A chara, – Further to “Six overlooked women writers to discover on International Women’s Day” (Opinion, March 8th), may I add Winifred M Letts (1882-1972) to your list of those women writers who deserve to be remembered? She was only the second woman (after Lady Gregory) to have a play performed in the Abbey, and one of the few women – to date – to have had more than one play performed there. Her children’s books were serialised and broadcast on Radio Éireann and on BBC’s Children’s Hour from the 1930s through to the early 1960s. Her published material includes five books of poetry, seven novels for young adults, six for children, three books on religious themes, Knockmaroon – her book of memoir, and numerous short stories, poems, essays and interviews, including one by Maeve Binchy in The Irish Times in April 1969. In a November 1957 interview in this paper, she described herself as “a period piece, a has been, totally unknown to this generation” but her place in the literary canon is slowly being recognised. President Michael D Higgins attended a ceremony in June 2022 to mark the 100th anniversary of her death; a Cuala Press print of her poem St Brigid (illustrated by her stepdaughter Kathleen Verschoyle) now hangs in the Taoiseach’s office and CV Stanford’s settings of 13 of her poems from Songs from Leinster are currently being showcased in the Stanford Centenary Series in the National Concert Hall. Lyric FM will broadcast a programme on her in the coming months, and a biography – the first comprehensive account of her life and works – is due for publication later this year. – Is mise,
BAIRBRE O’HOGAN,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.