There was some recent controversy in regard to an artist portraying a murderer and another case where an artist portrayed a murder scene in west Cork. I would consider it distasteful if the intention is to glorify murder, but I do not think anybody could accuse either artist of doing that in these cases. Art has a responsibility to hold up a mirror to society and let us see ourselves as we really are. The literary works of Synge and O'Casey looked deeply into the human soul and at what it was to be Irish and, in so doing, informed our perception of ourselves.