Madam, - During the past eight to 10 months, we have been in touch with members of the Omagh victims' group with a view to assisting the fund established to finance a civil court action. To this end we have prepared a collaborative publication, made up of two poems and four drawings (all previously unpublished), to be issued shortly in a limited edition for sale to the public.
Every aspect of the project is provided without cost to the Omagh funds - text, art-work, paper, printing, distribution. While we had originally intended that the resulting large-format portfolio would be available this summer, one or two last-minute technical factors have led to a postponement until the autumn..
The cost of the portfolio will reflect the importance of the cause at least as much as it will reflect the quality of the physical production. It is designed to generate about £6,000 sterling for the Omagh fund - a small but far from negligible sum.
The present letter is not intended as a direct invitation to subscribe (though details may be obtained from the address below). It is published in order to show the authorities, political and legal, that artists feel strongly in favour of assisting an impartial, thorough and wide-ranging civil court hearing into the multiple violent deaths caused five years ago. - Yours, etc.,
HUGH MAXTON,
(Aosdána),
MARGARET FITZGIBBON,
(Cork Artists' Collective),
Claraghy,
Rockcorry,
Co Monaghan.