How the mighty have fallen! Geraldine Kennedy—who told Capt. Kelly's family that she couldn't interfere with her columnists and refused to apologise for the character assassination of the Captain by Kevin Myers (in his column of 6th August)—censored, sacked and re-employed her columnist, John Waters, all in the space of a couple of weeks! Can she survive as Editor after this?

An old adage has is, Never bite the hand that feeds you. Perhaps it is not surprising to find that the Irish Times management firmly enforces it—even though it runs counter to the high-falutin' ideology of liberal freedom that the paper judges others by. It is now clear that the paper expects submission from those it feeds, though Geraldine Kennedy gave her columnists to understand that they had a free hand.

On 24th August she allowed Kevin Myers to make with impunity remarks of the kind that she described as "libellous" when John Waters made them in his censored column of 10th November. Myers told readers of the Sunday Independent:

"Middle Abbey Street has had transparent accounts for years and years and the Irish Times hasn't. We know the consequences of not having transparent accounts. You have the loss of large amounts of money from the company in mysterious ways, no answerability and ultimately disaster.

"Middle Abbey Street does not have that problem because it has an honest boss. I am frank in my admiration for Tony O'Reilly… "

Myers accused the executives at the Irish Times of virtual embezzlement without suffering repercussions. No doubt, Ms Kennedy's columnists concluded that she really did believe in free speech! John Waters prepared his column on the same theme as these damaging remarks by Myers, but found he wasn't given the same latitude. It seems that Myers, with his West British appeal, is sacrosanct; Waters, who provides ‘traditionalist' window-dressing is dispensable.

No doubt Martin Mansergh had Myers' comparison of Irish Times and Independent publishing arrangements in mind when he wrote in his his Irish Times column of the "independence", which is safeguarded by having papers owned by Trusts, rather than wealthy individuals. Mansergh compared the Irish Times Trust with that which governs Le Monde (20.9.03). The reality is very different. Le Monde is controlled by its journalists. The Irish Times is is run by a cabal and, as Waters tried to point out, some of its decisions could do with scrutiny by the authorities that control charitable status.

Myers revealed his contempt for the Irish Times management and Editor and got away with it. But Waters was not permitted to write of the 3.3 million Euro Directors gave themselves and the 2.2 million Euro index-linked golden goodbye they gave outgoing Editor Conor Brady, lavish expenditures made while drastically cutting staff numbers and conditions—to the extent of withdrawing their free copy of the paper. Editor Kennedy, who told the Kelly family that she could not interfere with the subject matter of her columnists, first had Waters' copy watered down. (It must be assumed that the Features Editor who agreed changes to Waters' column with him was acting on her instructions.) Then she dropped it altogether, censored it out of existence—she hoped.

Unfortunately for the bully, Waters was not quite as small a victim as he appeared. The dropped column was widely circulated amongst the hundreds employed in the paper and made its way into the public domain, with malicious assistance from the delighted Independent stable. Waters was invited to explain what had happened on RTE. The upshot was that he was delivered a coup de grace by Madam Guillotine, who sent him a letter of dismissal by courier late on a Saturday night. Presumably this was intended to stop him producing the next Monday's column.

Worse, the Editor was unable to contain her emotions, ironically telling Waters that, since he had said on RTE that she was "compromised" as Editor, she would "minimise your discomfort by relieving you of any further necessity to contribute to the Irish Times. I wish you well in finding a more congenial environment for your journalism". Oh how she must have enjoyed writing that—and how she must now regret that nobody stopped her sending it!

Receiving this letter, Waters mobilised the National Union of Journalists, whose General Secretary, Seamus Dooley, wrote to the doctrinaire Progressive Democrat ideologue in a voice of sweet reason, pointing out that Waters had a Contract and that he was happy working for the Irish Times, "which has always been a platform for diverse views. It will be deeply worrying if The Irish Times are now seeking guarantees of total fidelity" (Irish Independent 24.11.03).

Not only did the would-be victim have important friends, there loomed the prospect of breach of contract proceedings. Kennedy withdrew the offending letter and Waters was re-instated as a columnist.

In the October issue of Irish Political Review, commenting on Editor Kennedy's crass remark to the Kelly family that they "have done well out of it", referring to the front-page treatment of their bereavement, I wrote: "It now appears that Kennedy is one of life's over-achievers: that her journalistic record owed as much to her associations as to her own abilities… she does not have the authority, gravitas or ability to make her writ run". That judgment has now been borne out. Ms Kennedy is little more than a narrow Progressive Democrat ideologist. She failed to curb Myers. Given that, she had to try to stop the rot by making an example of Waters. The wiser course, faced with Waters' criticism, would have been to quietly dilute it, publish counter-arguments, and later not renew his Contract.

By attempting to censor his views altogether, she has given them even greater currency than if she had not interfered at all. And she has lost the reputation for liberalism which publishing Waters would have saved. Ms Kennedy cannot be a happy editor, one wonders how long she will be an Editor at all.

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