Sir, - Senator Labhras O Murchu (April 19th) ducks every item of the scandalous catalogue of facts I listed (April 7th) regarding his recent Oireachtas report on Irish traditional music - except two.
He denies that the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Heritage and the Irish Language allocated him (a) £2,000 and (b) three months to prepare the report's 15 pages of text. But my source for this information was Senator O Murchu himself! On Raidio na Gaeltachta's discussion programme Do Bharuil (March 9th) he stated in answer to Norita Ni Chartuir that the preparation of the report cost about £2,000 ("timpeall £2,000 chun e a ullmhu ... nil a fhios agam faoi chlobhualadh ") and that he had three months to complete it ("tri mhi ... in iomlan, sea"). Since the Senator disagrees with himself, I'll leave him to it.
The paranoia his letter reveals about this terrible "Nicholas O'Carolan" person, and the arrogant, exclusive (?), abusive tone of this "O'Carolan's letters (sic), his cohorts and their antics, his hundreds of thousands of pounds growing by the day, and his manipulative campaign of misinformation and misrepresentation, goes some way to explaining how the senator could write a report on Irish traditional music which details only the activities of the organisation of which he himself is director-general. There is no conspiracy against the report; objectors are individually driven by their personal disgust at its cynical opportunism.
In the real world, readers interested in Irish traditional music may wish to visit the archive's new public exhibition The Northern Fiddler, now open in Smithfield Village, Dublin 7, or purchase Veteran's new CD of the Cullybackey singer and whistle player John Kennedy, as recorded by the archive. - Yours, etc., Nicholas Carolan,
Irish Traditional Music Archive, Merrion Square, Dublin 2.