Sir, - No doubt there is some sense in Boyle Roche's exhortation not to bother ourselves about posterity because posterity has never done anything for us. No doubt also there is a certain amount of futility in trying to predict which contemporary writers will still be read a century from now.
But Fintan O'Toole (Weekend, November 4th) was right to express reservations about the omission of the playwrights Sebastian Barry and Frank McGuinness from the list.
Barry's The Steward of Christendom superbly conveys the mind frame of a man who, like Simeon, stood on the threshold of the birth of the new Ireland, while all his experiences and sentiments leaned him totally to the old. (Donal McCann's performance in the role reminds us how great a loss Irish theatre has suffered.)
Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching to the Somme, by Frank McGuinness, must rank as one of the greatest Irish plays of the 20th century. One of the extraordinary things about it is the way a writer from the Catholic, nationalist, "Southern" tradition captures the essence of Protestant, unionist, Northern experience. - Yours, etc.,
Brian Maye, Mountain View Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.