Madam, - Recurrently, when an explanation is offered for a poor performance since Independence by some sector of the Irish economy where a better performance was possible - say, horticulture, marine, transport or fisheries - the causes that are listed omit "insufficient enterprise". This omission occurred again in Tony Farmar's listing (June 20th) of factors which have brought Irish book publishing into crisis.
But in this instance, too, there is good reason for including "insufficient enterprise".
Especially in a small country, serious business enterprise means a determined effort - which may or may not succeed - to conquer the world, or a fair part of it, for one's product or skilled service.
The producers of Kerrygold butter and Bailey's Cream did this for their products, the ESB and Aer Rianta for their skilled services. Pre-eminently, Michael O'Leary did it for low-cost air travel.
But we have never seen an Irish publisher, or a consortium of Irish publishers, even try to conquer the world for the Irish Book, despite their having the world language at their disposal. Nor have we heard of Irish publishers pressing Irish governments to fund an Irish publishing enterprise with the aim of selling to the world.
So alien is "the world out there" to Irish publishing that, along with some Irish fiction and poetry, it has virtually confined its publications to books about Irish matters.
For a national publishing industry, as distinct from a regional one - say, in the north of England or Andalusia - this exclusion of world matters is utterly unique.
It explains why books by Irish writers with titles such as New History of Europe, A Concise History of England, Why European Union Was a Mistake, The Rich Traveller's Pocket Guides to European Capitals, The Lost Odes of Sappho, The Betrayal of Feminism, The Real Origin of Aidsor The Later Ottoman Empireare neither sought, let alone published, by Irish publishers.
Thus the contribution of Irish writers to themes that interest the world, or a substantial part of it, are throttled at source.
Because for the last eleven years I have been writing mainly books about non-Irish matters - or matters that merely included Ireland as part of my subject, the western world - I know what I am talking about. - Yours, etc.
DESMOND FENNELL,
Carton Square,
Maynooth.