Madam, - As a graduate in Old Irish from UCD, and as one of the signatories to the letter The Irish Times of March 13th, may I respond to Prof Liam Mac Mathúna's article "These are exciting times for Irish language studies" (Opinion & Analysis, June 6th)? The purpose of this article is not immediately obvious. Besides making various comments about the place of Irish in society and the study of modern Irish, he devotes a good deal of attention to the UCD course in Celtic civilisation. But when he talks of the "introduction" of this course, one suspects he has not been properly briefed, since that course has been in place since before the abolition of Old Irish.
The most striking aspect of Prof Mac Mathúna's article, however, is that it makes no mention of the letters written to The Irish Times regarding the abolition of the undergraduate degree in Old Irish in UCD, nor is one single point in any one of these many letters addressed. This, in spite of the call for "lively intellectual debate" in the final paragraph of his article. Indeed no one responsible for the decision in UCD has yet offered any explanation of any kind for it. All of the correspondents to The Irish Times regard it as unjustifiable, and as the authorities in UCD can present no justification for it one must conclude that they too find it unjustifiable.
Pious aspirations and vague generalities - such as "the school is determined to build", or "the school recognises that there are also new needs and opportunities, which can inspire fresh approaches" - are no substitute for specific proposals regarding the staff needed to implement the school's plans. No mention is made of what the abolition of Old Irish actually involved, or how it was effected. As I understand the situation, the department had been reduced to two lecturers, the absolute minimum required to maintain the course; only one of these was permanent, and the opportunity was taken not to renew the contract of the other lecturer in order easily to achieve the aim of putting an end to Old Irish in UCD. It should also be mentioned that when this was done, no regard was had for the students who were half-way through their course, as reported in the UCD student newspaper, College Tribune, in October 2006.
It is quite extraordinary that Prof Mac Mathúna feels entitled to talk of his school's "strengths and expertise in the earlier periods of the Irish language", or of its ability to "provide a new, more supportive environment for the teaching of Early Irish", or to claim that "the school continues to welcome students who wish to follow its well-established M Litt and PhD research graduate programmes in Early Irish and Welsh".
What next? "Two and two make five"? - Yours, etc,
Prof LIAM BREATNACH, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Burlington Road, Dublin 4.