Sir, – I watched some of the much-advertised RTÉ programme Glaoch last weekend. Billed as celebrating Irishness and Irish creativity, I found it instead to be a dreadful exercise in modern Irish myth-making.
In it, Irish “culture” was beatified through the seeming endless repetition of our “spirituality” and the special way in which this “culture” was loved around the world. It was implicit in many of the contributions that Irish “culture” was unique and by implication better than that of other countries.
I'm not sure that we were ever a land of saints and scholars, but according to Glaoch we most certainly are now. This programme was one of the worst examples I've seen in years of Irish narcissism. I know it was St Patrick's Day, but it was way over the top.
If Glaoch is an accurate reflection of Irish self-perception (perhaps self-deception is a better term) then we needn't worry too much about growing emigration, as we'll all have ascended into heaven before the year's out. – Yours, etc,
PAT GUERIN,
Geraldine Street,
Phibsboro,
Dublin 7.