Groups in Ireland and the United States are trying to raise funds to fly home a gay American writer who is in hospital in Dublin after being severely beaten in Sligo last month.
Mr Robert Drake (36), was found badly beaten in his flat on Holborn Street in the centre of Sligo on January 31st. He had suffered head injuries and was transferred by helicopter to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin the following evening, where he remains in a critical condition.
Three days after the attack, two men in their early 20s, accompanied by their solicitor, went to gardai and agreed to help with inquiries. A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Gardai have not yet been able to interview Mr Drake because he is still on a ventilator in hospital.
The incident happened at about 4 a.m. on January 31st, but Mr Drake was not found until shortly before 9 p.m. Gardai do not believe any weapon was used in the attack. Mr Drake had arrived in Sligo only a few weeks earlier to research a novel, and was not generally known, even in literary circles in the town.
Gay organisations in Ireland have condemned the attack and are now helping friends of Mr Drake, who is a Quaker, to raise money to have him flown back to the US.
Mr Brian Sheehan of the Gay Switchboard in Dublin said it was deplorable that gay and lesbian people in Ireland were often targeted solely on the basis of their sexuality. He said the fact that a foreign visitor had been attacked in this way was particularly distressing.
Dr E. Scott Pretorius, a radiologist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and a friend of Mr Drake, travelled to Sligo when he heard of the attack.
Upon his return to the US, in an email to friends, gay organisations and reporters, Dr Pretorius wrote that Mr Drake was suffering from a severe head injury, was on a ventilator and was barely conscious.
"Robert's family, friends and I are outraged by this unimaginable act of violence against this gentle and kind individual. It is my hope that the parties responsible will be zealously prosecuted to the furthest extent of Irish law. Crimes such as these are the natural by-product of a culture which continues to relegate gay men and lesbians to second-class citizenship. We are seen as less than human by the terrorists who commit crimes such as these," Dr Pretorius wrote.
Dr Pretorius told the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper that during his time in Ireland he tried to reconstruct the attack.
Groups in the US are trying to raise between $10,000 and $40,000 to have Mr Drake, who has written a novel and edited four literary anthologies, flown back to the US. Newspapers in Phildelphia and Baltimore are covering the case, as well as the New York Times.