Madam, - Brian Maye in his Irishman's Diary (October 27th) should be congratulated for acknowledging the debt all of us who study Ireland's past should have for Prof William Lecky in the remarkable impartiality exhibited by his scholarly writings.
As Brian Maye correctly pointed out, here in Trinity we do have a fine statue to him in Front Square beside the Old Library, and a library which is also named after him.
But arguably his most important legacy to a living third level institution, the Lecky Chair, endowed by his widow in 1913, has now been vacant for just over a decade.
This chair has been held since its foundation, without any significant interruption, by several eminent historians, including Edmund Curtis, Annette Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven and James Lydon.
It is a great pity, therefore, that the present Department of Medieval History in the college is likely to have to endure many more years without this Chair of History being filled because of the current financial situation. This is despite the fact that many distinguished academic reviewers of the department have recommended to the college that it be filled immediately in order to give academic leadership to the only surviving such department in the whole of Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
TERRY BARRY,
Associate Professor of
Medieval History,
Trinity College,
Dublin.