Sir, - With spiritual humility and intellectual refinement Mr and Mrs Lentin, along with Dr and Mrs Cruise O'Brien, have exposed the wickedness of Francis Stuart. Is it not time now to turn our attentions to the evil deeds of other members of Aosdana? Let me begin with myself.
(1) In March 1993 in Jerusalem, Israeli state television asked me to broadcast on their chief current affairs programme. On a day of the Intifada I was filmed walking the terrified, semi-deserted streets of the Old City. Israeli plainclothes secret police with machine-guns in duffel bags shadowed me. I chatted with Palestinian men. I stood on Ben Yehuda Street and spoke to camera of my inability to accept any form of terrorism anywhere. After transmission, I was accused of being a Zionist and a persecutor of Palestinians. I was a Zionist collaborator; an anti-Palestinian.
(2) In that same month of March 1993 I published an autobiographical book entitled A Snail in My Prime in which I identified myself with the lowly snail, lowlier even than the lowly worm. To this day I remain a snail, a steadfast snail, nibbling away at the fine-looking fruit of the Lentins and the Cruise O'Briens.
So let the dinner tables of Howth and Rathmines beware. Snail's slime lies glittering on the legs of your pure mahogany. And when your table legs have been nibbled down to the floorboards, let us all behold the dignity of the Cruise O'Briens and the Lentins supping off their own bare floors. - Yours, etc.,
Ringsend, Dublin 4.