ROBERT GREACEN.
Sir, - I was dismayed to read Dennis Kennedy's article (Arts, February 15th) knocking the Belfast bid to be the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2008. For over half a century I, as someone brought up in Belfast in the 1930s, have from time to time made unflattering remarks about that city. True, sectarianism, provinciality and philistinism have not gone away, you know. Even so, the Belfast Agreement is having a positive effect on Belfast and the North generally. Is not Mr Kennedy aware of the wind of change that is blowing across the Lagan? I certainly am, and that impression has been made more real by a recent visit. To use the current word, there is a buzz that is refreshing after several dismal decades.
Belfast has not lacked a cultural, intellectual, imaginative and sporting history ever since the Enlightenment at the end of the 18th century. It was once called, not wholly without reason, "the Athens of the north". This bid for European recognition is another chance to throw off the dead hand of Victorian smugness and commercialism. I hope therefore, as a Belfastman, though one long resident elsewhere, that Imagine Belfast's bid will be successful. - Yours, etc.,
ROBERT GREACEN.
(Member of Aosdána),
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.