FROM THE ARCHIVES:A visit by a group of writers to the Soviet Union in January 1955 was roundly condemned by church and establishment politicians. Among those who travelled to Moscow was James Plunkett (full name James Plunkett Kelly), then a trade union official with the Workers' Union of Ireland and later author of Strumpet City, who faced a campaign to have him fired on his return: he defended his position in this letter to the editor. – JOE JOYCE
Sir, – I should be greatly obliged if you would give me space to make a simple statement of the circumstances surrounding my recent visit to the Soviet Union.
The invitation was extended to me through the office of the Bell, a magazine in which much of my literary work has been published. It came from the Russian Cultural Relations Society, VOKS, and there were no strings attached, except the following specific conditions: (1) The group should consist of people engaged in creative activity; (2) The group would include no Communists or fellow-travellers.
I was invited, therefore, as a creative writer; my position as a trade union official had nothing whatever to do with it, and my leave of absence consisted of annual holidays due to me. Incidentally, I am not and never have been a member of the Irish Soviet Friendship Society.
As a writer, I was keenly interested to travel in such a controversial quarter of the world and observe as best I could the techniques and psychology of the Soviet system. But as a Catholic I felt it my duty to take counsel from a spiritual adviser. I placed the matter before a very good friend of mine, the Reverend James Kavanagh, Director of the Dublin Institute of Catholic Sociology. He in turn undertook to discuss it with a higher authority, and when he had done so he informed me that, while no approval was being granted, I was being placed under no moral restraint, but was exhorted to exercise extreme prudence.
So far, in the conscientious observance of that exhortation I have allowed my pen to rust while battles have raged about me – an unusual discipline for me, and one not easy to observe. But now, after an unsuccessful attempt to have one of my radio plays suppressed, the attack is directed on my means of livelihood as a trade union official. Petitions are being signed which may result in my dismissal, and, while I am ready as always to face without fear or apology these attackers, whose habit it is to hunt in packs, I feel my personal position has become sufficiently grave to justify this simple and factual statement – a statement which any reader who takes the trouble can have confirmed. In the meanwhile I am quite certain that here are many of my co-religionists who will understand that, having discussed the matter with my spiritual adviser, I did not, and still do not, feel under any obligation to consult the politicians and the county councillors. – Yours, etc,
James P. Kelly
(James Plunkett) Whitehall road, Terenure, Dublin