Senator David Norris finds the abuse of children "absolutely abhorrent", he has said. Responding to an article in yesterday's Ireland On Sunday, he said he did not defend incest or paedophilia.
On RTÉ Radio's Sunday Show, he said the article - which drew on an earlier interview with him in this month's edition of Magill - took quotes "out of context".
Ireland On Sunday quotes Mr Norris as saying: "In terms of classic paedophilia, as practised by the Greeks for example, where it is an older man introducing a younger man or boy to adult life, I think there can be something to be said for it. And in terms of the North African experience this is endemic."
He said yesterday he had indicated very clearly in the Magill article he "couldn't understand how anybody could find sex with children appropriate. I did not endorse incest".
His remarks about Greek paedophilia, he added, were made "in the context of a rather academic discussion of classical Greek history - the kind of thing that you have in Plato's Symposium . . . So it's a fairly remote possibility.
"Certainly," he added yesterday, "if I was in classical Greece and I was 17 and Alchibiades was 24, yes, you know, I can imagine that possibility". It would be a possibility, he stressed, if he was 17 and not any younger.
"But it just shows you I think what a sensitive subject this is and how it's easily possible to be misrepresented and misinterpreted . . . I would never undervalue the trauma to children. I think the violation of children's trust is an appalling thing."
He said he "would never, never, wish to undermine or devalue the suffering and trauma of people who had been the victims of this crime [child sexual abuse or incest\]. If anyone looks at my record I think they'll see that, that I was one of the strongest supporters of the Stay Safe programme for children in schools".
