Madam, - Aidan Harman's letter on Elizabeth Bowen's Irishness (April 22nd) prompted me to look up David Alvey's earlier diatribe, which I hadn't seen.
It is pointless to argue that Bowen wasn't Irish. She was born in Dublin and, unless Mr McDowell's regrettable referendum has retroactive effect, will remain Irish forever.
That she might have given political allegiance to another power in a time of peril is neither here nor there: - Irish people have given political allegiance to many different powers over the centuries. William Joyce was undoubtedly Irish and gave his political allegiance to Hitler (though I believe it was his British passport that eventually hanged him).
I am fed up with the notion that there is such a thing as an "Irish writer". There are Irish people who write. They do so and have done so in many different traditions. In some cases, such as Joyce, they found the need to start their own traditions.
Mr Alvey needs to rethink the notion that there is such a thing as a "national tradition". If, by that, he really means "nationalist", let him say so. There is a nationalist tradition. It is but one of many, all of them Irish in their different ways. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL KENNY, Kimmage Road West, Dublin 12.