Sir, How dare Kevin Myers attempt to inflame the passions of ordinary unionists and RUC officers with an account of a film he has not seen? And for the record, can I state that I do not find car bombs in any way amusing? Nor have I ever supported any form of violence as a solution to the problems on this island.
My only crime is in having had an injudicious and angry exchange of views with the political editor of the Daily Telegraph, who wanted an excuse to call for the banning of my film and made sure he got it. In that same Telegraph (October 20th) Mr Myers attempts to offend Claire Short, her son Toby Graham and my film with a benign trek through the roots of all three and finds them, of course, in Crossmaglen in South Armagh.
My film is set in the years 1916-1922 and relates only to those years. Its only relationship with the present is that it was made in the present. Mr Myers's brand of journalism, unfortunately, seems to belong in those years. Or perhaps in the last years of the Third Reich. His mode of genealogical enquiry would have done Heinrich Himmler proud. - Yours, etc.,
Sorrento Terrace,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.