Madam, - In last Saturday's edition, Quentin Fottrell rightly insisted that the controversy surrounding Cathal Ó Searcaigh's behaviour in Nepal can only be clouded by his being gay, and a well-known poet. Neither fact should be relevant to the discussion of the central ethical issues.
However, the esteemed poet Máire Mac an tSaoi and the eminent artist Pauline Bewick took the rather surprising step of phoning the Joe Duffy Show last week, motivated, it would appear, primarily by Ó Searcaigh's poetic and personal standing (he is a member of Aosdána, for example), and their desire to come to the aid of a colleague and friend.
I was baffled by the moral ambiguity reflected in their contributions, though they were both clearly uncomfortable with some aspects of the information that has come into the public domain. That they should be upset by the actions of Neasa Ní Chianáin I can understand. Having discovered what was going on in Kathmandu it was, in my opinion, incumbent on her to report her concerns to the relevant authorities in Nepal and in Ireland, and she should be commended for doing so. But as she had begun the project as a friend of Ó Searcaigh, her position has indeed been weakened by the decision to complete the film and make commercial gain from it.
This, however, should be seen as a side issue. The object of concern must be the boys (as young as 16, and Ó Searcaigh himself refers to them as "boys") who were initiated into sexual relations by a 52-year-old man; boys who were poor, but who had lived in a protective community where they were unlikely to have had any knowledge of the permissive sexual mores of the West.
This was a man who came bearing gifts: the promise of an education, a future, funded in part by contributions from the great and the good of the artistic establishment in Ireland.
Pauline Bewick referred to the Nepali boys as "adults"; I doubt if there are many Irish mothers who regard their 16-year-old offspring as "adults": they are scarcely beyond childhood, and at a particularly vulnerable stage in their development. Both Bewick and Mac an tSaoi as mothers were, I imagine, in the happy position to know that their teenage children, comfortable in circumstances and well protected - like my own - were unlikely to be sexually seduced by powerful, wealthy, ageing men. I would have expected that as mothers, as well as artists, they would have been directed their compassion primarily towards those who lacked power in this situation, those who through poverty or ignorance would have been ill-prepared to resist advances.
Whether the person offering the prospect of a better future while taking sexual favours is a likeable poet or a grouchy office clerk is hardly material; there was something more than a little disquieting in the pleading by Ó Searcaigh's artistic colleagues that he is a nice, gentle soul, a gifted intellectual, whom they personally know and like, and their failure to condemn, at the very least, the confusion between his benevolent activity and personal sexual gratification.
Many of us denounced the Catholic Church establishment for closing ranks in the face of the indefensible: the abuse of innocence. Let us be spared a similar reaction on the part of our intellectual and artistic élite. - Yours, etc,
Prof GERALDINE SHERIDAN, Coolbane, Castleconnell, Co Limerick.
Madam, - I do not personally know Cathal Ó Searcaigh, although we are both members of Aosdána, but I do have some experience of Nepal.
A few years ago, I was there for three months; I was a guest of an orphanage in Kathmandu (run by Nepalese), and travelled around with its founder. I was also a guest in a private boarding school. The Maoists had just declared a ceasefire, the king had closed down the government, the tourist industry had practically collapsed, the economy was 60 per cent dependent on foreign aid, and the whole country was awash with NGOs of all nationalities.
Certain individual tourists had been deeply affected by the plight of the street children and had "adopted" them, paying for their education and receiving in return genuine gratitude and love. I asked some village children what they wanted to become; they told me their dream was to be adopted, get an education and start up their own NGO. Learning English was to a lifeline to go abroad. Despite free state education, the schools were in a mess and teachers rarely turned up to work; hence a mushroom growth of private schools.
Cathal Ó Searcaigh's young friends would have had problems long before they met him. He had been there many years, and was well known - indeed, the leading English-language newspaper published a fine poem he had written in praise of Kathmandu and the beauty of its young men. The NGO that has been condemning him must surely have been already aware of his interest in youth: Kathmandu is like Dublin of the 1950s - everyone knows everyone else's business.
I suspect that once it emerged that €50,000 had been raised for him by notable Irish painters and poets donating their works at auction, envious eyes in Kathmandu must have been turned upon Mr Ó Searcaigh. If the current rush of publicity, the insinuations, the involvement of police should force him against his will to break contact with his friends, the latter are bound to suffer desperate hurt to their self-esteem, a sense of deepest betrayal, irreparable emotional damage; and this will be the real abuse. - Yours, etc,
MARGARETTA D'ARCY (Member of Aosdána), St Bridget's Place Lower, Galway.
Madam, - Although a comprehensive statement has been issued to the press, the letter from Senator David Norris (February 8th) cannot be allowed to go unchallenged on at least one issue. Senator Norris states that "the video has been made selectively available to members of the press and others". For the record, where members of the press requested interviews with the director, a copy of the film was made available prior to the interview to enable them to make an informed assessment of the film and offer a critique. Preview copies were also provided for journalists who specifically wished to preview the film before the Dublin Film Festival.
The first media interview in Ireland done by the director, Neasa Ní Chianáin, was published in The Irish Timesfour days after the Film Festival programme was announced, and two weeks before the first public screening of the film. This would be regarded as a reasonable time-frame for a production company to publicise the Irish première of its film. - Yours, etc,
DAVID RANE, Producer, Fairytale of Kathmandu, Mín Doire, An Fál Carrach, Co Dhún na nGall.