In honour of Francis Stuart?

THE novelist, Francis Stuart (94) (right) will today be elected to the office of Saoi, the highest honour in Aosdana, at a ceremony presided over by the President, Mrs Robinson. The three other Saoithe are Louis le Brocquy, Tony O'Malley and Benedict Kiely past Saoithe have been Samuel Beckett, Sean O Faolain Patrick Collins and Mary Lavin. Stuart has always been a controversial figure: his art has been inextricably interwoven with his decision to remain in Nazi Germany, and make propagandist broadcasts from Berlin, during the second World War. We asked various prominent writers for their response to honouring Francis Stuart as "a wise man of the tribe".

. Michael D. Higgins, Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht:

From Black List, Section H to the present, the record of his work has been extraordinary. This recognition is of a life devoted uniquely to the testimony of writing and the position of the writer. His life and work now stretch across such a broad range of material that it makes him a monumental figure in Irish letters.

. Fintan O'Toole, critic and Irish Times journalist:

He is an important writer precisely because he is a survivor of the greatest moral disaster in human history and he was able to transform that experience - truthfully, with painful honesty - into art. He was a minor collaborator in that he made broadcasts, not on purely literary matters. Some were political and in that context were acts of support for the Nazis. But Nazism and the Holocaust are central facts in our history, and he had a rare inside view of that modern reality.

. Christabel Bieleaberg, writer:

From my point of view this appointment is controversial. I was living in Berlin during the war. My husband was part of the German Opposition, most of whom were hanged after the July 20th bomb plot failed. I would prefer not to comment on Stuart's literary qualities as I have read little of his works, so I don't know if he has ever explained in a public or satisfactory way his well known involvement with Hitler's Ministry of Propaganda. If not, for me, as for anyone closely associated at the time with the German Opposition, the choice for this award would be unacceptable.

. Anthony Cronin, poet, biographer and Aosdana member:

The Aosdina election procedure is straightforward: first the person is nominated and then there is a postal ballot. Stuart has produced two or three great books and a number of remarkable poems. His works are informed by a compassionate spirit. There is a good deal of misinformation around about his time in Berlin anyone who feels like commenting should read transcripts of his broadcasts.

. Eavan Boland, poet: Other writers this century have held uncomfortable political views, like Yeats and Pound. But this has triggered their imaginations to produce powerful and beautiful creations. If we support the product, we have to understand the process and not simplify it into a series of disapprovals. I am a feminist and I love Philip Larkin's poetry, even though he was a monster towards women. I respect Francis Stuart: he has written some fine novels. Whether we like it or not, the imagination is an ambiguous place.

. Kevin Myers, Irish Times journalist:

I think it is deplorable that he is being honoured by the Irish State in this way. He voluntarily sided with the most bestial regime in the history of civilisation. What's worse, he has remained unapologetic about it. His decision to stay in Nazi - Germany should affect all evaluations of him for the rest of his life, even artistic ones. Otherwise we are treating art in a frivolous and overly precious way. Beckett was in Paris and joined the Resistance. Stuart, a free man, chose to stay in Berlin and make these broadcasts. As a young man he was part of the Republican movement, so he was no political ingenue.

. Ulick O'Connor, author, playwright and Aosdana member:

Francis Stuart is one of the import ant writers of the 20th century. What matters in literature is whether you can write well. Jean Genet a great writer was also a murderer who spent time in prison. Stuart vent to Berlin and made some literary broadcasts. And why not, he was a neutral Irishman. He taught and wrote. He had been in the Republican movement, some of whose members were trying to capitalise on the Germans' antiEnglish sentiment. He wanted to be an outlaw, to be with the defeated. He felt this was the right chemistry for a writer. But what went on in the concentration camps, that revolted him.

. Declan Kiberd, lecturer in English at UCD:

The criteria for this selection should be literary and not political. Francis Stuart has remained forever modern by casting himself in an oppositional role. In his own words he has "sought dishonour" for so long, that it is ironic to see him being honoured in this way. He is the kind of continental modernist - in the tradition of Sartre and de Beauvoir - who has always resisted being co opted by the establishment. He has been a huge influence on two generations of Irish writers.

. Dermot Bolger, writer and publisher:

I can think of few Irish writers whose work is more engaged with the present developments in science, new concepts of space and time, alternative theologies and the advent of consumerism - than Francis Stuart. I can think of no Irish writer whose critics are so trapped in the past, unwilling to grapple with anything he has written in the past two decades. Victor Gollancz (a Jew who fully understood the evil of the Nazis when people in Britain and Ireland still turned a blind eye) was proud to publish Stuart's novels after the war for that small audience capable of reading them without prejudice.

. Bob Fisk, author of In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality 1939-1945:

I have read transcripts of Stuart's broadcasts, which began in 1942, and he spent a lot of time praising de Valera and Irish neutrality. He didn't say that Hitler was a great fellow and he didn't say anything to support the persecution of the jews. But once you start broadcasting for a Nazi radio station, you become associated with the system. After the German defeat in Stalingrad, there see, med, to be a strange - and, I believe, invalid - parallel in his mind between Pearse's idea of redemption through blood sacrifice and what the German army went through in Stalingrad. He told me that he hated the Germans when they were on top, but to see them in defeat released emotions in him. Strangely enough, neither he nor I have ever been able to find anyone in Ireland who heard his broadcasts.