Madam, - I see from your Edition of June 17th that consideration is being given to making June 16th, 2004, the 100th Bloomsday, a public holiday. I suggest a more radical but timely initiative: that Bloomsday should replace St Patrick's Day permanently. There are a number of compelling reasons for this.
There is no clear evidence that St Patrick even existed. St Patrick's Day in Ireland is irredeemably associated with the Roman Catholic Church and with the tawdry nationalism of which Fianna Fáil is the prime exemplar - two institutions which between them have done so much to retard and distort our development as a nation.
St Patrick's Day has also become increasingly Americanised. The New York parade, the world's largest, has become a celebration of US jingoism and imperialism and a demonstration of bigotry and homophobia.
Bloomsday, by contrast, is a celebration of the 20th century's greatest work of literature and would be an excellent reflection of the open, innovative, pluralist and secular society into which we are belatedly evolving. - Yours, etc.,
BILL FEAREY,
Granville Park,
Dean's Grange,
Co Dublin.
