Sir, - A casual reader of the standfirst or subheading on Fintan O'Toole's piece alleging political interference at IMMA (" Politics Kept Kennedy Out", Arts, December 20th) could easily conclude that I was involved in some murky scheme to deprive Dr Kennedy of his due.
This confusion arises from the careless conflation of two controversies: the decision of Marie Donnelly to seek a replacement for the then director, Declan McGonagle, in November 2000, in which I was marginally involved; and, almost a year later, the controversy about the abortive appointment of Dr Brian Kennedy, in which I was not.
In the Dr Kennedy case it would have been impossible for me to have influenced the matter because I was in West Cork for most of the year, and did not attend any meeting of the board between December 4th 2000 and December 11th 2001, the period in which the Dr Kennedy matter was commenced and concluded. In fairness, Fintan O'Toole made it clear, in an interview with Sean O'Rourke on RT╔, that there was no implication in his article that I had any hand, act or part in the non-appointment of Dr Kennedy.
In the Declan McGonagle case the facts are as follows. In November 1991, the new chairwoman of IMMA, Marie Donnelly, informally told me she wanted to appoint a new director, that the majority of the new board was behind her, and asked me for support and advice. Although a trifle taken aback, I tried to give her the best advice I could. In principle I supported her right to set her own stamp on IMMA and the board's right to seek a new director, but in practice I was anxious that Declan McGonagle be given a decent deal on departure.
Accordingly I advised her to set up clear lines of communication with both Declan McGonagale and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, which would have a say in the contractual aspects of replacing a director. So it was not surprising that in the course of a conversation with S∅le de Valera's press adviser, Michael Ronayne, an old friend and colleague from RT╔, I would raise my concerns about any possible contractual and media aspects of Marie Donnelly's plans.
As my e-mail to Marie Donnelly makes clear, Ronayne's response was that "he would strongly urge S∅le to support whatever the board wanted to do".
In summary, neither S∅le de Valera nor her advisers initiated or interfered with the action of the board of IMMA in relation to Declan McGonagle. And in the absence of any hard names I believe the same will prove to be true in the case of Dr Kennedy. - Yours, etc.,
Eoghan Harris, Trafalgar Terrace, Monkstown, Do Dublin.