The writer Francis Stuart has denied he was ever anti-Semitic or supported either the Holocaust or the Nazi regime in Germany.
In his first interview since the controversy over an unsuccessful attempt to remove his status as a Saoi of Aosdana, the 95-year-old writer told RTE yesterday that he greatly regretted the hurt caused to many people by his apparent support for that regime. He also regretted his use of the phrase "the worm in the rose" to describe the Jews in Germany.
Asked if it was not understandable that Jewish people should take exception to it, he replied: "Yes, it is. It was not very clever of me not to make it clear . . . `The worm in the so-called rose' would have perhaps been a bit better. That was again a mistake on my part which was immensely hurtful."
On RTE television he said he saw the Jewish people as possessing extraordinary critical acumen and he meant the phrase as "a worm in the rose of our consumer society which to my mind is a very horrible society". He said he was never anti-Semitic. "Never at all. In my novel that is now a Penguin classic I have, I couldn't call it a defence of Jewry, it's not a defence, a promotion perhaps would be a better word."
Asked if he regretted the Holocaust, he replied: "Well, of course I regret it." Asked if he ever supported it, he said emphatically: "Never."
He was asked what he now said to the Jewish people. "What I say is that I'm deeply sorry that the misrepresentation of my views on them, largely on the scurrilous Channel 4 programme, caused them any hurt."
Asked if he now regretted his support for the Nazis he replied: "I never supported that regime and I'm intensely sorry for the hurt I caused so many people by appearing to. As I did understandably appear to support it."
Explaining why he had been in Germany at that time and why he had broadcast from there, he said: "It was . . . probably by that time the greatest war in history. I have always believed that the sort of writer I am should be at the heart of where things are most intense and that I should report it, unbiased as I hoped to do, primarily for my own people."
He summed up his views on Hitler and his policies as follows: "Hitler came to power in Germany after the Versailles Treaty, when things were very, very . . . I know people who were there in a terrible state then and he did a lot for Germany until, until . . ."
This was one of the many points in the interview where he appeared to search for words. "I think that certain people are possessed, as it's called in the Old Testament. I think of Hitler as becoming possessed by the spirit of evil," he added.