Raising my Eire

The Irish Independent has a feature on me today that would be impressive publicity were it not partly fabricated and borderline libelous.

Writer Deirdre Reynolds, who interviewed me over the phone and typed my answers without taping them, mangled my words in many places and, most damagingly, put an edgy paragraph of her own with a quote mark at the beginning — making it look like I said it.

The purported quote reads: "And just because you're not having sex, it doesn't mean you can't still have fun with your clothes on. While doing the business is strictly off-limits, those engaging in chastity can still pick 'n' mix other pleasures of the flesh."

I never said that or anything remotely like it. It is completely contrary to my message and that of The Thrill of the Chaste.

From the context, it appears as though the quote mark was simply misplaced and that Reynolds did not mean to attribute her words to me. Nonetheless, it is libelous because it appears as a quote and, throughout the article, she did not take adequate care to quote me accurately. My press representative in Ireland is writing a letter to the editor, as it appears the Independent does not publish corrections.