Did Irish poet and teenage sex waxer Cathal O Searcaigh get lenient treatment because he’s gay? Journo Kevin Myers seems to think so. [Independent]
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CitizenGeek
We were discussing this in Irish class today – which was nice, because we rarely get to discuss or debate anything interesting (usually, it’s topics centering around the done-to-death subjects of drugs and alcohol). I think, honestly, Cathal O’ Searcaigh has gotten a lenient treatment because he’s gay – if he was straight, and it was young Nepalese girls that he was exploiting, he would have had a much harder time.
Judas
I don’t agree. I think that Westerners like to ignore their expolitation of less “powerful” cultures and countries. And even in our own countries, the more powerful exploit the weak all the time. (In the US, it’s called being a conservative.)
What O’Searcaigh did is morally repugnant to me. However it isn’t illegal. And it’s certainly perpetrated by straight men just as much.
And my bet is that there are lots of mail-order brides on their way to the West who would agree…
John
I read the article in the Independent. It’s written in the style of Rush Limbough or Bill O’Reilly. I hate it when bad parts of American culture reach the shores of Europe and mess with my quaint stereotypes. St. Patrick’s day is almost here.
The Nepalese authorities should deal with this matter, and if they’re not its definitely a case of the powerful exploiting the week. Not sure sexual orientation specifically is the issue. However, the reaction undoubtedly would be much greater and more severe had he gone after young women. I think since the boys can’t get pregnant and since their losing their virginity in a homosexual tryst probably won’t spoil their marriage chances, this sort of thing is more tolerated.
Meanwhile, I definitely disapprove of O’Searcaigh’s behavior, as should we all.
To be honest I haven’t read his poetry. Is he famous?
David Garrahy
he is quiet well known in Ireland – his poetry which is in the Irish language is on the Leaving Certificate syllabus (equivalent of the SATs).
Whatever my feelings about him or what he did in Nepal, how he acted subsequently was abhorrent. He released a statement saying that people who had a problem with what he was doing, had a roblem wiht him being gay. That is generally bunkum – people were turned off by the fact he used his money and power to probably take advantage of people. Now he has reinforced the “dirty old man” stereotype that’s out there about us as gay people and has done our campaign for gay marriage here in Ireland HUGE damage.
There’s a link here, if you’re interested to a recent campaign where we gave a Valentine’s card with 1000 messages in support of gay marriage to our Taoiseach (Prime-minister). He’s been gettin a bit of a hard time of it lately so it’s about time someone gave him some love!
http://www.theangryhedgehog.com/2008/02/lgbt-noise-event-give-some-love-to.html
The quicker people forget about O’Shearchaigh the better…
M Shane
It’s pretty ignorant to single out a western colonist to shame for using human resources elsewhere.
The hypocrisy of this is that instead of picking on an Englishman, American or any “respectable ” colonist, these racistdimwoits choose an irishman; a person of a race that has been victimized, and exploited like almost no other into this century.
If someone wants a story look at all of the exploitation odne to third world copuntries by American or British corporations over the last 50 years. If they had just rented and not murdered the millions of victims involved , it would be a prety good deal.
Learn some Irish history before you strart leaning on singled out gay poet. Who racially constituted the most whores in America over the past century; for lack of anything else to do.
This is just making a lot out of nothing because a person is gay and Irish,which seems to be easy, people are so damned signorant about history!! The English especially enslaved and used everyone fuckable in sight male or female.
Yvette Doll
When the Irish became white they were as bad as the rest, now we’re rich, we may even turn out to be worse.
The English have a problem with pedophilia, theycoever it up, a public confidence thing, and the eventual fall-guy will be a gay-conspiracy.
In Ireland, they cover child sexual abuse up because they’ve never known another way.
Those of us who tried to face down the paedophile movement in the 1970s and 1980s were defeated because the pedos were smarter, better at politics, and intended to win, and so they did.
That’s why we have politician prizes named after Ian Dunn, and more revisionisats to erase the past (read Wiki) than Stalin employed going over old photographs.
The mistake Queerdom made, was to think we outnumbered them, and we possibly don’t. That’s why the UK has fifty million child pornography transactions over 3 years.
The pedos survived Hitler because they were good at becoming part of anything they needed to become part of, it’s sad.
Irish/English, what’s kith to a stray dog, the English may not be kin, but they’re close enough to catch fleas and give fleas to.