DARACH CONNOLLY,
Sir, - I have had the good fortune to be a regular patron of the Abbey Theatre since the 1930s. Naturally, I feel a strong nostalgic link with the site at Abbey Street/Marlborough Street and the old theatre where I saw most of the great plays, and many of the legendary "greats" of the Abbey perform. I mourned its destruction by fire in 1951 and rejoiced at its return in 1966 after 15 years "in exile".
However, I have come to accept in recent years that both the site and the "new" theatre have serious drawbacks, and I find the recent proposals in your columns - that the Abbey should move to the old Carlton cinema site in a regenerated O'Connell Street - immensely interesting. I am told that the site offers the potential for all requirements of a new national theatre.
If there are substantial and verifiable reasons why the Carlton project would be unsuitable, or would cost a great deal more than the direct (and indirect) costs of demolition, extension and rebuilding on the old site, and funding another "in-exile" home, then the Minister for Arts or her Department should publish these facts, before irreversible decisions are taken.
Please, trust the public with this information. After all, as Ursula Hough-Gormley indicated (March 19th), it's our theatre and it's our money. - Yours, etc.,
DARACH CONNOLLY,
Stonepark Abbey,
Dublin 14.