| Is Sean Gannon`s rant against the Aosdána motion is somewhat biased? Naturally, he ignores the regularity with which Israel has boycotted the free movement of Palestinian writers and intellectuals, in a particular case when two poets were prevented from attending readings in Dublin. Mr Gannon`s wilful blindness to this sort of thing is typical of this sort of argument technique. As a writer - though not a member of Aosdána - I was delighted, and comforted, to see that Irish writers and artists could stand up and be counted in a political issue and, in this instance, could resist the usual facile amti-Palestinian propaganda. But the Aosdána motion also made it impossible for some writers to have things both ways - pretending to be in favour of human rights and liberties while attending events sponsored by the Israeli government in the midst of a campaign of repression against the Palestinians. The Aosdána motion clarified things. Accepting Margaretta D`Arcy`s motion was a good thing. |
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