Sir, - I note the letter from Ben Barnes, artistic director of the Abbey Theatre (February 15th) on the subject of the proposed move to the Grand Canal Harbour. Mr Barnes also contributed an opinion column to The Irish Times on February 10th. In his letter he complains that a "carefully worded article had been crudely sub-edited to reinforce the very rigidity I was trying to ameliorate".
However, he then goes on to speak of moving "beyond the type of narrow tribal arguments advanced by Senator Norris when he speaks of asset-stripping in the north inner city". Regrettably, he does not do me the courtesy of addressing my arguments but merely characterises them by negative description. Perhaps you would therefore allow me an opportunity to expand a little.
I have every sympathy with Mr Barnes's predicament in dealing with the physical amenities of the present Abbey Theatre. It is about as imaginatively constructed as a 1950s biscuit box. However, there have been some magnificent productions, including those in which Mr Barnes was centrally involved in this theatre, and before that I have happy memories of vintage performances in the old Queen's Theatre in Pearse Street.
With regard to my own credentials, which Mr Barnes seeks to impugn, I will not exaggerate them, but I am a regular attender at the Abbey Theatre (although my presence may not have been noticed at director level as I attend as an ordinary northside member of the public). I have had some slight connections with the Dublin theatre, including the Abbey, over many years, which modesty precludes me from listing. I have in addition every right to defend the north inner city against what I quite accurately described as a process of asset-stripping. But that is not the whole of my argument. There is something unseemly about a Gadarene rush across the river in the wake of an announcement that a commercial development, in its own words, "needed a cultural anchor". Moreover there is a rich and historic connection with that site.
The location is hallowed for many of us, tourists and natives alike, by the fact that this spot witnessed the Playboy riots and the disturbances at the first run of The Plough and the Stars and that it was here that the poet's father, Jack B. Yeats, wonderfully harangued an ignorant and Philistine crowd from the footlights. It was in Abbey Street that the premiere of virtually every great play of the Irish Revival was held. To this day some of the most popular productions the Dublin Trilogy of Sean O'Casey, the adaptation of "Night Town" episode of Joyce's Ulysses, and the plays of Brendan Behan, were all written by and about inhabitants of the north inner city. With regard to the undoubted disruption caused to the company during reconstruction, why not address this positively and use the time provided to embark on a major touring operation, bringing the Abbey to other cities and towns throughout Ireland and also on a world tour? This, in my opinion at least, would help to build up an audience for a triumphal return to Abbey Street. Rebuilding would also provide an opportunity for the inclusion of a reinstatement of the original foyer, heroically rescued from destruction by the former city architect Mr Daithi Hanly.
These may not at the end of the day prove conclusive arguments in a practical situation, but at least they should be courteously considered and not cavalierly dismissed as "a type of narrow tribal argument". - Yours, etc.
Senator David Norris, Seanad Eireann Dublin 2.