Madam, - I was unable to attend the Aosdána general assembly last week as I was out of the country. Had I been there I would certainly have supported Raymond Deane's original motion, the text of which, if my memory serves me correctly, called for an end to cultural co-operation with projects financially supported by the Israeli state (a tactic which was used effectively against the apartheid regime in South Africa).
I read the Irish Times report of the meeting and was pleased to read that the subsidiary motion proposed by Margaretta D'Arcy was passed by a sizeable majority.
But I'm puzzled. Where did Val Mulkearns (an Aosdána member) get the information that the motion was "narrowly passed only after a mealy-mouthed amendment"? Ah, I forgot! She is a member of the literature discipline of Aosdána and, as a writer of fiction, she obviously in this case allowed her artistic licence to lose the run of itself!
That, however, does not excuse her disgusting attack on Raymond Deane, and her reprehensible reference to Kristallnacht. Her shame only amplifies his unremitting integrity in his principled stance on a difficult issue. Please let me lend my voice to his support. - Yours, etc,
FERGUS JOHNSTON, Composer, Trader's Wharf, Dublin 8.