Madam, - It may make economic sense to sell off the Great Southern hotels and real estate, as they are losing millions. But I hope an associated wealth will be retained in State ownership whose value cannot be quantified by accountants - the extensive and revealing collection of Irish art dating from about the 1920s to the 1970s.
I had the privilege of framing the collections in Parknasilla and Eyre Square - paintings by Norah McGuinness, Patrick Collins, George Campbell, Gerard Dillon, WJ Leech, Arthur Armstrong, to name a few. Works by these leading artists were bought by an enlightened Government to grace corridors and rooms of GHS. These artists reflect the aspirations, reality and style of an Irish life which in many aspects has gone. The art lives on.
This unique collection of Irish modern art should not be consigned to the auction rooms, but retained as part of our heritage and given to the care of the Office of Public Works art management section, to be placed in national buildings. - Yours, etc,
LIAM SLATTERY, Grosvenor Road, Dublin 6.