Thank you Heather and....

I am glad the Minister has attempted to take some action about what has come to light about The Gate Theatre in the past two weeks. I assume that this is what has prompted her statement, although the words The Gate Theatre, nor Michael Colgan, do not appear in this statement. My name does not appear, nor do the names of the other seven women who have shared their experiences publicly.

Everything that we know so far about this situation, in the public domain is about Michael Colgan and The Gate Theatre.

The Minister is addressing ‘The Arts Community’.

Currently, this is not a problem with the Arts Community.

Nothing has come to light about the rest of the community, unless the Minister is aware of something further.

I wonder why we are all being addressed? Surely The Minister should address The Gate Theatre, directly. I am confused. Is this a deflection? Or is she afraid? I was afraid to name this situation explicitly for many years. 

I support the Minister’s decision to have a meeting with the Cultural Leaders who run Arts Institutions. I note that Selina Cartmell, current Director of The Gate Theatre will be attending the meeting. Selina will need to take whatever the outcomes of the meeting are back to her board. I do not have confidence in the impartiality of the current board.

The Gate Theatre released a follow up statement yesterday. I believe they are trying their best. I believe Gaye Cunningham to be a strong, capable appointee, but our statement remains the same;

Michael Colgan sat on the board of The Gate for many years. This undermines our confidence in the impartiality of the current Board.

We will not email our experiences in their written form to The Gate using their confidential email address. The Minister needs to act now to ensure that other people, who have stories like mine, have somewhere safe and private to go with those experiences.

The Minister is working with the Abbey Theatre on an industry wide consultation exercise due to take place by the end of the month. At such an event, I imagine The Abbey Theatre, legally, will need to ensure that people do not name Michael Colgan for fear of being prosecuted for slander. This would re-create the very conditions that got us here in the first place and which I am trying to redress by telling my experience. I feel that when we say ‘A certain person’ etc it creates a witchhunt atmosphere. People instantly wonder who is being spoken about. They are human. They try to guess. Naming something explicitly is the opposite of a witch hunt. It is not an allegation, it is my experience.

Our strict defamation laws, while protecting the good name of some, create conditions where Irish people are entirely doubted before they are believed whenever they try to talk about being abused. The threat of litigation is so coercive that it permeates every conversation in every school, newspaper, office and even in Dail Eireann. It paralyses us before we even begin to discuss issues of abuse.

I would advise the minister to review the standards of governance in the Arts Community in general before investing further time and energy in workshops designed to educate artists on good governance. I believe the Arts Community as a whole have very good governance. The Gate Theatre board was an anomaly created by Michael Colgan’s Abuse Of Power. He sat on his own board despite being repeatedly asked not too, and he was let away with it until he retired.

I suggest that Minister Humphries acts now to restore the impartiality of The Board.

I look forward to hearing more ideas from Minister Humphries after her meeting with eight leaders from Irish Theatre Organisations.

On Wednesday, I wrote to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, you can read my letter here.

On Thursday, I received the following reply on his behalf;

Further to your email to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, T.D., a copy of your email has been forwarded to Heather Humphreys, T.D., Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, for attention and direct reply to you.

Since posting my blog; people from all walks of life across the island have reached out to me. They have shared their experiences of Abuse of Power. I look forward to hearing from you Minister Heather Humphries.

There is a lot more to discuss.