Cathal O’Searcaigh Eoghan Harris Fairytale of Kathmandu Debate
February 11, 2008
Writing about the issues raised by the movie , “Fairytale of Kathmandu” and the poet Cathal O’Searchaigh , Eoghan Harris in the Independent’s anyalsis page treats us to a few pearls of wisdom or what passes for wisdom with those like Harris.
Speaking of the poet Maira Mhac an tSaoi’s comments on the Joe Duffy Show he refers to her “forensic tour de force ” !! And what was her contribution to the debate ? Well ,she suggested that O’Chainnin’s had betrayed a friend and acted for mercenary reasons …You can read the whole thing yourself but that’s what it all comes down to. Harris is obviously a man who is easily impressed.
He then goes on to tell us that Eamon Delaney has let the cat out of the bag about the Rape Crisis Centre and that …..wait for it …….(drum roll ) …the Rape Crisis Centre has a feminist agenda…. not only is this man easily impressed but he’s also a bit behind on what the dogs in the street have been yelping about for years.
Now in case you think I’m being unfair to Harris here’s that link again (LINK) and oh , by the way Mr. Harris did manage to overlook one thing that Maira Mhac an sTaoi said on the radio , ie that young oriental boys were not as sexually innocent as they might seem. (and we all know what she really means , don’t we ). But if you feel that I might be misrepresenting her then just listen for yourself. RTE Liveline Podcasts .But the wonderful Harris is not a man to do things by half. In for a penny in for a pound. And so in true Irish fashion he drags up old history…….he opens his mouth but forgets to engage the grey matter first and thus comes out with this bit of insight …..(another drumroll ….)…
He tells us that Roger Casement ’s reputation would have been ruined if a camera crew had been around in his day. He tells us that Casement had ’sordid’ sex with boys and then goes on to say that he (Casement ) went on to show dauntless courage fighting colonial power. Now it’s difficult to ruin someones reputation if they never had a good reputation in the first place. And perhaps Harris was a very stupid little boy and swallowed all the propaganda he was exposed to in his childhood history classes but he should not assume that we were all as stupid as him. I can only speak for myself but I cannot remember , even as a very young child , believing that Casement or Collins were anything more than thugs and psychopaths. True , the Christian Brother of Westland Row tried to convince me that these were Great Men but I didn’t believe it then and certainly don’t believe it now. Now don’t get me wrong , I’m not saying that I was particularly clever or anything like that , it’s just that I never was a complete ’thick’. Casement’s speech in the dock was a fine speech no doubt but he was talking about himself….and he’s not the first to use this world of ours as his own plaything …as a platform upon which to carve out his own destiny. History ,as we all know is written by the victor. …..and the fact that it was a Catholic school system that tried to impress upon us the virtues of Casement ( while beating , humiliating and abusing vulnerable children ) should be enough to make us wary of accepting THEIR heroes uncritically.
Unfortunatly people like Harris control the media and so dictate the level of debate. Have you notice how all these people keep referring to the fact that O’Searcaigh is a poet ? We all know he’s a poet so why do they keep mentioning it. Just last night on the radio I heard some media people refer to him almost as a tortured soul. You all know what I mean. Why this assumption of an almost spiritual nature to the man ?. Did anyone feel the need to ascribe these characteristics to Michael Jackson. No they didn’t , in spite of the fact that they both have presented themselves to the world in much the same manner. Jackson like O’Searcaigh is seen as ’naive’ almost childlike in his openness …even the body language is simular…and then there’s Garry Glitter. Has anyone tried to defend Glitter? Or look beyond the headlines to consider the man himself ? Or his predicament ?
When Eoghan Harris writes about O’Searcaigh he is of course really trying to tell us something about himself. He is telling us to look at him. To take notice of the ‘liberal’ man who understands the issues. He has his own agenda and it’s quite transparent…. But like O’Searcaigh , he has misjudged the mood of the nation. He has also misjudged the intelligence of it’s people. …..
I have just found this quote from Pauline Bewick , one of O’Sharkey’s defenders , and well know artist. “ Rapists and paedophiles should be castrated “. She would no doubt say that O’Sharkey is none of these but the tone of this remark , the uncompromising nature of it is very different from that which she uses when speaking of O’Sharkey. This extreme right wing sentiment is in sharp contrast to her liberal attitude when speaking of exploitation in Nepal.
February 11, 2008 at 10:42 pm
[...] like this. And the reason is of course that they feel , consciously or otherwise that it’s they who are being judged. Indeed , indeed and as I also said earlier, this story is about a lot more than Cathal [...]
February 12, 2008 at 8:29 pm
MARGARETTA D’ARCY from Galway, another Aosdana “friend” (in quotes, because a friend would not defend the indefensible, but confront the wrong-doing) of O’Sharkey, publicly demonstrates her twisted morals by joining the witch-hunt against the maker of the documentary.
Her argumentation is equally ridiculous, albeit different in style from O’Harris’ and Norris’ pompous über-self-righteousness, but with the same main intention of artfully smearing the film maker and the NGO critical of O’Sharkey.
From the Irish Times letters page: “Madam, - I do not personally know Cathal Ó Searcaigh, although we are both members of Aosdána, but I do have some experience of Nepal.
A few years ago, I was there for three months…
Certain individual tourists had been deeply affected by the plight of the street children and had “adopted” them, paying for their education and receiving in return genuine gratitude and love. I asked some village children what they wanted to become; they told me their dream was to be adopted, get an education and start up their own NGO. Learning English was to a lifeline to go abroad. Despite free state education, the schools were in a mess and teachers rarely turned up to work; hence a mushroom growth of private schools.
Cathal Ó Searcaigh’s young friends would have had problems long before they met him. He had been there many years, and was well known - indeed, the leading English-language newspaper published a fine poem he had written in praise of Kathmandu and the beauty of its young men. The NGO that has been condemning him must surely have been already aware of his interest in youth: Kathmandu is like Dublin of the 1950s - everyone knows everyone else’s business.
I suspect that once it emerged that €50,000 had been raised for him by notable Irish painters and poets donating their works at auction, envious eyes in Kathmandu must have been turned upon Mr Ó Searcaigh. If the current rush of publicity, the insinuations, the involvement of police should force him against his will to break contact with his friends, the latter are bound to suffer desperate hurt to their self-esteem, a sense of deepest betrayal, irreparable emotional damage; and this will be the real abuse.”
Margaretta D’Arcy’s letter is nicely sandwiched by a letter that profoundly takes issue with Bewick and Máire Mac an tSaoi by Prof GERALDINE SHERIDAN of Limerick, which ends: “Many of us denounced the Catholic Church establishment for closing ranks in the face of the indefensible: the abuse of innocence. Let us be spared a similar reaction on the part of our intellectual and artistic élite.”
and a letter by the producers of the documentary who refute Norris’ and others accusations about the way they made previews of the film available.
February 12, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Peter , thank you for you comments. It’s difficult to have to sit back and listen to these defenders of O’Searcaigh. It makes us feel helpless in the face of a media and artistic elite who have been ‘talking down’ to us on many issues in recent years..
…but there may be one small consolation…..This may will be one of those ‘give them enough rope’ situations. There is a deep feeling of anger which I think has not found a means to express itself yet…the ‘man in the street’ has been talked down to perhaps once too often….we’ve all been spoken to for too long as if we were idiots and don’t understand the deeper issues….
February 13, 2008 at 1:49 am
Didn’t Maire Mhac an tSaoi previously (several years ago) suggest that Aosdana should only be open to those of certain political views? I think the reason that so many artists’ and Aosdana’s members’ voices have been heard over recent days is that some of these people feel that they are intellectually and morally superior to the rest of us. I think they regard it as an “appalling vista” that they may have been wrong about one of their own. Cathal O Searcaigh is a great artist. Art is good. Ergo (to their GREAT minds) Cathal O Searcaigh is good. The truth hurts.
February 13, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Aoife , She tried to have Francis Stewart kicked out of Aosdona …paticularly after he published “Blacklist Section H”…Stewart was a true Nazi and tried to dress it up as some ‘black night of the soul “…..He should never have been honored by Aosdana but it shows sthat she is quite happy to judge people when she feels offended……while denying us the right to do the same with another equally unpleasant man.
February 13, 2008 at 1:46 pm
There’s a witty and noteworthy reply by COLUM KENNY, School of Communications, Dublin City University, to the appalling Senator Norris letter in the IT in today’s issue:
“Unlike Senator David Norris, I intend to see Fairytale of Kathmandu during the Dublin International Film Festival. It seems better to me to read a book or watch a film before condemning it.
Senator Norris writes (February 8th) that “the first thing that caught my eye on opening it [ the festival programme] was a sultry poster of a muscular, half-naked youth in what a friend subsequently described to me as ‘a classic St Sebastian pose’.”
I too received the same programme and reopened it to find this “poster”, because I could not recall it. The senator seems to be referring to a small frame from the film, one of over a hundred such frames advertising more than a hundred films. The youth is not particularly muscular and is simply wearing shorts, being about to jump into water. He is considerably less naked than are some people in other frames in the programme. As regards a pose, if one wants to be fanciful, it reminds me more of Jesus crucified than of St Sebastian bound.
Senator Norris says that, because of this single image, he does not wish to attend the film and “swell the profits” of those who made it. He need not worry. Swollen profits are not generally associated with one-off documentary commissions from Irish broadcasters. Besides, people can watch the film for nothing on RTÉ in the near future.
The profits that David Norris makes from representing a university that enjoys the discriminatory privilege of electing three senators are likely to be far greater than any income that the producers of this film will make from their hard work. In any event, it would have been quite unprofessional for the producers to deliver a flattering homage once they glimpsed other realities.
It is lamentable when people’s judgment fails them in the heat of collective self-interest. We have seen churchmen unwilling to root out institutional abuse for fear of damaging religion. We watched Irish people and liberals avert their gaze from Bill Clinton’s abuse of an employee because he was a “friend of Ireland” and a Democrat. Now we have the spectacle of gay rights activists and artists slighting critics of one of their own. They confuse the admirable trait of privately standing by a personal friend, no matter what he has done, with publicly defending the indefensible.
Senator Norris says that, as regards Cathal Ó Searcaigh’s behaviour in Nepal, “there may indeed be some questions to be clarified”. “May”? “Clarified”? Like Senator Norris, I too was perturbed by certain media coverage of this matter. However, I am also concerned about the impact of Mr Ó Searcaigh’s behaviour on fund-raising by reputable charities which are supporting projects in Nepal. As a friend of some Tibetan refugees, I know that the needs of people in the region are considerable. Such needs are not best met by the sexual favours of a member of Aosdána.”
February 13, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Thanks again Peter ,
If O’Searcaigh’s friends had not been so quick and arrogant in their manner…many would have just looked the other way. But they jumped in just a little too fast and that was arrogance…
….ironicall , given a little time they will turn on Sharkey..they won’t do it out in the open but they will turn on him…They made a serious strategic error and I thing the penny will drop quite soon (the above article will help weigh the penny ).
…..as drama goes this is better than Coronation Street.
February 15, 2008 at 5:28 pm
“This extreme right wing sentiment is in sharp contrast to her liberal attitude when speaking of exploitation in Nepal.” - There’s nothing ‘liberal’ (by which I assume you mean socially permissive/left-wing) about defending child abuse. A few mad libertarians might be keen on it, but really, there’s no point bringing politics into it; no sane political viewpoint really supports it.
February 15, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Robert ,
The word liberal always had two meanings , the classic meaning and the pragmatic one but now it has a third and very reactionary meaning…
In the name of this new ‘liberalism’ freedom of speech has been abondoned and millions are sleepwalking into the new European corporate state willfully ignorant of the horrors that it will unleash on humanity. The new sexual freedom takes the place of the freedom to strike or protest which for practical purposes is now illegal in most of Europe.
Millions migrate across the globe to serve capital and this is praised as something good. Whole indigenous populations are being marginalised even further and deprived of the vote (why vote when there is no one there to represent YOU )…Our entire economy based on landlordism…
Reactionary laws which would have brought about riots in the street just 20 years ago are passed without comment , indeed ‘liberals’ shout loudest for them…
…No , there’s nothing progressive about the new breed of liberals..
February 17, 2008 at 6:09 pm
It is unfortunate that so many posters here feel talked down to. The feeling of being talked down to is a personal issue that is best resolved in private and not in public. It begins and end with oneself.
The public issue is the unseemly interference by the media and a host of perfect strangers in the private life of a man who is an artist, a sensualist, a poet, and generous to boot. The man has committed no crime, and his private, legal relationships are his business and that of the individuals involved.
It would be well if the members of the public would live out their own lives, instead of attempting to live vicariously by insinuating themselves into the lives of notable people with whom they have no connection whatsoever.
February 17, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Calmasul,
As someone who has a great interest in art let me say that I have no interest in O’Searcaigh. The only thing that prompted me to write about this issue was the manner in which his friends rushed in to defend him. O’Searcaigh is a third rate poet….no more and no less.
…A rather conservative little man who has probably never had an original thought in his life. Beyond the fact that he clearly has an ability to fill out government forms and has not the wit to know when to keep his mouth shut I can see little of interest…
March 9, 2008 at 1:35 pm
FAIR TRADE SEX TOURISM
Big stone falls into small Irish poetical pond!
One of our number has been having sex.
(No, that fact is not the stone.
That’s merely a ripple)
He’s been having sex with young men in Nepal.
He’s a sex tourist, dammit!
Not good, not good.
Letters to papers.
Matter of ethics.
But there again on the other hand.
Milton was a PR man for Cromwell.
Great art is above and beyond
These piffling details of the weakness of humanity.
Et cet era.
And bear in mind, he was also teaching them
Useful stuff (apart from sex),
Reading riting ritmetic and so forth.
It could be said, admitted, alright, it was sex tourism,
But it was Fair Trade Sex Tourism.
And anway, none of this gets to the point.
The real question remains unanswered.
Was he having sex with them in Irish or English?
If the latter, the question of grants and subsidies arise.
There are definite forms to fill, proper procedures,
Arts administrators to keep in jobs.
If none of these things are done properly
Well then the Irish poetical pond would be chaotic.
Might even be poetry.
Couldn’t have that.
All that relevance to reality.
March 11, 2008 at 12:13 pm
‘…..as drama goes this is better than Coronation Street.’
As I suspected your a blatant self publicist. For someone who has not viewed the film I SUGGEST YOU SHUT UP until you do.
March 12, 2008 at 1:59 pm
imagine if Sharkey had been a Priest. the boots would all be on other feet.those defending him would be condemning him and his detractors would be pointing to all the good works he has performed.
March 12, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Ní fiú faic ‘filíocht’ an chac seo Ó Searchaigh!
Ní filíocht ach seafóid atá ann!
Ó Searchaigh’s poetry is nothing more than
adolescent ramblings. The ‘man’ has never
grown up! His ‘poetry’ is weak and pretentious!
Níl i bhfilíocht an tSearcaigh ach
dúmas is dallamullóg!
March 12, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Ní raibh dúil riamh agam riamh i bhfilíocht Uí Shearcaigh.Thiocfadh liomsa dánta i bhfad níos fearr a scríobh ach, ar an drochuair ní léifeadh duine ar bith mo chuid filíochta mar ní piteog mise.
Ó a Dhia! cad chuige nach piteog mé?!
Why not indeed?
Keep your bedroom door locked, Sharkey and leave those kids alone! You chancer! A sheansaire!
Is snasaire (w*****) thú!
Thit an domhan as grá leat oiche inné….
Oíche na gaoithe móire.
Ba cheart go focin grochfaí thú!
March 12, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Agus arís eile…
Ní raibh dúil riamh agam riamh i bhfilíocht Uí Shearcaigh.Thiocfadh liomsa dánta i bhfad níos fearr a scríobh ach, ar an drochuair ní léifeadh duine ar bith mo chuid filíochta mar ní piteog mise.
Ó a Dhia! cad chuige nach piteog mé?!
Why not indeed?
Keep your bedroom door locked, Sharkey and leave those kids alone! You chancer! A sheansaire!
Is snasaire (w*****) thú!
Thit an domhan as grá leat oiche inné….
Oíche na gaoithe móire.
Ba cheart go focin gcrochfaí le cat mo dhuibhe thú!!!
….O….
March 13, 2008 at 11:34 am
Poem à la Sharkie
Cheannaigh mé léine dheas
duitse, a thaisce.
Dearg mar dhath na fola í….
Cuir ort í,a thaisce
go bhfeicimse
dath d’fholasa…..a thaisce.
Cuir ort do léine dheas nua
is dath na fola uirthi, a thaisce….
Cuir ort í….cuir ort í….
A thaisce,a thaisce…..
—–
Ah, come on! That’s worth a few €s! A grant?What about €50,000 and a free house?
Those …… are worth €50 each….at least!
March 19, 2008 at 7:52 pm
[...] who find themselves becoming sexually aroused in the company of young people then I definitely recommend becoming a poet……as a sausage maker you’ll only get your head kicked in but if you can string a [...]
March 22, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Yes. A poet or artist (painter) are both great covers. You can then fuck Nepalese boys in the ass, claim poetic licence and call it research on your CV. You’ll even get a grant.
Now, that’s what I call ‘fucking’ money for nothing!
Cáisc shona!
Manús Mothóin O’ Toole
March 25, 2008 at 1:09 pm
What does the future now hold for Ó Searcaigh? For a start, he will have to get a real job in the real world. The days of money for old rope are over. Will he continue to write ‘poetry’? Unlikely since few if any will read it or want to read it.
Ó Searcaigh’s ‘poetry’ was attractive simply because it was written in Irish and in very banal, facile, pedestrian Irish at that. His Irish was formulaic and his poems without any depth - the sort of poems anyone with a minimal Irish vocabulary could churn out ad nauseam.
One also has to query Ó Searcaigh’s command of Irish as when speaking Irish, in the RTÉ film, he suddenly resorted to English for the words ‘obssesive’ and ‘possessive’. Surely he knows how to express these two ideas in Irish?
No. For me Ó Searcaigh has always (and long before his present demise) been a bluffer and a conman.
Not poetry - just typing.