Madam, - Donal Flynn (May 5th) proposes the abolition of the genitive case in the Irish language. Is this wise? Perhaps Mr Flynn is under the impression that the genitive case possesses no function other than that of confusing would-be students. With what does he propose to replace it? Or is the idea of possession to be stricken from Irish?
Irish is not alone among languages in possessing a possessive case. Nobody advocates abolishing the genitive in German, where it appears along with its bosom buddies nominative, accusative and dative, having been devised for the accurate and particular expression of meaning.
It is, perhaps, just as well that English is not so thoroughly inflected a language, or there should doubtless be a campaign to abolish its genitive too (a case without which this letter could not have been written).
The fault lies not with the language but with those who mistakenly believe that proficiency can be achieved without diligent practise and that the hard bits can be ignored.
Go minic, bíonn an fhírinne searbh. - Yours, etc,
Dr THOMAS McCARTHY, Department of Medieval History, Trinity College, Dublin 2.