Madam, - The writer Mannix Flynn proposes a motion to Aosdána, of which he is a member, endorsing guidelines and principles laid out by the Arts Council for the protection and welfare of children - and he is asked by the celebrated Toscaireacht to withdraw it!
Has the Arts Council anything to say on what is clearly a rejection by Aosdána's elect of established child protection guidelines? How dare they reject these guidelines! And there is no comment from Arts Council employee and Aosdána registrar, Toby Dennett (The Irish Times, May 7th)
I am not a member of Aosdána but, as a private citizen, I wrote to Aosdána on foot of the recent Cathal Ó Searcaigh controversy and asked that it make a public statement. I did not even receive an acknowledgement of my letter.
It is high time for the public to demand an overhaul of Aosdána or an audit of its usefulness. Increasingly this body is behaving like a scolded politician, answering to no one, illustrating less and less civic responsibility, brazening things out.
I'm all for pensions for artists in their senior years, but these can be organised without our having to endure the arrogance of Aosdána, a body out of touch with the real world and clearly, to judge by this latest disgrace, contemptuous of it. - Yours, etc,
FRED JOHNSTON, Carn Ard, Circular Road, Galway.