ANTHONY P. QUINN,
A chara, - In her incisive article about the Imperial War Museum's exhibition Anthem for Doomed Youth (Features, November 25th) Suzanne Lynch placed the first World War poets in their literary and historical contexts.
Francis Ledwidge's inclusion in the London exhibition is gratifying to me and to his many fans who have constantly appreciated the Meath poet's importance. The place where he was killed in July 1917 (not April as stated in the article), is now marked by a memorial in Flanders Fields.
On a recent visit with an English group to his nearby grave in Artillery Wood Cemetery, I spoke about Ledwidge and quoted from his poems. There was a warm response and many of the tour participants bought books of his poems in Ieper. Perhaps Ledwidge is no longer a lesser-known war poet.
The London exhibition regrettably does not include another Irish poet - Tom Kettle, MP, barrister, economics professor, patriot and officer with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He is remembered mainly because of his poignant poem to his young daughter Betty, written just before he was killed in the Battle of the Somme in September 1916.
Kettle features in my proposed book, Irish Barristers in the Great War: casualties and context. - Is mise,
ANTHONY P. QUINN, Law Library, Dublin 7.