Sir, – Dr Roy Flechner's support for his colleagues (Letters, November 20th) is noble and very humorous and he is right in saying that I am not qualified as an academic historian – neither was I qualified to translate St Patrick's Confessio from the original – I confess – I have never studied Latin!
That Trojan task was very graciously and professionally done by the late John Victor Luce, professor of classics at Trinity College Dublin, an exceptional Latinist and close personal friend who also wrote his own fascinating and controversial piece in which he claimed to have located the lost city of Atlantis.
In his retirement, he enthusiastically translated for me St Patrick’s Letters, along with other Latin texts published in Louvain by Fr John Colgan in 1647 that were essential to my research. He insisted the phrase “in Britanniis” was open to interpretation and that “in the Britains” or “among the Britons” would be an appropriate literal translation but he also accepted a proposition put to him during our discussions, that it could possibly be a reference to Brittany and not the island of Britain, exclusively.
If Dr Flechner or any of his colleagues would like a copy of that translation, so they can assess its accuracy and potential historic value for their archives, I would be more than happy to share it with them. – Yours, etc,
Rev MARCUS LOSACK,
Via Roma,
Palermo,
Sicily.