Sir, - It is with considerable regret that I read in the Editorial of the current issue of Southword, publication of the Munster Literature Centre, Cork, that the issue may possibly be the centre's last and that the annual literature festival may have to be cancelled "due to inadequate resources". The item goes on to say that Mary Johnson, artistic director, has announced her intention to resign from the centre, having worked there voluntarily for the past six years.
The Munster Literature Centre, its festival and its magazine have rendered invaluable cultural service to Cork and, in its programme of literary exchanges, in the literary world beyond Ireland.
The country knows well enough that there is cultural spending money out there and in considerable amounts. I do hope I am not talking out of turn to suggest that some of that funding might be directed to the upkeep of the Munster Literature Centre and its works. To see something of cultural value actually die out in the new millennium due to lack of funding would be a considerable irony.
I do not live in Cork, though I have read at the centre's festival and contributed to its publication. As a writer I sincerely hope that the Munster Literature Centre continues its work and that its publication's editorials will have more positive messages to carry in future issues.
The magazine's editorial goes on to mention that had the centre "depended on the business community in Cork and our political representatives in Dail Eireann, we would have ceased to exist years ago". Given the hype around various millennium events, this is a shameful circumstance. Surely there is someone in the booming Irish business community (if not in Cork, then elsewhere in the country) who can appreciate the need to keep the centre up and running and fits programmes intact!
To Southword's executive editor, Mary Johnson, to its literary editor, Patrick Galvin, and to all at the Munster Literature Centre, my sincerest best wishes for the new millennium. - Yours, etc.,
Fred Johnston, Carn Ard, Circular Road, Galway.