Irish in Poland
Sir: Stan Gebler Davies complains that 'the Irish cannot speak Irish' (Dear acid ton- gue', 6 September). He might be cheered to know that some Poles are learning 'the trumpet of the Gad'. The Roman Catholic university of Lublin has two lecturers, one Irish (from Cork), the other Welsh, teaching Gaelic to Polish students in the linguistics department. In choosing a lan- guage of protest the Poles have made a point; there is also the Roman Catholic connection between Irish and Polish. The two lecturers don't have an easy life. They feel the cold, eat frugally — a canteen meal of sausage, soup and an apple, and hard- boiled eggs for supper — and as purveyors of a recondite discipline are regarded (affectionately) by some students as 'witch doctors rather than savants'. But the uni- versity should be congratulated on a typi- cally 'gallant' Polish gesture.
Denis Hills
12 Crick Road, Oxford
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