Sir, - As I suggested at the November meeting of Aosdana, each of us should defend to our utmost the right of any elected member to express views, moral or aesthetic, which are contrary to our own. On the other hand, we should reserve our right to condemn those views, especially where those views would appear to embody the dehumanising concept of racism.
Thus, I further suggested that Aosdana should "here and now" clearly dissociate itself specifically from one of its member's grievously offensive citation, per se ("The Jew was always the worm that got into the rose and sickened it"). Whether intentional or not, whether distorted out of its context or not, this citation was in fact broadcast on Channel 4 television on October 11th to a wide public which included our Jewish community in Ireland.
Unfortunately, perhaps, I was unable to make this proposal before time had almost run out. Seemingly the next Aosdana meeting will not take place before October 1998 when I hope belatedly to submit a motion in this sense. - Yours, etc.,
Carros, France.