It was the accidental expos? that portrayed poet Cathal O Searcaigh as a sex tourist. Now a new documentary that purports to be a “personal response” to Fairytale of Kathmandu will challenge the film broadcast on RTE last year, according to its maker.
Paddy Bushe, a poet and friend of O Searcaigh, is to screen The Truth about Kathmandu at Feile na Greine arts festival in Waterville, Co Kerry next Monday.
O Searcaigh will also read a selection of poetry at the festival, only his second public appearance in Ireland since the documentary was screened.
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Bushe, who travelled to Nepal last November, says his film will allege Fairtyale of Kathmandu presented a false impression of the relationship between O Searcaigh and the young boys he befriended in Nepal.
The poet, who re-interviews many of the boys in his film, claims some of the interviewees later had regrets about speaking to Neasa Ni Chianain, the author of the documentary. “A number of the boys, including Narang Pant, whose testimony was central in Fairytale, have told me that they were encouraged to give rehearsed answers,” said Bushe.
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He claims Pant contacted Ni Chianain soon after the interview he gave to ask her not to use the footage. The poet also interviewed a young “student leader” who claims he was offered money by Ni Chianain to give an interview critical of O Searcaigh, but declined. “Would young Westerners be treated like this?” Bushe asks at the end of the film.
The Kerry-based poet was nominated by O Searcaigh to become a member of Aosdana, the self-elected artists’ academy, and now describes himself as a friend of the Donegal poet. But he insists his interviews were not influenced by his relationship with the poet.
“I recorded the interviews when I was on a trekking holiday in Nepal and at that stage I had only met Cathal on half a dozen occasions. I would have described our relationship as professional. But since making the documentary we have become friends,” he said.
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Bushe shot two hours of footage, which he has edited down to 20 minutes. He said he has edited chronologically. “I shot all the footage on my hand-held camera and interviewed all the boys myself,” he said.
Bushe claimed Ni Chianain’s use of “clever editing” and “juxtapositions” deliberately portrayed O Searcaigh as sinister. “It horrified me. It didn’t gel with what I knew of Cathal, so I went to investigate the truth for myself,” he said.
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The poet has invited Ni Chianain to the Kerry festival. He said that, unlike her, he asked all interviewees to sign consent forms. “That was one of the most troubling aspects,” he said. “The boys also told me that Neasa encouraged them to go swimming, even though Prem [one of the boys befriended by O Searcaigh] couldn’t swim and the water was freezing.”
Ni Chianain rejected Bushe’s claims this weekend, saying that she never “coerced, bribed or coached” any of her interviewees. “That’s absurd,” she said. “There is nothing new in his material and these are the same questions I’ve been answering from friends of Cathal O Searcaigh since I came home.” The film-maker said she had passed on all her unedited footage and transcripts to RTE and social services, who passed them on to gardai, after her return from Nepal.
“They have seen the unedited footage and are happy with the truth as I portrayed it,” she said. “My cameraman and soundman were with me at all times and they witnessed what happened. Narang and all the other boys spoke to me of their own free will.
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“Had I known that the documentary would become so controversial, I would have asked them to sign consent forms but they had gotten to know me over time and were well aware that they were being interviewed for a film.”
Ni Chianain claimed that O Searcaigh is still in contact with many of the boys and continues to give them money. “It’s true that Narang rang me after I got home and asked me not to use the footage, but he only did it under pressure from Cathal, who is still giving him and the other boys money,” she said.
She believes the decision of the manager of the hotel in which O Searcaigh was staying to reveal his concerns was further evidence his behaviour in Kathmandu was inappropriate.
“Cathal was his best customer,” she said. “He used to stay there for three months every year when tourism was suffering because of the political situation in Nepal. [The hotel manager] spoke to me because he grew fond of the boys and couldn’t bear to see them being exploited.”