Sir, - I am a founding board member of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and last February was invited by An Taoiseach to serve another five-year term. I declined on the basis that every institution needs new blood.
I'm glad now that I did decline, because I could never have supported what has occurred: the public humiliation of the director, Declan McGonagle, and the damage wrought, from within, on a much-admired Irish public institution.
I would emphasise that I fully support the right of a new board to implement change, and I am totally against the idea of a job for life for any CEO. But I'm led to believe there has been little or no debate or discussion on philosophical or practical change by the present board - and that Mr McGonagle himself doesn't actually want a sinecure!
I don't for a moment believe that the board - many of whom are highly-respected public figures - intended that this matter would get out of hand, as it has.
That Declan McGonagle is one of the most highly-regarded curators in the world is evidenced by the calibre of the international support he has received in this matter, as reported in this newspaper. I also happen to know that several high-profile existing and potential donors are reconsidering their positions, and that current sponsors may withdraw if a satisfactory conclusion is not reached.
This has been a crude, embarrassing, amateurishly-handled exercise, which in my view has caused irreparable harm to one of this country's greatest assets.
Dismissals and resignations should be forthcoming - yes - but not Declan McGonagle's. - Yours, etc.,
Mike Murphy, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.