Sir, - Kevin Courtney's article on Derry's cultural "renaissance" was most amusing (Arts, November 26th). I have been living in Derry for the past four years. It took me very little time to realise it is a cultural wilderness. A city that makes Dana and Phil Coulter into cultural icons has big problems. Kevin Courtney quotes John Hume as saying that Derry is ready to be put on the cultural map. Why does he think this? How can a city without a decent theatre, cinema, university or library be put on such a map? This is a city where Free Derry Wall and burning Lundy's effigy are regarded as culture.
Living in Derry is a depressing experience. It is a place whose cultural horizons do not extend over the battlements of the city walls. Derry's artistic life, like that in the rest of Northern Ireland, is provincial and third-rate. What makes the situation comical is that people in Derry actually believe it to be some sort of cosmopolitan metropolis, a place which is a conveyor-belt of artistic talent.
In the next few months I am moving to the Republic. The move cannot come soon enough. - Yours, etc.,
John Hughes, Pelham Road, Derry.