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Poet’s actions are not the stuff of fairytales 
I DON’T understand how anybody can defend the actions of Donegal
poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh.
If you have not been following the saga let me explain briefly.
Documentary film director Neasa Ní Chianáin went to Nepal
to make a film about the poet whom she admired and respected.
Whilst there she uncovered some things that she felt she could not ignore.
Cathal Ó Searcaigh was helping young men with their education and
supporting them financially in different ways but he was also having relationships
with them.
There was no suggestion that these lads were under the age of consent
but under Irish law (where that age is 17) he could face prosecution if
he is found to have committed sex offences abroad.
If it eventually emerges that he has not done anything illegal that is
not the beginning and the end of it by any means.
Neasa Ní Chianáin has been accused of doing a hatchet job
on the poet but I don’t see how she could have ignored what she
found.
She says she did not set out to do this and I totally believe her.
The documentary is called Fairytale Of Kathmandu and was recently screened
on RTÉ.
Ó Searcaigh is said to feel betrayed by Ní Chianáin
but to me that just translates into denial.
This man is 51 years old and he sees nothing morally wrong with his actions.
He sees himself simply as a benefactor to these young lads and if that
is not denial then I don’t know what is.
I heard Nessa Ní Chianáin being interviewed several times
on radio and I wonder if she wishes she had never discovered this part
of Ó Searcaigh’s life.
It has brought her nothing but grief but she had to expose it.
She says she is not against him but against his actions.
There is a basic economic inequality in the relationship between Ó
Searcaigh and these young men.
If these were girls of the same age how would people react?
People don’t really relate in the same way to events abroad as they
do on their own doorstep and I suppose this is natural enough and we are
all guilty of it — if indeed guilty is the right word.
However, how would the people who are defending Ó Searcaigh feel
if these young men were their sons or nephews?
I suspect they might have a slightly different view. |
