Madam, - Having suffered the intriguing experience of being pilloried on the stocks of intellectual honesty in Fintan O'Toole's review of my play Operation Easter, currently running in Kilmainham Jail ("the problem lies with O'Kelly's intellectual honesty"), I find I must break a lifetime's habit and reply to criticism.
Fintan O'Toole doesn't need my validation to warrant his status as the leading theatre critic and arts analyst in the country. However, the subject matter of Operation Easter, the 1916 Rising, may have blurred his customary sharp vision.
He makes an uncharacteristic error in casting Arthur Riordan (who plays Connolly) in Phelim Drew's role (Brin, a loyalist Dubliner). It sets the tone for a strange review. It is a hazard of my job to be accused of writing "a bit of a mess". But I think here we have a case of the kettle calling the pot black.
Operation Easter looks at the 1916 Rising through an operation for a condition called "histrialysis" - historical paralysis. As a people we have shown ourselves unable to deal with the fact that the nation was born out of violence. Fintan O'Toole has been a leading participant in the ongoing national debate. In his review, he criticises the form of the play at length, and mentions the content with a palpable reluctance.
When he does deal with the content, he takes an uncharacteristic cheap shot in misquoting out of context. Tom Clarke says "Plunkett! You masterminded the Easter Rebellion! What do you say? Surrender or fight to the finish?" This occurs in No. 16 Moore Street, about 2pm on Saturday afternoon, on April 29th, 1916. Pearse and Connolly have voted for surrender. Plunkett is Clarke's only hope of support to fight on. Clarke is clutching at straws, both praising and pressurising Plunkett. In the context of Clarke's mortal fear of a second long prison sentence, it is truthful dialogue, not "narrative exposition".
As the writer I held the mirror up. The critic seems to have gone about smashing it in a rather messy way. This, I suggest, is a symptom of our national malaise requiring an operation in the first place. Histrialysis. It often happens that those who suffer most from it are unaware they are carriers.
As regards Mr O'Toole's contention that the play should end neatly by returning to present-day Moore Street, well, that would be just awful. Yet I'm accused of writing "a quite brilliant conclusion".
Hold on a second while I scratch my head. If we're throwing the ambivalence brickbats, maybe we should think of our own glasshouses. What on earth is he trying to say? Mr O'Toole suggests that, being a victim of my intellectual honesty, I "end up with an uneasy form". Wait a minute! Who's uneasy? It's certainly an innovative form. And it's proving to be a highly accessible form. The uneasiness, maybe, is Mr O'Toole's.
As for the temperature in Kilmainham Jail, free blankets are provided for all. There is no good reason for voluntarily sitting in the cold, is there? - Yours, etc,
DONAL O'KELLY, Palmerston Road, Dublin 6.