Madam, - In Fintan O'Toole's penetrating column on Irish universities (Weekend Review, April 14th), he rightly notes "a massive upsurge in interest in classical antiquity". A spectacular example of this is the way in which numerous Irish writers have, since 1975, produced translations, versions and loose adaptations of tragedies by Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus.
Here is the striking list: Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy, Marina Carr (2), Desmond Egan (2), Brian Friel, Eamon Grennan (with Rachel Kitzinger), Séamus Heaney (2), Brendan Kennelly (3), Frank McGuinness (2), Derek Mahon (2), Aidan Mathews (2), Conall Morrison (2), Edna O'Brien, Tom Murphy, Ulick O'Connor, Tom Paulin, Sydney Smith, Colin Teevan (2).
Most of these Irish plays are analysed in my book Hellenising Ireland: Greek and Roman Themes in Modern Irish Literature (Goldsmith Press 2005). - Yours, etc,
BRIAN ARKINS, Professor of Classics, NUI, Galway.