plan to return to Galway in August this year.
Our Concert Party is an important development by the Percy French Society established in North Down in 1983 with the late Brendan O'Dowda as president. Nowadays the society has a membership of 200 and meets for evenings of entertainment each month. Our collection of paintings and 800 items of memorabilia is cared for by the North Down Heritage Centre in Bangor.
Meanwhile, Percy French societies and interested groups have emerged in Roscommon, Dublin (where the late John Roche performed regularly at the National Concert Hall), Galway, Ballyjamesduff (Cavan County Museum), Vancouver in Canada and Formby in Lancashire, where Percy French is buried. We plan to celebrate 25 years of success in May 2008 with a reception by North Down Council, an exhibition, a musical based on French's life, a memorial dinner with cabaret and, we hope, other events as well.
While these achievements have been accomplished mainly on a voluntary basis, the points made by Anthony Garvey and Dr Una Hunt are entirely valid. All these groups need more official recognition as an important part of our heritage (especially from the tourist boards) with real financial support as well as major sponsorships . - Yours, etc,
BERRIE O'NEILL, Sydenham Avenue, Belfast 4.