Sir, - I gladly accept Mr Eoin Neeson's assurance (August 30th) that when he used the words "degeneracy" and "perversion" to refer to the Casement portrayed by the "Black Diaries", he was not referring to homosexual practices as such.
His original article included the sentence: "These diaries depict him as a rampant homosexual (he has now become something of a bizarre martyr-icon figure among some homosexual communities) indulging in 'degenerate habits' - sometimes several times a day - throughout his adult life." I can only ask readers to consider whether, reading these words, they might have interpreted them as I did in my letter of August 25th.
We are left to wonder what practices Mr Neeson was condemning as degenerate or perverted. He gives no clue, except when he uses the word "juvenile". Now, while the "Black Diaries" include references to boys, it is adolescents that are in question, and there is no suggestion of paedophilia.
While it might be acceptable to refer to paedophilia as perverted, I cannot think of any sexual practice to which the word "degenerate" could reasonably be applied. The passages that I have read from the diaries refer to normal homosexual observations and acts. - Yours, etc.,
John Goodwillie, Old County Road, Dublin 12.