Madam, - We write as participants in the Hopkins International Literary Festival, held in Monasterevin, Co Kildare.
We are shocked to see the depredation caused by the quarrying away of the Hill of Allen. This hill is part of the rich epic of Fionn and the Fianna, one of the great European sagas and worthy to stand beside any of the others as an enduring celebration of human romance, heroism and aspiration and its interaction with the Irish countryside.
The story of the Fianna is read all over Europe and is credited with having been one of the impulses leading to the romantic movement of the 19th century. Allen is central to that, a sacred place.
We hope that Kildare people in particular and Irish people generally will take steps to guard this crucial part of their cultural and historical heritage.
We are impressed by the valiant efforts of the local Hill of Allen Committee to halt the quarrying of the hill and we offer our firm support in the hope that it may encourage more general protest at this barbaric destruction of part of the national heritage of Ireland. - Yours, etc,
ALEKSANDRA KEDZIERSKA (Poland); SAKIKO TAKAGI (Japan); CATHERINE PHILLIPS (England); VITEK JANOTA (Czech Republic); WILHELM FOCKERSPERGER (Germany); P.K. WESTON (USA); JOAN TWOMEY (Switzerland); EMIL CIC (Croatia); BRUNO GAURIER (France); COLLEEN WETHERED (UK); SALAH NIAZI (Iraq); EDWARD NAVONE (USA); DESMOND EGAN, JIM RYAN, JOSEPH DUNNE, WALTER CONWAY, MARGARET RYAN, TOM BURNS, MARIE TALBOT (on behalf of other Irish participants) Gerard Manley Hopkins Society Annual International Summer School, Monasterevin, Co Kildare.