Lilliburlero
Sir: It would be pleasant to be able to mention Ireland in your paper, or any other, without attracting a nonsensical reply. To refute my suggestion that `Lilliburlero', as the anthem of Protestant Ireland, is offensive to Irish Roman Catholics by citing its appearance in O'Casey's The Drums of Father Ned is fairly ludicrous by any standard (Letters, 24 October). That play was suppressed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin as being offensive to his religion in, I think, 1957. Samuel Beckett (a Protestant, like O'Casey) withdrew a play of his own from that year's theatre festival after the banning. Irish RCs tend to be touchy about such things.
Orange bands play the tune. The British Army plays the tune. Best of all, Robert Graves, a sentimental Irish Nationalist, got up an unsuccessful agitation against its being used as the call-sign of the BBC World Service some time ago. If your correspondent, John O'Riordan, really thinks it inoffensive to RCs I suggest he tries whistling it in the Falls Road — and the best of luck to him.
Stan Gebler Davies 4 Carmelite Street, London EC4
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