Norris wants official probe on Ó Searcaigh documentary

SENATOR David Norris has called for the documentary about poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh to be investigated by a cross-party Oireachtas committee.

The Donegal poet has rejected suggestions in the documentary, Fairytale of Kathmandu, that he sexually exploited teenage boys in Nepal.

The documentary, which was broadcast on RTÉ 1 last night, revealed the poet had been sexually intimate with boys aged 16 and older, whose education Mr Ó Searcaigh had been supporting. The legal age of consent in Nepal is 16.

Speaking in the Seanad prior to the broadcast yesterday, Mr Norris spoke forcefully in defence of the poet and unsuccessfully called for RTÉ to postpone the documentary’s screening until the joint Oireachtas committee on communications had investigated its production.

“Having seen this work, I have grave concerns about the motives and methods employed,” said Mr Norris.

“Therefore, I call for its exhibition to be postponed until a full investigation by those qualified in the analysis of film has established the truth or falsehood of the techniques used in its production and the conclusions reached in it.

“While it has been denied, it is clear that systematic creative editing has taken place.”

He cited as one example a sequence in the documentary in which the poet straightened the tie of what appeared to be a 14 or 15-year-old boy with a satchel on his back.

“While Narang is indeed boyish-looking, he is a 20-year-old physics student in a third-level college,” said Mr Norris.

The senator, a prominent gay rights’ activist, claimed the film had been “selectively leaked to quarters where, it was calculated, it would do most damage and most dangerously inflame opinion. The subject of the film has been tried, sentenced and crucified already.”

RTÉ has vigorously defended the documentary.

Mr Norris also said calls had been made for Mr Ó Searcaigh’s poetry to be removed from the academic syllabus.

“Gloriously, the artists of Ireland have supported Cathal Ó Searcaigh as they previously did in the case of Oscar Wilde,” he added.

“This is because they have a unique insight into the processes of works of creation and destruction.”

Last month, Education Minister Mary Hanafin admitted leaving Mr Ó Searcaigh’s work on the Leaving Cert syllabus could cause “difficulty”.

Her comments raised the possibility that the poet’s work could be removed from the syllabus as a result of the controversy.