I've Nothing Against The Queen Personally: I

The Most Exhilarating For The Writer And The Reader, Are Gift-things-poems Which Arrive On Their Own Energy, Poems That In William Shakespeare's Term "slip" From You.

The Ability To Start Out Upon Your Own Impulse Is Fundamental To The Gift Of Keeping Going Upon Your Own Terms. . . . Getting Started, Keeping Going, Getting Started Again In Art And In Life, It Seems To Me This Is The Essential Rhythm.

Yet There Are Times When A Deeper Need Enters, When We Want The Poem To Be Not Only Pleasurably Right But Compellingly Wise, Not Only A Surprising Variation Played Upon The World, But A Re-tuning Of The World Itself.

The Way We Are Living, Timorous Or Bold, Will Have Been Our Life.

Not To Learn Irish Is To Miss The Opportunity Of Understanding What Life In This Country Has Meant And Could Mean In A Better Future. It Is To Cut Oneself Off From Ways Of Being At Home. If We Regard Self-understanding, Mutual Understanding, Imaginative Enhancement, Cultural Diversity And A Tolerant Political Atmosphereas A Desirable Attainments, We Should Remember That A Knowledge Of The Irish Language Is An Essential Element In Their Realisation.