Sir, - Frank McDonald's mistaken and potentially damaging report about my restoration project for Synge's cottage on Inishmaan (The Irish Times, August 20th) has recently come to my attention. He gives the impression that the work is being carried out in a vulgar, insensitive manner and states that the advice of Peter Pearson of the Heritage Council that there be minimal intervention was rejected.
First of all, I never received any advice from Peter Pearson. Secondly, the allegation that the "cottage was reduced to four walls, its interior completely gutted and earthen floors replaced with concrete" is wrong on all counts. Our aim from the beginning has been to save the cottage from irretrievable dereliction and then to restore it as precisely as possible to the condition it was in at the time of Synge's visits. To this end we have removed all the modifications made by my grandfather and father since Synge's time and brought the walls back to the original stone. The walls will be covered with daub, as will the floor, as they were in Synge's time.
The roof had to be removed because the wood was rotten, irretrievable and dangerous. Recycled wood is being used to replace all the rotten floorboards and for the rafters we have unstripped wood. The concrete floor complained of in the article was put there by my grandfather after Synge's time to cover the original floor. The intention was always to restore the original daub floor. What neither Frank McDonald nor Peter Pearson seem to be aware of is that many of the things they complain of as being removed were adaptations made since Synge's time.
I began working on this project in 1992 and finally got into a position this year where work could begin. Nearly all the money I have raised (to match a grant from Udaras na Gaeltachta) came from writers, actors and other individuals in Ireland who donated money that in some cases they could not easily afford on the basis of my assurance that I was restoring a building of national and cultural importance to the condition it was in at the beginning of the century. Your article makes it appear that I have broken faith with them. I would be grateful if you would do what you can to correct this impression. - Yours, etc., Treasa Ni Fhatharta,
Mildmay Park, London N1.