Dear Editor,

I must take issue with Richard Pine for his comment in an otherwise well-argued piece ‘In Dreams Begins Responsibility’ that ‘works by Irish composers are seldom performed abroad’. I’m afraid this is patent nonsense, and even a cursory glance through the back pages of any edition of New Music News will reveal that many Irish composers are regularly performed in the UK and further afield in Europe and the USA. Mr Pine’s assertion is perhaps a result of the customary lack of attention given to the work of Irish composers by a number of people involved in music in Ireland. It does not, however, excuse such a statement that only serves to propagate what long ago became a myth about the state of composition in this country. I counted well over 70 performances of works by 20 different Irish composers over the period of a few months in the last NMN issue – that figure speaks for itself. Responsibility also begins in reality.

Ian Wilson
Dromahair, Co. Leitrim