Madam, - Readers of The Irish Times may like to know that an archive of source material relating to the late Raymond Crotty (1925-1994), economist, historian and political activist, was deposited recently by the undersigned in the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin.
The archive consists of books, pamphlets, letters, photographs and records of Raymond Crotty's scientific work as well as his political activities relating to the European Union/Community.
It includes material on his court action on the 1987 Single European Act, which led the Supreme Court to lay down that constitutional referendums had to be held in Ireland before the State could accede to treaties entailing a surrender of sovereignty to the EC/EU.
It also contains research materials for Raymond Crotty's books and drafts of his last book, When Histories Collide: The Development and Impact of Individualistic Capitalism, which was published posthumously in 2001. This contains the most elaborate exposition of Crotty's "lactose intolerance" theory of the origins of human civilisation, and has attracted the interest of such international scholars as Immanuel Wallerstein, Charles Tilly, Lars Mjoset and Michael Mann.
If any of your readers possess letters, press cuttings or other material relating to Raymond Crotty which they would like to donate to this archive, may we invite them to contact the Keeper of Manuscripts, National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2 (Tel. 01-6030308), with a view to their collation with the existing material?
When the Crotty papers are catalogued and available for public access in a year or so, they should enable students and researchers to gain new insight into the life and work of a remarkable Irishman who is gaining a growing posthumous reputation internationally for his contributions to early human history and to the economics and sociology of development. - Yours etc.,
PETER MOSER, RAYMOND CROTTY (Jnr.), ANTHONY COUGHLAN, Zollikofen/Bern, Switzerland.