[John Waters]

“What is the great crime in taking money off the state broadcaster?”  “Let me tell you this, if this had gone on, it isn’t €40,000, I would have got €4m out of RTE.”

…Asked if he had become depressed as a result of the national backlash, he said, “I don’t believe in depression. There’s no such thing. It’s an invention. It’s bullshit,” he said, “it’s a cop out.”

He also described how the backlash had taken a personal toll on his physical health: “I lost nearly a stone in the first few weeks of this. I didn’t sleep.”

Mr Waters said he gave serious consideration to quitting journalism and is still considering leaving Ireland to work elsewhere. “I have no friends in the media anymore.”

“You have a certain hope that somebody, somewhere knows you for who you are, you kind of have some kind of naive hope that one of these people are going to stand up and say ‘hang on, this is wrong, this is not this guy’ and that moment never came.”

‘I’ve been put on trial over my beliefs’ (Niamh Horan, Sunday Independent)

Previously: “Everyone Sat There Enjoying The Spectacle Of Me Being Savaged”

John Waters Responds

Meanwhile…

“I neither agree with nor respect a lot of views that he expresses however I think a person is entitled to express their views in as rational a manner as possible.’
…John is not a person who doesn’t believe in depression. He is not a person who doesn’t believe that there are suffers of depression. What he meant was he doesn’t believe for himself.’
…As of this morning, I do believe there is a bit of a witch hunt going on now in terms of what the man has said about depression.”

‘I am getting concerned now for John, because actually I do believe he’s probably a little bit depressed.’

Sinead O’Connor speaking with Anton Savage on Today FM’s  Savage Sunday earlier..

Sinead O’Connor Defends John Waters (TodayFM)

Thanks Diarmuid Doyle