Harold Pinter / Brian Abbott Correspondence

Repository: UCC Library Archives Service

Identity Statement

TitleHarold Pinter / Brian Abbott Correspondence
Archive ReferenceIE BL/SC/09 -10
Web Link to this Entryhttps://iar.ie/archive/harold-pinter-brian-abbott-correspondence
Creation DatesJun 1998-2003
Extent Medium6 items

Context

Creator(s): Brian Abbott

  • Administrative History ↴

    Brian Abbott is an Irish-based poet. Harold Pinter CH CBE (1930 -2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years.
  • Archival History ↴

    IE BL/SC/09 - 10 comprises of ccorrespondence between Brian Abbott, an Irish based poet and the playwright Harold Pinter. Abbott initially contacted Pinter in response to his participation in a TV programme criticizing the second Iraq war. They were donated to UCC in 2009 by Brian Abbott.
  • Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

    Donation

Content & Structure

  • Scope & Content: Brian Abbott ↴

    BL/SC/09 -10

    1. Jun 1998 (24 Mar 1999)

    Copy letter from Brian Abbott, Bishopstown Road, Cork to Tony Blair, (MP), then Prime Minister of Great Britain, sharply criticising the Labour Governments stance in Kosovo and Iraq and asking “will the Labour Government now call for Generals and Politicians who were responsible for the invasion of East Timor and the murder of 200,000 people there to be brought to justice”. He further questions British policy regarding military intervention in Yugoslavia. 2pp

    2. n.d.

    Poem by Brian Abbott ‘Smart Bombs’. Begins ‘The bombs have made their “Smart” attack/ On targets deep inside Iraq’. 2pp

    3. 2003

    Extended and reworked version of the poem ‘Smart Bombs’, now titled ‘Iraq’. ‘“Smart” bombs have made a new attack/ On targets deep inside Iraq’”. 7pp

    4. 23 May 1999

    Mss letter from Harold Pinter, (playwright) Campden Hill Square, London to Brian Abbott in response to a letter from Abbott enclosing copies of his poem ‘Smart Bombs’ and a letter he had written to Tony Blair (see above). “I was very pleased to hear from you. I liked your Gulf War poem very much & also admired your letter to Mr. Blair”. About the current political situation he comments “It all really stinks to high heaven, doesn’t it?”. Encloses copies of his poems ‘American Football’ and ‘Check Point Perspective’. 3 items

  • Appraisal Destruction ↴

    Permanent Retention
  • Arrangement ↴

    Limited items – no arrangement applicable

Conditions of Access & Use

Access Conditions Available by appointment with the Archives Service to holders of UCC Readers tickets
Conditions Governing ReproductionBy application to Archivist only
Creation DatesJun 1998-2003
Extent Medium6 items
Material Language ScriptEnglish
Finding Aids Item description Archive Web Link →

Allied Materials

There are no Allied Materials

Descriptive Control Area

Archivist NoteCarol Quinn
Rules/ConventionsISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description. 2nd ed. Ottawa: International Council on Archives, 2000.
Date of Descriptions2009