Madam, – Having got over the shock of seeing my old bedroom in Artane (I didn’t need to read the caption) after an absence of 55 years, in your edition of May 21st, I am still, even now, somewhat reeling from the experience. My eye immediately went to the fourth bed from the top on the left of the corridors, and the bed number 114 sprang into my mind. That statue of Christ, at the head of the corridors haunts me even to this day. How could one forget?
Yes, I was one of Dr Norman Stewart’s “crocodile boys”(May 22nd) of the 1950s, and, even today (despite the many changes since), I could almost walk blindfold around Coolock, Killester, Santry, Raheny and Kilmore. We were even walked once, at the urging of a very athletic Brother, almost as far as Malahide.
Leaving aside the already well-documented stories of the conditions and abuse, etc, appertaining to those days, I would make a fervent plea to the politicians of today – please, please, do something, by way of a memorial museum, to remember and honour the thousands of children who suffered in the various institutions all those years ago.
I believe the main building of what was Artane Industrial School would be an ideal location for such a museum. It is at present used as a school (St David’s) by the Christian Brothers. Whatever about a further contribution to the Redress Board, it would be an appropriate gesture by the Christian Brothers to hand it over to the State, to facilitate such a museum, “lest we forget”. – Yours, etc,
PETER PALLAS
(Formerly 2941, Artane, 1947-1954),
Ennis,
Co Clare.
Madam, – I am a lady of 76 years and I strongly object to the comment by Art Kavanagh (May 23rd). I was placed in Goldenbridge at less than two years old. I was taken to a District Court in Clane in Co Kildare in 1935 and charged and sentenced to 14 years. I had committed no crime. To this day I still have this criminal record. I was deprived of all human and Constitutional rights when I was handed over to the nuns at Golden Bridge.
I was deprived of a family and did not know I had sisters and a brother till 1989. In 2003 I received some letters written by my mother in the 1940s.
Most of the children placed with the nuns were infants. – Yours, etc,
MAY CORNISH-HENDERSON,
St James Road,
London.
Madam, – Just weeks after the €6.5 million Protestant block grant for education was withdrawn due to budgetary concerns, the spotlight turns to the €1 billion subsidy to the Roman Catholic institution which systematically destroyed the lives of many of this country’s most vulnerable. Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe was quick to rule out any challenge to this outrageous reward for an institution that still struggles to come to terms with its culpability.
Protestants in this State can look forward to having their pockets raided to fund a corrupt and disgraced church, while the small subsidy to maintain the educational religious ethos for their own dispersed community is axed.
Maybe we can at least be spared the sanctimonious posturing of Cori in the future. As a limb of the Roman Catholic church it is in no position to lecture the rest of us about our fiscal or social duties. – Yours, etc,
COLIN COOPER,
Ballineen,
Co Cork.
Madam, – With the rush to levy everything by the Government as a means of overcoming legal objections concerning property rights, can I suggest a child abuse levy – to be paid by the religious bodies and their staff only, of course. – Yours, etc,
EWAN DUFFY,
Castletown,
Celbridge, Co Kildare.
Madam, – Should a book of solidarity not be opened in every large town in this country so that we can all sign with utter humility? – Yours, etc,
SUSAN COAKLEY,
Lavally,
Mallow, Co Cork.
Madam, – Is there any way for the authorities at Mansion House to open the signing of the book of solidarity to the worldwide community online? I believe many would sign via computer, greatly expanding the response.
I would welcome the chance to add my name in support of those terrorised as children and young people. While there is no substitute for being present at Mansion House, and hearing the stories so movingly told in your newspaper, we may at least participate indirectly. Perhaps there could be opportunity as well to include short entries by signers?
Thank you to the Irish press for its focus on the story, to the Government for the investigation (however flawed its terms), and mostly to the children who spoke truth to power. Their courage made it all possible. We do indeed stand in solidarity with you. – Yours, etc,
CAROLYN DISCO,
Chairman, Survivor Support,
New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful,
Merrimack,
New Hampshire, US.
Madam, – My eyes brim with tears having just read Kenneth Doyle’s letter (May 22nd).
His plain, simple English screams of his torture; the blurting out of his daily reality is shocking and disturbing.
Those criminals responsible must be prosecuted relentlessly. The passing of time does not permit their evasion of justice.
I abhor the cap on the church’s liability for their deeds.
I am repulsed by what was allowed to happen, and I am ashamed to have been reared as a Catholic. – Yours, etc,
KEN KELLER,
Londonbridge Drive,
Sandymount, Dublin 4.
Madam, – Sheelagh Morris asks would the lives of abuse victims have been as wretched had our entire island remained under British control (May 22nd). This is to suppose that abuse is confined to the island of Ireland, but this is not so. There were many reports into child abuse in Britain, chief among them being the Pindown Report 1991, Leicestershire 1993 and the Waterhouse Report 2000 covering north Wales where high levels of physical, sexual and emotional abuse were all found to exist in a number of children’s homes.
A more balanced analysis of Mr Justice Ryan’s report would be preferable and more conducive to safeguarding institutionalised children in these islands. – Yours, etc,
TERESA SOMERS,
St Margaret’s Road,
Dublin 11.
Madam, – The shattering catalogue of child abuse as revealed in the Ryan report will leave an indelible stain on the conscience of this country. Maureen Forrest’s insightful letter (May 22nd) rightly suggests we have much to be ashamed of.
While it has taken far too long, and irreparable and inexcusable damage has been done, at least in this country the monumental injustices done to generations of children can be acknowledged. This is understandably likely to be of scant consolation for survivors.
For the millions of children in the Third World there is no prospect of consolation of any kind. As child soldiers they are brutalised and turned into killing machines used to butcher their own. As prostitutes they are groomed to meet the depraved demands of paedophiles and exposed daily to the ravages of Aids. In the “labour” market where 150 million children work; they are also heinously exploited working exhausting hours for a pittance.
And it is not just the children who suffer, the rights of women are similarly trampled upon. The downturn and aid cutbacks mean that children in the Third World will be even more imperilled as their parents struggle to survive and desperate solutions are sought. – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’SHEA,
Goal,
Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Madam, – There may well be no legal way to amend the Government’s abuse deal with the Catholic Church but there is a very strong moral basis – plus the church’s own canon law – to amend it.
Article 1459 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that where another person is harmed in commission of a sin satisfaction must be made in order to merit absolution. This is separate from Article 1460 which provides for the penance given by the confessor. It doesn’t take a canon law lawyer to understand this.
Every Irish national school classroom during the 1920s and 1930s had a large picture of Jesus sitting with a group of children embracing and comforting them. His words to them are recorded in Mathew, Mark and Luke. He warned that anyone who betrayed one of these little ones should have a millstone tied around his neck and be cast into the depths of the sea. If Ireland runs short of millstones I’m sure Jesus won’t mind if concrete blocks are used – of which there is a surplus in some builders’ yards. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN CALLINAN,
Spiddal,
Galway.
A chara, – I join the citizens of Ireland in my revulsion of those connected in any way to the horrific abuse suffered by my fellow citizens and demand that they face the law of the land accordingly – deal or no deal.
The religious orders can very easily be encouraged to rethink their strategies and ensure victims are correctly compensated and perpetrators are justly prosecuted. Catholics of Ireland (and beyond) should divert their weekly contributions from Sunday collection plates into a fund for those who suffered. Watch how fast pressure can be brought to bear on them from the church authorities both in Ireland and in Rome! – Is mise,
VALERIE Mhic GIOLLA
FHINNÉIN,
High Road,
Portstewart, Co Derry.
A chara, – Thank you for printing the article ”The Abused – in their own words”, Opinion, May 23rd). I cried for a long time after reading it. I feel as if I am grieving somebody very close to me. I will never put my foot across a Catholic church again nor wish to be buried a Catholic because by doing so would justify these criminals’ appalling behaviour. – Is mise, etc,
EILISH BYRNE,
South Square,
Inchicore,
Dublin.
A chara, – In 1968, as a boy of eight I was admitted to Our Lady’s hospital, Crumlin, with a minor medical complaint. I was frightened and felt very alone (my home being in Sligo at the time) particularly as I was surrounded by many elements of what was to me an alien religion. A young priest befriended me and even now I remember the kindness and prayerful reassurance he gave to me at that time (even when I admitted I was a Protestant!).
In the midst of this vile debacle it is vital we remember the men and woman who selflessly dedicated their lives to education and heath in this country and had no hand, act or part in these appalling atrocities. – Is mise,
GEOFF SCARGILL,
Loreto Grange,
Bray, Co Wicklow.
A chara, – It is a disgrace that we are not correctly naming the crimes. It would be more appropriate to use “crimes against humanity” and “crimes against children”. It is high time we separated church and state, removed all religious terminology in our Constitution, seized the assets of and disbanded the congregations named in the report. – Is mise,
SAORLA O CORRAIN,
Baile na nGall,
Tralee,
Co Kerry.
Madam, – Mary Raftery (Opinion, May 22nd) writes in outrage that the taxpayer must “pick up the bill” while the abusers are protected. The media is full of opinions and estimates varying from €1 billion to €5 billion and more. Dr Michael Woods is being vilified for letting the church get off the hook for a paltry €127 million.
Am I the only person who thinks that we pay for a criminal justice system and a health service and that these are what should be utilised here? The criminals should be hunted out and answer for their crimes. The full panoply of healthcare support should be offered to the victims that need it.
The country’s economy lies in ruins. The hundreds and possibly thousands of millions being talked about as some form of reparation would be far better spent on today’s children whose education and health needs are being compromised by the latest folly visited on us by our greed. The past is behind us and we cannot restore lost childhoods, but we can at least cherish the children we have now. A broken church must repent and in some way seek atonement and convince the people that it wasn’t just out to broker the smartest deal of the 21st century.
Is greed and perverted materialism still so rampant that the only thing so many can think about when confronted with this appalling history is money as reparation and how much it will cost to bury our sins? – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN CUSACK,
Model Farm Road, Cork.