Irish charity
Sir: It was Dr Johnson who invented the celebrated maxim: The Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another.' Perhaps that is why your reviewer, John Stewart Collis (himself Irish), offers so uncharitable a revaluation of Sean O'Casey's renowned Autobiographies (9 May).
In addition to acerbic asides ('blather brought to a fine degree of non-art'), there are several inaccuracies and omissions prejudicial to a wider appreciation of such an outstanding phantasmagorical work. (What other autobiographical sequence has been reprinted so many times in the space of less than half a century?) It is untrue to state that the original six volumes are 'here condensed'; in the present format, they are republished in their entirety (with the additional value of an index supplied by Shakespearian historian J.C. Trewin). Although O'Casey, deliberately, does not favour a chronological approach, he does, in fact, give his date of birth, although hidden away, characteristically, in a chapter on Shaw in the sixth volume!
Your reviewer does not think highly of O'Casey's later, fantastical plays, but others have: notably Shaw, O'Neill, T.E. Lawrence, Nathan, Trewin and many others. Shaw and O'Casey were not only friends but disciples. Although Collis does not choose to stress it, there were striking affinities between the two men. Shaw, during his long lifetime, fought a ceaseless struggle against cant, humbug and hypocrisy; so also did O'Casey. Yet Collis can revere Shaw as a saviour but only revile his opposite number as a devil's disciple. The tragedy lies in Shaw's own aphorism: 'Put an Irishman on the spit, and you can always get another Irishman to turn him.' John O'Riordan
79 The Mall, Southgate, London N14
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