MARY DEVALLY,
Sir, - It is with dismay and incredulity that those of us involved in teaching classics learned of the impending closure of the classics department at Queen's University, Belfast, sacrificed, I presume, to the god "relevance".
At a time when our language is becoming ever more abused and debased by politics and advertising, the study of Greek and Latin offers a form of redress. At a time when a democratic superpower reacts undemocratically to attack, a little knowledge of Athens in the 5th century BC offer a useful political insight.
Closer to home, at a time when we are bombarded with stories of Roy Keane, no Leaving Certificate classical studies student would think it too fanciful to make a connection with Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound. Our recent history of tribunals echoes Sophocles's great message in King Oedipus that none of us, however powerful, can control our own destiny.
Surely it is still relevant to want to understand more fully all that is primal: love, hatred, revenge, war governance and the true meaning of what we say. As one who has taught classical studies to second- level students for 20 years, I can attest to the enduring relevance and accessibility of the classics.
In the context of the recent history of Northern Ireland there is a certain irony in a respected university closing its classics department. Because the classics are a uniquely sublime and accessible source of wisdom their study has a civilising effect. In the words of Michael Longley, himself a classicist and Northerner: "Who can bring peace to people who are not civilised?" - Yours, etc.,
MARY DEVALLY, St Andrew's College, Blackrock, Co Dublin