Sir, – I refer to your kind obituary of my sister, the actor Aideen O'Kelly ("Gifted actor with string of successes in Ireland and on Broadway", May 9th) and would like to correct an inaccuracy, because the particular error would have infuriated her. She had a lifelong deep disdain, amounting to profound contempt, for the Abbey School of Acting. She definitely did not attend it! She joined the Abbey company as a full-fledged member, having previously worked under Godfrey Quigley, Maureen Toal, and Norman Rodway, among others, at the Globe Theatre followed by a short period with Lord Longford at the Gate Theatre.
She was indeed sent by Ernest Blythe to the Aran Islands to learn Irish, but the immersion didn’t take; she remained ignorant of the language. Witnessing as a child her reaction to the Blythe edict, I suspect the resistance may have been deliberate!
Her last appearance in Ireland was in Brian Friel's Give Me Your Answer Do!, again at the Abbey.
Our father’s name was Dermod, not Dermot; and our mother’s name was Florence, not Frances. – Yours, etc,
EMER O’KELLY,
Dublin 8.