Madam, – Ann Marie Hourihane (March 30th) and Fintan O’Toole (March 31st) are exactly on point regarding the Brian Cowen caricatures. The draconian reaction of the “powers that be” towards the equivalent of a custard pie in the face betrays a mindset both fearful and arrogant, an uneasy sign from a Government supposedly about to rally public confidence around a hair-shirt budget.
Custard pies were actually thrown at the leaders of the two major parties during the 2002 general election without John Waters intimating that democracy is in danger (March 26th). Democracy is indeed in danger, not from an unknown artist, but from Brian Cowen.
This man and his predecessor, through their cynical manipulation of the housing market, have brought our democratic institutions into such disrepute that they will struggle to recover any international or national respect for some time. A custard pie or a public travesty is the least they deserve. Mr Casby seems to have a talent for political caricature in a ribald and scatological tradition that stretches back to James Gillray in the 18th century and includes contemporary cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. Recently the Sunday Times published a Scarfe cartoon of Gordon Browne with trousers down, sitting on a toilet, without any resulting outcry over personal attack or democracy in danger. Let us nationally have a good horse laugh at Cowen and his troupe, drop this stupid investigation (or let it die of ridicule) and move on. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The most serious outcome of the fuss about the Cowen portraits is that it has uncovered a profound ignorance of the important distinction between genuine satire and petty mockery. The sniggering classes binge on their cheap junk, but society receives no nudge in the direction of beneficial change. Most depressing of all is to find such ignorance submerging the very organs that ought to deliver real satire, namely the media, wallowing in witless tittering without a titter of wit. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Please advise John Waters that I read his column (March 27th) about the Brian Cowen paintings on the internet, the very place in which, he says, “deeply unpleasant people get to voice their ignorant opinions in the ugliest terms.” Indeed. – Yours, etc,