Burning Books

Sir, - Mary Stanley's quotation of Heinrich Heine (February 23rd) regarding the burning of Frank McCourt's book Angela's Ashes…

Sir, - Mary Stanley's quotation of Heinrich Heine (February 23rd) regarding the burning of Frank McCourt's book Angela's Ashes is a timely reminder of a dormant fascism which still lurks in the Irish character. Just as Austria has experienced an upsurge of neo-Nazi support, some Irish-Americans have resorted to book burning as a sign of their inability to accept the Limerick and the Ireland depicted by Frank McCourt.

However, I doubt if many of those who attend the book burning will ever have read the book. But they have probably attended Alan Parker's distorted film version of it. Parker has such a deeply negative view of human nature that he shot Evita in Belgrade at night instead of using a sun-drenched Latin American city. Where was Neil Jordan when the film rights to Angela's Ashes were being auctioned? - Yours, etc.,

Bernard O'Grady, Rua Alfredo Pujol 1629, E apt 04 Sao Paulo, Brazil.