Sir, - Several times during the past two years I have tried to buy books for an Irish language and literature degree course in this university. Why is this so difficult?
Even the standard dictionaries are often out of print and the most useful grammars unavailable. There is a great attachment among scholars and students to some well tested texts which are rarely in stock, even second-hand. A bookseller in Wales told me his small Irish stock turns over at speed, and the book I wanted from him was already sold.
We have been given samizdat copies of particularly well-loved texts and there are occasional sightings of the books on our lists in bookshops in Portland, Oregon or San Francisco, but we wonder if there is some knack to finding this material or a code word of which we are unaware? Surely we are not unique in assembling a standard collection of Irish language and literature texts? - Yours, etc.,
Olivia Fitzpatrick, Library, University of Ulster, York Street, Belfast 15.