Madam, - Derek Scally's article about Celtic Studies in Berlin (July 15th) could not be more timely. It is particularly appropriate in this year 2003, when we celebrate the centenary of the founding in Dublin of the School of Irish Learning by that great German Celtic scholar, Kuno Meyer.
While researching the biography of Meyer's successor in Berlin, Julius Pokorny from Vienna, (the biography will be published in the autumn by Four Courts Press), I came across exactly the kind of abuses of Celtic Studies that Derek Scally refers to. Pokorny lost his Chair in 1935 because of Jewish ancestry and the post was given to a Nazi Party member. In 1939 even the honoured Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, immortalised in Myles na Gopaleen's poem on "Binchy and Bergin and Best", was Nazified by the removal of Pokorny and appointment of Mühlhausen. After the war it was revived and denazified by Pokorny with (Leinster House take note!) financial help from de Valera's 1951-54 government. It still exists today as an outstanding Celtic Studies journal. Yet some neo-Nazis persist with theories on the Celts as "Aryan blood brothers" of the German master race.
Similarly, when searching for web-based material we find academic articles quoted on the websites of, for example, Druidic societies in Montana, for heaven's sake. This is precisely the danger. Academic scholarship is essential to provide a framework of understanding. The long ties between Ireland and the German-speaking countries go back at least 1,500 years, to the monks who settled in and became patrons of such cities as Würzburg, Salzburg and St Gallen. But without a proper context the popular image of Celtic culture and by extension the Irish language could be distilled into something akin to Asterix dancing round Clonmacnoise at midnight in a brown shirt. Ireland can ill afford such images.
It is perhaps true that our Celtic cousins should help out. But they have the backing of the British Council to promote their image and cultures abroad, an impressive network that Ireland simply does not have, and their administrations do not really have any responsibility for overseas. In any case, we in this country might like to consider the support that Germany has given to Irish learning over the years, not just to Celtic Studies but to the promotion of German in Ireland. There are currently eight posts in German departments at Irish Universities (six in the Republic, two in the North) that are subsidised by the German government.
Ireland has benefited tremendously from this German investment. Yet we give little in return.
Irish scholars have also benefited significantly from the help and encouragement that we have received in our dealings with German scholars, who even as support for them declines in Germany continue to engage with us and to promote Celtic Studies. The Irish government should follow de Valera's example of 50 years ago and invest in Celtic Studies in Germany, without any strings attached.
I call upon it to do so now. - Yours, etc.,
Dr PÓL Ó DOCHARTAIGH, Senior Lecturer in German, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Co Derry.