Sir, - I heard the other day that the building in Fishamble Street where Handel first had his Messiah performed is to be turned into a commemorative garden. Will our "cultural genocide" never end?
Over the years, the houses of Thomas Sheridan, Robert Emmett and Isaac Butt, to mention a few, have been either destroyed or radically altered. Just walk down Pearse Street and see the appalling condition of the house of "the Pearse family" and recollect the recent knee-jerking worries of Dublin Corporation over the house of Sir Edward Carson! A fate even worse than destruction has befallen the home of Count John McCormack in Athlone, which is now a "Chinese takeaway". No words can adequately describe my reaction to this.
Around 800 years ago a Welsh historian described the Irish as "savages". This would appear to be a correct description today. Temple Bar is packed with new or extended bars whose denizens nightly leave behind visible evidence of their gluttony. Obviously profit rather than preservation is the accepted norm. - Yours, etc.,
Timothy Ryan,
Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.