Madam, – As a plain ordinary citizen of Ireland, a mother, a daughter and a sister, I am disgusted to the point of total revulsion by the child abuse report just released. The monsters who preyed on these innocent young lives mustbe held accountable.
If a teenager breaks a window or steals from a shop he runs the risk of an Asbo or a criminal record. These men and women as it stands will never be tried, never be jailed and never have to face the vile acts they carried out every day for many long years.
As an Irish citizen I am ashamed today of where I was born, a country where we suggest a monument for the abused and freedom for the guilty.
I demand a public inquiry into the abuse and I offer my signature as No 1 on the petition to demand this. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Mary Raftery’s excellent article (“Taxpayers pick up the bill while abusers get secrecy and protection”, May 22nd) points up one thing for me – the absolute necessity of a complete separation of Church and State. The dodgy deal done with the religious orders that prevents prosecution of sexual predators and indemnifies the organisations that protect and nurture them is another shameful example of the State bending the knee before the church.
It is time for us to transfer ownership of these public facilities to the State, and to remove religious references from our Constitution. If we can discuss the nationalisation of the banks, then why not the nationalisation of our schools and hospitals? We need to grow up as a country, and to realise that the very last thing any religion needs or deserves is to be protected from scrutiny and from the consequences of its actions. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – It was with great relief that many victims of institutional abuse at the hands of Catholic care-givers heard that finally their voices had truly been heard and believed. Unfortunately the investigation covered only Ireland and not the full reach of the missions of the so-called “Irish See” which included South Africa, where great abuses took place at a number of children’s homes run by nuns and other institutions run by brothers and priests.
A blanket of silence hangs over this side of the abuse story, both in Ireland and in South Africa, which has hosted thousands of Irish Catholic “missionaries” over the past 130 years. Will the Irish Government extend its inquiry to include the “Irish See”? Where does responsibility for the conduct of Irish missionaries lie? Or will we just continue with the silence?
In a round-about way, the report is good news for those of us who suffered dreadful abuses right here in Cape Town, because in finding the institutions and religious carers guilty of abuses, we know that it was the same people and institutions in Ireland that extended in their reach to South Africa.
Now that the story of the abuses is in the public domain and accepted as true, it is no longer the victims’ burden to carry on our own. This is probably the nearest that we will get to justice being done, because who in Ireland really cares what their missionaries did abroad?
We were expected to be grateful. The pain we carry, we will carry to our graves, without any personal redress. I recognised all of the abuses highlighted in the report as the same that we suffered over here.
I am in my 50s and these things happened to me and my fellow so-called “poor unfortunate little wretches” back in the 1960s. The institution where this happened has undergone much reform and today is a renowned and respected place of care for children with HIV-Aids. I wish the present day work no ill, although I personally am to this day wary of smiling nuns. All of the nuns of that time are either dead or no longer around, but their terrible deeds have never been exposed and the stories of generations of broken lives have not got the exposure in Ireland in the same manner as shown in the report and public debate about what happened on home ground.
The haunting continues for the victims in South Africa.
I would like to know whether there will be a follow-up investigation of the conduct of the church in the Irish missions abroad. Now that the report acknowledges the extent of the abuse at home surely the Government should look at its responsibility abroad. If not, why not? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – My late father, a medical doctor who was born in Tralee, told me that, as a child, he had visited St Joseph’s Industrial School in that town with his mother on some business. They took a wrong turn and ended up in a workshop where a child was getting a savage beating around the head by a religious brother.
This haunted him for the rest of his life and the events catalogued in the recently published Government report echo and justify the suffering of that poor defenceless child. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The appalling revelations about institutional child abuse and the way the State, and children’s charities, as well as religious institutions, were involved in splitting up families, further highlights the need to strengthen parents’ rights to protect their children.
Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman has pointed out that the Constitution does not prefer parents over children. A “children’s rights” amendment to the Constitution, however, would take power from parents and give it to the State and State-approved bodies.
The State must not be given more power over children at the expense of their parents.
The Ryan report, therefore, shows that appeals to have a so-called “children’s rights” amendment inserted into the Constitution are imprudent. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – If Fianna Fáil’s ill-conceived blasphemy law had already been passed, it would have been broken all over the country today, by anyone who’d read, watched or heard the testimony from people such as Christine Buckley and thousands of others who’d suffered as children.
What type of government is worried more about people taking God’s name in vain, rather than the suffering of God’s children? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I refer to the suggestions that a memorial, with an apology from the people of Ireland, be erected. I do not want any apology to be on behalf of “the people of Ireland”. Myself, my parents and hundreds of thousands of others like them in this country had no control over, or say in, the systematic abuse in our institutions for young people. They actually lived in fear of their child being taken into care. As a boy I remember being threatened with “Artane” if I misbehaved. Our parents knew the value of the threat, and any boy I palled around with knew, in our subconsciousness, what this meant. If our parents had spoken out about such abuse, they themselves would have suffered dire consequences. In any event, if they had reported any such abuse to the authorities, they would have been dismissed, as history has shown.
Any apology should be on behalf of the Catholic Church, the Oireachtas (the Dáil discussed the matter as far back as 1956), the relevant Government departments and the prosecution services. But not on behalf of the people of Ireland. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In the wake of the report concerning the child abuse suffered by many in the industrial schools and similar institutions run by Christian Brothers and nuns, much opprobrium has been heaped on the various religious orders because of their alleged involvement in abuse.
Granted, there was abuse, but please spare a thought for the countless thousands of honourable decent Brothers and nuns who are now being tarred with the same brush.
No one knows what really happened in those institutions. Many of those accused (though unnamed) are now dead and they cannot defend themselves.
I do know, and I’m sure many other people know, that the majority of the boys who were sent to those institutions were the thugs of their era. That is why they ended up there. In many cases they were from broken homes and the trauma they suffered probably resulted in their anti-social behaviour. I am not attempting to make a case for the few religious or lay thugs who took advantage of their vulnerability, but I amening to see the religious orders beiequally stating that it is quite sickng pilloried today.
The sight of the congregational leader of the Sisters of Mercy, almost in tears, having to apologise on national television for the sins of a few of her order (probably all deceased) was most appalling. That good lady was in no way responsible for any wrongdoing and I feel a solicitor might have been employed to make such a statement.
Madam, – The Conference of Religious in Ireland’s deal with the Fianna Fáil-led coalition in 2002, where contributions to the redress scheme were capped at €128 million, was at the time presented to the Dáil and the Irish people as an equitable sharing of the liability for both church and State.
Surely any legal agreement is null and void if either party fails to disclose relevant facts when the deal is being made?
Since the church has been recently proven to have covered up so many instances of abuse over such a long period, including instances post 2002, both the Irish Government and the Irish people should demand that this deal be immediately voided. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – May I modestly suggest an appropriate response to the reality exposed in Mr Justice Ryan’s report? The religious organisations and their members profess to follow Jesus Christ, a man of no property. Let these organisations divest themselves of all their property: every acre of land, every stone and every brick of every building. Let every archbishop, bishop, monsignor and priest become penniless and throw themselves upon the mercy of the people.
Let the property of the religious organisations be placed in trust for the benefit of the children of the nation. If their religion has true integrity, it will prosper in these circumstances; if not, it will wither. So be it. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Sheelagh Morris doubts whether such horrendous abuse of children could have taken place under British control (May 22nd). In the 130 years that St James’s Foundling Hospital was operational (under British control) 52,150 children passed through its doors. 41,524 did not survive. It closed its doors in 1839, following a damning report of abuse and malpractice within its walls. Yes, it could and yes, it did. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – About one million people went to see the Pope in 1979. Maybe a show of solidarity, empathy, grief, sadness and humility might bring one million people into the Phoenix Park to mark what must be the most devastating and destructive thing to happen to Irish people since the Famine. The difference this time around being that these people shouldered this on their own while the State and church institutions ignored them and still do. I’m sure the DPP has a stack of files it has no intention of pursuing.
A whisper here, a whisper there but apathy reigned and nothing was done until the abused themselves had to act. I think we should name a day of solidarity and walk to the park. And rather than set out with our family and friends, set out alone and just be there in silence and acknowledge and cry, alone. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The country is rightly appalled at the report’s revelations. How could the most vulnerable children in Irish society of the 1960s and 1970s have been treated so dreadfully? We are shocked that the politicians of that time had a good idea what was going on and yet, they did nothing. At least it’s different now.
Last week a report outlined the results of an investigation into the deaths of a family in Monageer. It highlighted major deficiencies in our current social work services and recommended a major expansion in service provision in order to better protect children. Separately, Carl O’Brien reported on May 15th that social workers are stating that vulnerable children in modern Ireland are at “huge risk” due to the failure of the HSE to fill vacant social worker posts.
As a doctor working with children in Ireland over the past 12 years, it is my personal view that social work services are the most under-resourced sector of the entire HSE. Our politicians and public can be in no doubt about the inadequacies of our current child protection systems of 2009. – Yours, etc,