Sir, - I attended the benefit event for Robert Drake because I know him and because the organisers asked me. The other writers and musicians who took part in the event did so out of a simple generosity of spirit and out of revulsion at what happened to him. We didn't care that Robert is American, or gay, or that he is an editor or writer. We did care that he had been beaten to within an inch of his life and that he has been in a coma since.
I presume that if, say, a visiting journalist were beaten and Kevin Myers were asked to make some small gesture of support towards a colleague, he would do so and not think it strange. Or perhaps he would trouble himself about the victim's sexuality, nationality or profession, as he does with truly breathtaking crassness in An Irishman's Diary of March 12th, before he could arrive at a decision. Perhaps, to follow his logic further, he might also worry that by attending such an event he was condoning attacks on all victims who were not journalists. I despise the killers of Pat O'Donnell as much as I do the thugs who attacked Robert Drake, and if ever Kevin Myers takes it upon himself to organise a benefit event for any victim of murder or assault, I will be glad to take part. - Yours, etc., Peter Sirr,
Director, Irish Writers' Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin 1.