Sir, – In an article concerned with a mid-20th-century composer, well known in Ireland, Frank McNally (Irishman’s Diary, June 25th) referred a number of times to a Seán O’Riada.
This name used to be written Seán O Riada, sans apostrophe; in accordance with Gaelic orthography. A language is respected by having its spelling conventions respected. Similarly an individual is respected by having his/her name rendered in writing according to how they wrote it themselves. All this is given more force in that the Gaelic cultural inheritance meant so very much to this man whose name in English was John Reidy.
Of course, for the cliques who dominate cultural life in this State such symbolic marginalisation of the Irish language will be an increment of a new “maturity”. It was this same band of geniuses which cackled triumphantly that Ireland had “opened up to the world”, and had “come of age”, during the bank credit hurricane of some years ago. – Yours, etc,