Sir, – I wish to address aspersions cast on the Polaris Music prize by Brian Boyd (Life &Culture, March 7th): that our winners are somehow unworthy or poorly chosen. He wrote: “And cast your eyes abroad where Canada has a similar prize to the Choice called The Polaris. A few years ago Arcade Fire (one of the best bands of their generation) lost out to someone called Patrick Watson (me neither).” The snide “me neither” comment equates his ignorance of that artist with its quality, a conceit that prizes like Choice and Polaris rightly exist to combat.
What is further galling is that he wrongly assumes that his readers share his ignorance of Patrick Watson, who has been written about in The Irish Timesby Jim Carroll, has played in Dublin twice, and is returning to play on April 30th.
Also, that “best band of their generation” to which he refers, Arcade Fire, won our prize last year. – Yours, etc,