Madam, – I refer to Joe Carroll’s interesting reflections in An Irishman’s Diary on September 14th. In giving a brief account of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s stay in Ireland during the 1940s, he mentions that a plaque recording Wittgenstein’s stay in a house in Wicklow had been erected by the Austrian embassy.
He also mentioned the Aisling Hotel in Parkgate Street in Dublin, “where a plaque recalls his [Wittgenstein’s] stay until June 1949”. A plaque was indeed erected there some years ago by the Austrian embassy but it has now disappeared. A few weeks ago I enquired why the plaque was missing and was told that “it had been lost during renovation of the hotel and if it was found it will be reinstated”.
It seems a shame not to mark the building where a great thinker worked on Philosophical Investigations, probably the most important volume of philosophy of the last century.
– Yours, etc,