GEORGE REEVES,
Sir, - It is indeed heartening to see the interest in Dublin's connection with Handel, as shown in some recent letters to your paper.
However, this interest would have been more appropriate in 1996 when Dublin Corporation and its agents, Temple Bar Properties, started the development of the area around the site of Neal's Music Hall in Fishamble Street.
Has anyone seen it lately? Of course not, as it is locked away. This pocket handkerchief rectangle, decorated with shrubs and fire escapes, has only one attribute: the original wall with words commemorating the first performance of Messiah.
This has now been adorned with a beautiful statue of an Apollo type young man, in full nudity. Nice for some, but for me totally inappropriate to the Handel of 1742 and his setting of the scriptures now known and loved throughout the world. - Yours, etc.,
GEORGE REEVES,
Rosehill,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.