Madam, – I note that none of the apologies emanating from Catholic Church leaders following the publication of the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuseused the term "crimes against children". Instead they favoured descriptions such as "pain" and "neglect". This proves that they are still attempting to minimise the depravity of the systematic and institutional physical, sexual and psychological assaults on children.
It is obvious now that we can no longer countenance any involvement by the clergy in the education of our children. In my work as a psychotherapist I have seen at first hand the catastrophic effects these crimes have caused.
We have an ideal opportunity now of getting this message across to our politicians as elections approach. For us to do nothing now will mean that we will have joined with the clergy in minimising past crimes against children and colluded with future crimes. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I am an abuse victim of the Catholic Church. I was molested for over nine months while in their care. I was placed in care as I was been abused at home.
When I was abused I ran away from St Joseph’s in Salthill Galway.
I went straight to the Garda station in Salthill and reported my abuser. I was laughed at by the Garda. I was told that I should not talk about religious people like that.
I was returned to my abuser three times until I was caught trying to commit suicide at age 11. Not only was the church at fault but the Garda did nothing to investigate my claims. I have proof of this in my medical files and have passed this over to the redress board.
I was awarded a small amount of money but I have one big problem. Because of the sexual abuse that I went through I suffer severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I applied to the redress board to receive counselling and was turned down. Thanks to Brian Cowen I was able to get counselling in 2002. I have been going for counselling since then and it does help somewhat.
Apart from that I have to take three medications per day to help me cope. The redress board said that it would not pay for medications. I again contacted Mr Cowen, but I was shocked to be told by him that the Irish Government would only pay for basic counselling – without medication. My doctor sent a letter begging for payment for the medication to help me get through the day without having flashbacks. Again it was refused. I pay $600 per month for this medication out of my own pocket.
I will be in counselling for another 10 years and doctors at the University of Pennsylvania say that I must take my medication for the rest of my life.
If the church is sorry for what they have done to so many innocent children I suggest that they cover full counselling, including the medication.
If I do not take my medication I am suicidal. They caused my PTSD. I think they thought if I do not get the medication I will just kill myself. They would love that.
Ireland needs to remove all clergy, nuns and brothers out of public schools in Ireland. They cannot be trusted. A complete separation between church and State needs to be introduced now, not later. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I would like to put on record that the pseudonym of "Noah Kitterick" employed by the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuserefers to Mr Peter Tyrrell.
It should enter the public record that this brave man who suffered abuse for six years at the hands of the Christian Brothers in Letterfrack, who was ignored by those Brothers when he confronted them about the abuses in 1953, who in 1958 wrote an 80,000-word account depicting in the most memorable and honest fashion the numerous violations and terror he suffered, should now suffer the ignominy of perpetual anonymity in the final report into the culture of abuse in these institutions.
The claims Peter Tyrrell made to senator Owen Sheehy Skeffington in the 1950s lay hidden for nearly half a century until they were discovered and published as Founded on Fear(Irish Academic Press and Transworld Ireland) in 2006.
The decision to deny his brave testimony this small place in the official account is quite unnecessary since Peter Tyrrell was referred to by his real name by both Mr Justice Seán Ryan and Brother Gibson of the Christian Brothers in the evidence relating to Letterfrack (June 16th, 2006).
It seems an incredible pity that the need to protect two acknowledged perverts should deny the most elementary right of the first brave recorded voice against these abuses. It is made all the more incredible since the publication of Peter Tyrrell’s account in 2006 led to an apology by the Christian Brothers for their treatment of him. I understand that the commission took a view that it must protect both the complainants’ and abusers’ identities.
However, Tyrrell’s desire to let the world know about the culture of violence in Letterfrack was made very clear by the numerous unheeded letters he sent to priests, bishops, TDs, ministers and taoisigh.
As he said himself – in a letter before he burned himself alive in despair on Hampstead Heath in April 1967 – “My story, which is true, should be published in my own name”.
I commend the report itself, while remaining deeply disappointed by the commission’s decision to unjustly censor the honourable memory of Peter Tyrrell. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Every priest, nun and brother together with the religious orders and congregations they represent who have in any way participated in the emotional, psychological or sexual abuse and assault on innocent children in their care should be brought before this State’s courts as a matter of urgency and subjected to the full rigours of the law for the abominable crimes they have committed and the thousands of lives they have utterly destroyed.
And every single victim of such horrific crimes should be given the opportunity to which they are legally entitled, to tell their personal stories and to present their own individual victim impact statements in a court of law.
Abuse destroys lives. Abuse destroys minds. The effects of abuse never go away. Abuse kills.
Yet in such an exhaustive report not one name of a guilty individual was published. The Irish Christian Brothers co-operated with the investigation on condition that no guilty party would be named. This in itself is an abomination.
It is not good enough for Cardinal Seán Brady to say that he is “sorry” for all that happened. This does nothing to restore the lives and minds of all those who have been abused. It is too little, too late.
If this State has any genuine respect for children then this report and all its findings should become the focus of a criminal investigation as justice, and only justice, can ever help to heal the catastrophic devastation of abuse. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Like any reasonable person, I’d like to express my horror and disgust at the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. When I was young, in the 1950s and 1960s, we lived near Artane Industrial School and the boys from the school were a common sight in the neighbourhood, always under the close scrutiny of the Christian Brothers.
We had no access to the boys, they were in a state of absolute segregation. I can still very clearly see the crocodiles of boys, only a little older than myself, in their short-trousered, brown herringbone suits, trudging their way, two-by-two, up the Malahide Road to Coolock church on Sunday mornings.
To us, “Artane Boys Home” was a threat. Parents would say “if you’re bad, you’ll be taken away to Artane Boys Home”. Just the threat of being taken away was enough for us, and we knew the boys had a hard life, but we never dreamed that conditions were actually as appalling as the commission describes.
When I later lived near Dachau in Germany, I visited the concentration camp and was struck by the descriptions given by locals of their experience of the internees. They described their observing lines of desultory prisoners as they trudged through the neighbourhood on their way to and from their workplaces.
This description of these others, who lived among them, but segregated from them, reminded me of the miserable lads from Artane.
In a wider sense, perhaps we need to look in such a context to get a sense of the enormity of the crime that has been perpetrated and, in addition, of the sense of national shame and guilt that attaches to the whole country. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I have been a confirmed atheist for most of my adult life, but today I find myself hoping there is a god because that’s the only hope the victims of this abuse have of getting justice. This broken little country of ours can only offer ink, paper and some sort of statue, while protecting the perpetrators – individually and collectively – and continuing to line the pockets of lawyers. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The War of Independence ushered in a reign of terror for children who were poor, abandoned or from family circumstances which did not conform to a semi-fascist ideal. Would their lives have been as wretched had the entire island remained under British control? I doubt it. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – When the allegations concerning the various religious institutions began to emerge over the past couple of decades there was a kind of collective denial with comments such as “I was educated at a Christian Brothers’ school and it did me no harm”.
I too was educated at a Christian Brothers school and certainly did not witness, nor was even aware that such deeds were being committed. These orders may have reformed themselves in the meantime, but I believe that at this point the only course of action that would show true remorse is for these same institutions to be voluntarily wound up. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – All Catholics hope for salvation through the merits of Jesus Christ, head of the church, and rely on the intercession of the saints in heaven. It seems to me we should therefore be willing to stand in the breach for the sins committed by members (and leaders) of the church, even those as atrocious and appalling as the sexual and physical abuses of children committed by members of religious orders in the industrial schools.
I think the publication of the report into the abuses in the industrial schools should be the occasion for the Catholic laity to make a symbolic gesture, such as contributing to a special collection to help the surviving victims, in order to: 1. Acknowledge the real, and terrible, evil of the abuse. 2. Recognise the need to try to make some reparation, however inadequate it may be. 3. To publicly identify with the church, the Body of Christ, in her hour of need, because we believe the good done by the church in this life greatly outweighs the evils committed, and that, despite everything, the church is still the sacrament of salvation for eternal life. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The responses to the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abusemirror the responses in England by MPs who have robbed the taxpayers.
It is good that religious orders have expressed regret and offered apologies for what went on in their institutions. However, what we really want, surely, is to understand what caused brothers, priests and nuns to abuse their charges and to get away with it for years. I’m sure these things won’t happen again, but what in our religious life led to those in religious orders becoming sexual, physical and emotional abusers? And, no, it wasn’t just celibacy. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – We Irish have a terrible difficulty with unambiguous expression in the active voice.
A proper apology would be along the lines of “I apologise for what I/my organisation did to innocent children”. Talk of “apologising for the hurt suffered” or “apologising for what happened” is mealy-mouthed verbiage, probably drafted by lawyers. I’m not surprised that many victims are rejecting such “apologies”. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – This outpouring of unreserved apologies from religious orders is to be welcomed but it is not enough. What victims of abuse need to hear is an apology from the non-abusive members of the clergy who stayed silent and did nothing to help these unfortunate children. – Yours, etc,