David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We also have Liam O'Flaherty, the most striking looking man. I remember him in his old age and he was still classically good looking. He wrote The Informer. He also wrote wonderful stories about animal life that are now, I am afraid, a little neglected. He really got under the skin of creatures such as an eel, a goat or a rabbit. He was a very remarkable writer.

Then, of course, there is Synge who wrote The Playboy of the Western World. Yeats advised him to go to the western islands and learn something about his own culture, which he did. He produced what could be described academically as "Synge-song" such as "The old man from the wesht", "Get up and travel easht", and "Let the wind be with you." There are only four or five grammatical constructions taken from Irish, but they project across the footlights to give the audience a feeling of contact with real Irish language and culture.

Let me end by referring to the theatre. I am very proud to say a play of mine about Oscar Wilde was put on in An Taibhdhearc. I have appeared in the Town Hall Theatre which is a very fine resource in Galway.

There is Coole Park, the home of Lady Gregory, one of the great figures of the Irish literary renaissance. She left her house to the State, but what did it do? It demolished it. My God, that is a black mark against it. To turn one's face against a gift and slap the courageous woman who had helped to found the Abbey Theatre right in the face was dreadful. There is now an opportunity for Galway city to make good by pushing out its image as a city of culture.