Irish Times columnist and former consultant editor of Magill magazine
John Waters has said that the journalist who wrote up the interview
with Senator David Norris in which he appeared to suggest that there
was “something to be said” for the “classic paedophilia” of the ancient
Greeks did not misquote him.
Writing in his weekly column for the Irish Times, Mr Waters
said that the journalist who wrote the article, Helen Lucy Burke, had
sought clarification from Senator Norris about the quotes on a number of
occasions.
The quotes, which appeared in the magazine in 2002, emerged
last week and appeared to do damage to Senator Norris’ Presidential
campaign.
Senator Norris has claimed that the emergence of the quotes is part
of a smear campaign and says that he is being quoted out of context.
In the article, Mr Waters writes that Senator Norris made references
to “classic paedophilia” in ancient Greece, Norris asserting that there
was “something to be said for the approach in which a young man was
introduced to sexual behaviour by an older man.”
Mr Waters also quotes Senator Norris appearing to suggest, “that
sexually abused children might suffer more from the investigation of
their abuser than from the abuse.”
Mr Waters wrote, “The thrust of his argument seemed to be summed up
in two phrases that also featured in the Magill article, to the effect
that there was “‘a lot of nonsense’ and, ‘complete and utter public
hysteria’ about paedophilia.”
He said that his initial response was
that Ms Burke must have misinterpreted Norris’s arguments.
However, he reports that she was “emphatic that she had not misunderstood him, and said that she had taped the interview.”
Mr Waters continued, “She said they had had a heated argument about
it and he had refused to back down. After transcribing the interview,
she had called him to read him the extracts she found problematic, but
he said, ‘Yes, that’s fine’.”
He added that he feared that the
interview “had the potential to land him in very hot water, possibly
even to bring an end to his political career.”
Mr Waters wrote, “I had no wish for this and felt that he needed to
be protected from his own foolhardiness. I suggested to Burke that she
write up the article with the quotes included, and call Norris again,
explaining to him the context in which his remarks would appear and
offering him another opportunity to amend or retract them.”
Waters continued, “I also told her that she should tell him she had
spoken to me and that I had expressed in the strongest terms that, in
his own interests, he should reconsider. Some days later Burke called
me again and said that she had done as I requested and that Norris after
proposing some minor amendments – which she had incorporated into the
article – had pronounced himself happy for his views to go into print.”
‘So be it,’ I said.” Weeks afterwards, Mr Waters wrote, "I heard Norris on radio claiming that he had been misrepresented."
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Senator Norris previously described
Pope John Paul II as “evil” and described Pope Benedict, then Cardinal
Josef Ratzinger as “a Nazi.”
In a book, The Irish Soul, In Dialogue, published 10 years
ago, Senator Norris described John Paul II as “an instrument of evil”
because of his strong stand on homosexuality. He also accused John Paul
II of closing down “scholarly inquiry, and of course, behind him is
[then Cardinal] Ratzinger, who is, in his mindset, a Nazi.”
David Quinn, the director of the Iona Institute said that the remarks by Senator Norris were “incredibly defamatory.”
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, he said, “The President is
supposed to be a uniting figure and when you have got someone who has
made incredibly defamatory remarks about the leaders of a Church that
very many Irish people still belong to, you have to wonder if he would
be the wisest choice of President.”