Madam, – May I make a small amendment to Fintan O'Toole's excellent appreciation of the late Mick Lally (Life & Culture, September 1st)? He is not, I think, quite right when he writes that "Lally was never likely to be cast as anything other than a rural Irishman." In the early 1970s Mick played the title role in an Irish translation of my Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, directed by Eamonn Draper at An Taibhdhearc Na Gaillimhe. He gave a towering portrayal of an archetypical British Army NCO, who may or may not have been born in the Irish countryside, but who was so enrapt into regimental habits of speech and physical discipline that his ethnic origins became irrelevant – the uniform said all, until the man's inner passion broke forth and drove him to revolt.
Mick was much more than Miley and much more than Co Mayo. A sad, sad loss to us all. – Yours, etc,