A Chara, - Both Declan Kiberd (Arts, January 26th) and Diarmaid Ferriter (Opinion, January 27th), in their interesting pieces on the centenary of the "riots" associated with The Playboy of the Western Word, mention that W.B. Yeats called in the police and that arrests were made. What is rarely mentioned is that Yeats also attended court to give evidence against those whom he termed the Griffithites, Piaras Beaslaoi and Patrick Columb. They were found guilty and fined.
This action by Yeats is not evidence that the poet was anti-national, rather that he valued artistic freedom above all else. He also happened to regard J.M. Synge, as one of the few writers on a similar artistic level as himself. Yeats was an Irish patriot, as his later poetry and practical politics demonstrated. - Yours, etc,
ANTHONY JORDAN, Gilford Road, Dublin 4.