Sir, - Recent correspondence on Pβdraig de Br·n's poem An Long and the echo of it in the title of Dermot Bolger's novel The Valparaiso Voyage prompts me to raise a related question. Does anyone remember Nicholas Freeling's novel Valparaiso, which seems to play with the same poem's image of irresistible if futile desire?
Freeling was educated in Glenstal (1939-44), where he may have become acquainted with de Br·n's poem, or possibly with the Gogarty "original". - Yours, etc.,
John Devitt, Malahide, Co Dublin.