Sir, - Nuala O'Faolain (Opinion, December 15th) brought into the same equation Bishop Casey, who broke the law of his Church, but looked after his son; Charles J Haughey, who accepted money from a wealthy benefactor while in a position of trust and power; and Francis Stuart, who, of his own free will, went to Nazi Germany and offered his services to a regime that brought fear, oppression, torture and death to countless millions of people all over Europe.
There is no common denominator between these three people. Ms O'Faolain wants us to forgive and forget. I would have no problem with Casey, I would with Haughey, and I most certainly couldn't forgive or forget Stuart's contribution.
Nuala O'Faolain says she doesn't know what she would have done if the police had come to her village and taken away the Jews. Maybe she would, if everything wasn't brought down to the single issue of anti-Semitism. Maybe she would see the problem with more lucidity if she accepted that Nazi persecution was not directed at Jews alone. They were of course, a soft target, and enough people (everywhere) were infected with the racist virus to let the Nazis get away with it. But to make sure of that, they had first of all to eliminate all their political opponents, which they did, in Germany from 1933 on, and in the rest of Europe from the very start of Nazi occupation.
Maybe, if Nuala had seen the police come to the village and take away her neighbours, some of her family and her best friends, she would have known what to do. That's how it really was, and that's why I joined the resistance and spent over a year in Buchenwald concentration camp.
The Nazis not only killed 6 million Jews; they also killed countless millions of Germans, French, Poles, Belgians, Russians, Gypsies, etc. As a Nazi collaborator, Stuart was part of that super-holocaust.
You cannot at the same time proclaim your allegiance to democracy and freedom, reject racism and xenophobia, and offer the highest accolade of the land to a man who stands for the opposite. His artistic qualities are not the issue; his quality as a human being is in question.
What Aosdana did is an insult to all the victims of Nazism, including the thousands of Irish men and women who refused to be neutral in that war, many of whom paid with their lives. Not so Francis Stuart.
This is a dangerous signal to those who are still infected with the racist virus, an encouragement to those who still uphold the fascist ideology. Thank you, Maire Mhac an tSaoi for speaking out. A pity so few stood behind you. - Yours, etc.,
Avondale Crescent, Killiney, Co Dublin.