Madam, - In response to Tuesday's letter about Fairytale of Kathmandu from supporters of the poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh, RTÉ Television wishes to point out the following.
RTÉ Television takes its responsibilities as Ireland's public service broadcaster very seriously. Central to those responsibilities is our adherence to statutory and professional standards in programme-making and broadcasting. We reject absolutely allegations of breaches of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland's code of standards, as made in Tuesday's letter.
RTÉ Television is acutely aware that the content of this film is unsettling. Nonetheless, no one has so far disputed that Cathal Ó Searcaigh had sexual relations with young men in Nepal, least of all Cathal Ó Searcaigh himself. The programme's central contentions of exploitation have been tested rigorously for fairness and accuracy and were corroborated before bringing them into the public domain.
Central to this testing and corroboration was RTÉ's insistence that the filmmaker revisit Nepal for a third time, and in the company of the respected NGO Voice of Children. The troubling findings of this trip persuaded us that the public interest would be served by broadcasting Fairytale of Kathmandu.
RTÉ rejects the accusation that this film is either homophobic or engages in stereotypical representation. The film is not about homosexuality. The sexual orientation of the subject is incidental to the film. If the story centred on an Irish heterosexual man who travelled to Nepal and administered largesse to underprivileged 16- and 17-year-old girls with whom he had sexual relationships, the same arguments would apply.
The film is about disparity of power and the sexual exploitation that took place within those unequal relationships. Unlike the authors of Tuesday's letter, we believe such exploitation occurs when a benefactor initiates sexual contact with a recipient, be it in a developing or developed country.
It was with no pleasure that RTÉ delivered this film to the public on Tuesday night. However, based on our conviction that it is fair, accurate and important, we would have been derelict in our duty had we not. - Yours, etc,
CLARE DUIGNAN,
Director of Programmes,
RTÉ Television,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
Madam, - The signatories to the letter in Tuesday's page ask: "When has RTÉ ever, in its long history, broadcast a documentary about the alleged sexual impropriety of a heterosexual, concerning consensual sex with someone over the age of consent?"
In reply to this question, I immediately thought of the example of Bishop Eamon Casey, a heterosexual man who had consensual sex with someone over the age of consent and to whose case many programmes and hours of television were devoted.
For the people who put their name to this letter to suggest, as they did, that the principal reason Fairytale of Kathmandu was broadcast was because of some homophobic bias, is a very lame and pathetic argument. Having watched the documentary on Tuesday night, I have concluded that if a similar documentary were made about a heterosexual writer, who was shown to be engaging in consensual sex with women from a Third World country who were over the age of consent, the reaction would be the very same and the writer in question would have serious questions to answer.
And if this heterosexual was not a writer but a plumber or clerk, not only would these serious questions remain but I doubt very much if his fellow workers would be defending his indefensible behaviour with the passion and vigour with which Mr Ó Searcaigh's fellow-writers have leapt to his defence. - Yours, etc,
DAVID DOYLE,
Gilford Park,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.
Madam, - A middle-aged man from Ireland goes to Nepal, one of the poorest countries on earth, and dispenses charity to innocent teenage boys in return for sexual favours. The commentariat is in a paroxysm of doubt as to whether this is acceptable or wrong.
Have we lost all sense of right and wrong and have we lost all our sense of decency? - Yours, etc,
LEWIS HEALY,
Ailesbury Road,
Dublin 4.
Madam, - Having watched the documentary on Tuesday night, and having no prior knowledge of that poet or his work, I was struck by several things.
Yes, Mr Ó Searcaigh displayed very poor judgment and did not grasp the power differential that existed between him and those boys. I can't say I liked the man.
But can we put this in perspective, please? He did not commit a crime. One wonders how traumatised the boys were after their encounter with him. It strikes me that they were probably equally traumatised after their encounter with the documentary-maker. If they hadn't fully realised they had been exploited, they certainly must have after she was finished with them. Did that really help or benefit them in any way?
It is flagrantly hypocritical to hold Mr Ó Searcaigh up to a standard of probity that many others in public life do not meet, to destroy his reputation and quite possibly his career. While I would not presume to compare the quality of their works, does no one remember Oscar Wilde? It seems we live again in a Victorian age: do as you please, the sin is getting caught. - Yours, etc,
SUZANNE BRENNAN,
Northwood,
Shanakiel,
Cork.
A Chara, - What conclusions do Máire Mac an tSaoi, Pauline Bewick and others draw from the fact that Cathal Ó Searcaigh, in spending the money of supporting artists, seems not to have acknowledged the existence of needy women? - Is mise,
JACK GANNON,
Ratoath Estate,
Cabra,
Dublin, 7.
Madam, - Somewhere in the past two decades, Conservative-Liberal Ireland decided it knew better than the Church, the Constitution or anyone else in matters of defending moral permission. It found a willing and powerful voice in both the written and broadcast media.
We were told we could sleep with anyone we wanted as long as the participants were of legal age and that neither was coerced. Marriage was optional and certainly gender was not an issue. Anyone who thought otherwise was scornfully dismissed as old-fashioned at best or fascist at worst.
While the sexual orientation or behaviour of a person causes me not a moment of lost sleep, I find it curious now that Conservative-Liberal Ireland has become confused in all its freedoms and feels the need to dish out some righteous indignation. Cathal Ó Searcaigh, has proved to be a predictably soft target. Suddenly, we are advised by Con-Lib Big Brother that there are rules governing moral behaviour after all. Poor oul' Cathal seemed to be more surprised than most when his own carry-on was called into question.
Claire Duignan, speaking on behalf of RTÉ's decision to air the programme, said it contained a truth in which the public had an interest. Of course the public had an interest. The interest had been hyped by the station's current affairs wing a month before, but if it wasn't for the so-called "controversial" element the film would have been a most unremarkable roll of celluloid. OK, the poet had sexual relations with people who were of legal age. We saw no evidence of coercion. There was a handful of interviews with some of those who claimed they were participants. We have the film-maker's word for everything else.
I have no time for Ó Searcaigh's grubby ideas of love or intimacy and my supposition is that he gave up his right to privacy by agreeing to the film in the first place, thus reflecting the not unusual occurrence of an artist's narcissism, but there is a great hypocrisy at work when we are expected to be shocked and sickened by what Con-Lib Ireland suddenly and naively considers to be shocking or sickening or "of interest". Perhaps the film tells us more about our moral minders than it does about the transgressors. - Yours, etc,
MARTIN KELLEHER,
Athlone,
Co Westmeath.
Madam, - Those individuals who feel enraged by RTÉ's airing of Fairytale of Kathmandu, claiming it has been creatively edited to the detriment of Mr Ó Searcaigh's reputation are missing the point. They protest that the boys were of a reasonable age to give consent. However, Mr Ó Searcaigh's behaviour is unsavoury because he used his status as a wealthy benefactor to persuade his "friends" to engage in sexual relations with him. Regardless of their age, such behaviour leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.
Should wealthy Americans have come to some of Ireland's most deprived areas in the pre-Celtic Tiger era and used their wealth to help deprived girls and boys, in tandem with inviting them to their hotel rooms, the natives would have perceived this in only one way - as sleazy contemptible behaviour. - Yours, etc,
ANNE MARIE DONOVAN,
Lavarna Grove,
Dublin 6W.