Former Sunday Independent columnist Mary Ellen Synon has defended her controversial column which criticised the Paralympic Games.
Speaking on Today FM's Sunday Supplement programme yesterday, Miss Synon said she "was raising a question, because that particular event was being presented unquestioned".
"I think if you are a journalist you have to stop and say, `Wait a minute', if everybody is saying yes, maybe I'll stop and say hold on, what's really going on here?' "
Asked whether she would significantly change the article if she were writing it today, she replied: "I would make sure I did a longer piece. That was one of the problems, I was trying to be precise."
In what was her first detailed public statement since the row, she acknowledged that many people had been hurt and angered by the article.
"I know from talking to people that there were people who were very upset about the language I used, but I must also say that some of the upset was about language I never used, that I was paraphrased and misquoted and words were put into my mouth that I never said.
"For example, I used the word perverse. Many people in this country don't know the difference between the word perverse and perverted, and I was appalled at that. This awful phrase `causing offence' is irrelevant to any argument if you want to say I caused offence, well I have to say, well, hello, so what?"
Questioned about her use of the word "cripple" rather than "disabled" when referring to Paralympians in the article, the former columnist responded: "Well, it's not the same word. I think you have to be precise when you're writing, I try to do that. If I went skiing, and I ran into a tree and both legs were in plaster, I'd be disabled but I wouldn't be crippled."
The column was published in the October 22nd edition of the Sunday Independent during the Paralympic Games in Sydney. It caused outrage among the public and disabled people's representative groups, forcing Miss Synon to move out of her home temporarily.
Several health boards are still considering whether they will withdraw large advertising accounts from the Sunday In- dependent in protest over the article's publication. Ms Synon confirmed on yesterday's radio programme that she had received a lot of hate mail. "I was pinning them up in the kitchen so my friends could add comments . . .Yes, I got plenty of stuff from the green biro brigade, lots of hate mail. But lots of nice mail too.
"A lot of people wrote supporting me, but saying they were afraid to say in public that a lot of what I said was true. The thing that has come out is that a lot of people are now afraid to express opinions that are not politically correct."
Ms Synon also commented on the criticism of her column in the Irish media, particularly in The Irish Times, which she described as censorship. "It's called tyranny and I'm not surprised to see that coming out of The Irish Times."
Miss Synon's column has not been published since the furore, although she wrote an apology, published in the Sunday In- dependent the following week. She confirmed in yesterday's interview that she has left the paper but would not comment on the amount of the settlement reached with her employers. She said she felt "perfectly amicable" towards the Sunday Independent. An article by Miss Synon on freedom of speech appeared in yesterday's Sunday Times. Asked whether she would continue to write for that newspaper, she replied, "I have no idea what I'm going to be doing now."