Dublin Theatre Festival donates letter by Samuel Beckett to Trinity Library
Posted on: 15 April 2025
The donation was made by the Dublin Theatre Festival through the support of board member, Tom Clinch and his wife Méav Ní Mhaolchatha.
A letter by Samuel Beckett has been donated by the Dublin Theatre Festival to the Library of Trinity College Dublin.
The author wrote the letter to the actor Deryk Kendel about his decision to withdraw his short play Act Without Words I from the second edition of Dublin Theatre Festival in 1958. This was done in protest of the censorship by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid of two plays slated to perform that year.
Samuel Beckett wrote in the letter: “I have heard from John that the adaptation for the stage of Ulysses and the new O’Casey play, which were to be performed at the coming Dublin Festival, have been vetoed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin….If it is true. I shall have to withdraw my participation”.
The second edition of the festival was subsequently cancelled as a result of the affair.
The donation was made by the Dublin Theatre Festival through the support of board member, Tom Clinch & his wife Méav Ní Mhaolchatha (pictured above on far right and far left, with Artistic Director of the Dublin Theatre Festival Róise Goan and Helen Shenton, Librarian and College Archivist).
It was marked with an event this month in the Eavan Boland Library attended by the Provost Dr Linda Doyle, Librarian and College Archivist Helen Shenton and board members of the Dublin Theatre Festival.
Dublin Theatre Festival Artistic Director & CEO Róise Goan said:
"With great thanks to Gavin Kostick for bringing this letter to our attention, it is intriguing to see the ethical challenges artists like Beckett were facing in 1958 and how they speak to the contemporary moment. In an increasingly polarised society, the festival takes pride and comfort in Beckett's stand against a culture of censorship that was prevalent in Dublin at the time due to the overbearing influence of the conservative Catholic church. Whatever the systems of power at play are, we need remain true to our values and support freedom of artistic expression amongst our talented artists both at home in Ireland and internationally.
“We are very grateful to Tom Clinch and Méav Ní Mhaolchatha for facilitating the donation on behalf of the festival. By accepting this donation, The Eavan Boland library will ensure that the letter is accessible to theatre scholars long into the future. It is a great privilege for the festival to make an addition to Trinity College’s extensive Beckett collection."
Librarian and College Archivist, Helen Shenton said:
“This Beckett letter captures an important period in Irish theatre history and the manner in which it has arrived to the Library as a gift by the Dublin Theatre Festival is particularly special. It is also fitting that we received this donation in the Eavan Boland Library. In 1959, when the Library embarked on a fundraising campaign to build what is now the Eavan Boland Library, Beckett as an alumnus and great friend of Trinity’s granted a year’s worth of royalties from the Broadway production of Krapp’s Last Tape to the building fund.
“The Dublin Theatre Festival’s donated letter now joins the Library’s extensive Beckett collection of correspondence which can be viewed and studied by students and researchers of Beckett and theatre in the Library he so generously supported.”
The Library of Trinity College Dublin holds the largest collection of Beckett letters of any research library in the world. The Beckett collection also includes notebooks, drafts of works, translations and abandoned prose and drama.
Samuel Beckett and Trinity College Dublin
Samuel Beckett entered Trinity College in 1923 aged seventeen years. He specialised in French and Italian and graduated in 1927. While he was in College he represented the College in cricket.
Beckett was expected to continue in an academic career and was appointed assistant lecturer in French literature in Trinity in 1930. He disliked teaching, principally because, at this time, he was becoming more determined to become a writer.
Beckett always showed himself a friend to Trinity College Library Dublin. In 1959 the Library embarked upon a fundraising campaign to build what is now the Eavan Boland Library. Beckett was asked to write a play with a Library theme to assist with the campaign. He agreed to attempt it but, as he expected, could not comply: instead he granted the royalties from a year’s productions of Krapp’s Last Tape to the campaign.
Media Contact:
Fiona Tyrrell | Media Relations | tyrrellf@tcd.ie | +353 1 896 3551