Madam, - Let me respond to "Loose Leaves" (Weekend, June 28th) concerning George Orwell and Peadar O'Donnell.
Firstly, the fact that Orwell compiled a list of writers he suspected of Communist fellow-travelling is not a "revelation". This fact has been known since the records were made public in 1996.
Secondly, the recipients of the list were members of a unit set up by the then Labour Government to counteract Soviet propaganda, something Orwell himself had been doing for over 10 years. It was not an offshoot of the Special Branch, as the sinister-sounding description "secret section of the British Foreign Office" makes it seem.
Thirdly, the portrayal of Orwell's action as the act of an embittered man is an insult to a great man and writer. It is true that Orwell was ill but, as death approached, there is little evidence of embitterment. Indeed, he had recently married a beautiful woman many years his junior; the adoption of a son had brought a much-needed joy into his life; his literary career had been crowned by the success of 1984; and finally, he could see others were taking up his struggle against Soviet tyranny.
Lastly, Lawrence White's defence of O'Donnell, which Sadbh quotes, amply justifies his inclusion in the list. O'Donnell, as White makes clear, co-operated with Communists. In 1949, no Communist would have co-operated with George Orwell because his record extending back to the Spanish Civil War was clear. The same clarity was not there in O'Donnell's record, even after Spain, Poland and the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia (1948). Orwell was right to resent O'Donnell's equivocation.
Incidentally, O'Donnell was not the only Irish writer on Orwell's list. There also was the exiled Sean O'Casey, whom Orwell noted as "very stupid" - no doubt a comment on O'Casey's political views, and on O'Casey's waspish response to an acerbic review Orwell gave of his autobiography (1945). - Yours etc.
TOBY JOYCE,
Navan,
Co Meath.