Sir, - Reporting on the reprinting of Brian P. Kennedy's Dreams and Responsibilities: The State and the Arts in Independent Ire- land and the fate that awaited the previous printing - the shredding of a number of unsold copies by the Arts Council - Victoria White regurgitates a story which originated in your columns. An essential ingredient in this story is my attitude towards one aspect of the book.
As it happens, my opinion of the book's merits was also publicly expressed in your columns, where I reviewed it after being solicited to do so by your literary editor.
The reference to the setting up of Aosdana in that review amounted to fewer than 50 words out of 1,000; and the supposed vehemence of attitude towards this aspect of the book which an Irish Times writer began to attribute to me after copies had been shredded by the Arts Council many months later is certainly not borne out by the tone or content of what I wrote. Perhaps you would like to check this for yourself. Isn't it time somebody in The Irish Times did?
The suggestion that I sought to influence the Arts Council to destroy the remaining copies of the book is deeply insulting to me as a writer. It is also a gravely damaging allegation in relation to the scrupulousness and integrity which, as everyone who came in contact with me will agree, marked all my dealings with a statutory body in my capacity as government adviser. Now, after seven years, I must once again ask you to withdraw it. - Yours, etc., Anthony Cronin,
Curzon Street,
Dublin 8.
Victoria White writes: It was not suggested by me that Anthony Cronin sought to influence the Arts Council on this matter, but rather that many felt at the time that his objections had contributed to the Arts Council's decision.