Irishness of Elizabeth Bowen

Madam, - Perhaps the moment has come to restore literature in Ireland to the status of a regional British literature

Madam, - Perhaps the moment has come to restore literature in Ireland to the status of a regional British literature. That appears to be Kevin Myers's object. But surely it would be best done straightforwardly rather than by such devices as those he used to make Elizabeth Bowen an Irish writer. In his Diary of April 30th he rejected the view that "Irishness is not a matter of where you're from but how you think."

Rejection of the view that the character of writing is determined by birthplace rather than thought-content leads to strange conclusions. It may determine that Elizabeth Bowen was an Irish writer, but it also determines that George Orwell was a Burmese writer, even though he is universally taken to be one of the premier English writers of the mid-20th century. It also determines that Appolonius is not a French poet. And of course it determines that Mr Myers himself is not an Irish polemicist.

At a moment when our progressive Minister for Justice is proposing to break the connection between birthplace and nationality, it would surely be more sensible if Mr Myers dropped these nationalistic musings and asserted openly that literature in Ireland is merely a provincial branch of English literature, and that any Irish writing which cannot be included in English literature is not worth preserving as literature. That is the meaning which is implicit in his piece. - Yours, etc.,

PAT MURPHY, Newcomen Court, Dublin 3.