Sir, - I have hesitated to write to your paper in connection with the Messiah XXI performances, which have been aptly termed "dumbed down", as I did not wish to give further publicity to this tawdry event. However I feel compelled to add my voice to the protests in your Letters columns. If the Government set out to give a calculated insult to the arts community in the country by granting £700,000 to this sorry spectacle, it has been singularly successful. That such an amount was granted without any reference to the Arts Council merely underlines the culture of cronyism for which we are well known.
Such an amount would have been a major boost to any of the struggling theatres, galleries, music groups and community arts organisations in the country. For our gombeen politicians to mark the approaching millennium in this way is a sorry vindication of those who believe we get the politicians we deserve. - Yours, etc., Eric Sweeney,
(Member of Aosdana), Summerville Avenue, Waterford.