GERALDINE O NEILL,
Sir, - Vincent Browne should be congratulated for his column of September 4th in which he drew links between the words of Roy Keane in his "autobiography" and some of the dialogue in Sophocles's Electra.
Indeed, this is not the first time that journalists in this newspaper have made similar references to the Keane-McCarthy saga, either comparing the events to the unfolding of a Greek tragedy - e.g. the wounded Philoctetes abandoned on the island of Lemnos by his comrades on the way to Troy or, in Homerick terms, how the Greek warrior Achilles's personal war with Agamemnon, leader of the Greek forces, threatened to destroy all hope of a Greek victory in the Trojan War.
In using these images from classical literature to make points about human nature and behaviour, Vincent Browne and other journalists have proved that classical literature - like all great literature - transcends the boundaries of time and still has something to say to a modern reader despite the thousands of years which intervene.
Yet the council members and Senate of Queen's University of Belfast, in their wisdom, have decided to end the teaching of Greek, Latin and Classical Studies in the misguided belief that these subjects have no relevance in the modern world. They based their decision on "a lack of student demand", even though numbers for these subjects have been on the increase.
As Prof Richard Janko states (September 7th) the decision was made using erroneous figures. Furthermore, the fact that this department was awarded 23 points out of a possible 24 for teaching quality assessment and grade 4 for research assessment (5 being the highest grade) has counted for nothing, while other departments in Queen's with lower scores remain unscathed.
In a supplement to the Sunday Times (2001) on choosing a university, the Classics department of Queen's was highly recommended. In the most recent university league tables for the United Kingdom, the department of Queen's came fifth after Oxford, Cambridge and two colleges of the University of London.
Not only does Queen's seem oblivious to the fact that all the great universities boast a Classics department, but it is also completely unaware of the standards achieved by one of its own departments. - Yours, etc.,
GERALDINE Ó NÉILL,
North Circular Road,
Belfast 15.