Christine Buckley for Freedom of Dublin City

I will bring this to the Fine Gael Group and propose the granting of this signal honour to a remarkable woman. I will ask Enda Kenny to support this also.Dr. Bill Tormey

I’ve been asked by a number of people who contribute to this website to put this letter seeking to have Christine Buckley given the Freedom of the City of Dublin into this format to allow them to add their comments. i’ve copied and pasted the letter from the original link. It was written by Carmel McDonnell-Byrne – a close friend of Christine’s and a co-worker at the Aislinn Centre. Paddy.

I urge you to please read this:
I would like to nominate Christine Buckley for THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY AWARD and am not sure what procedures and measures I need to take to ensure that this may be possible; although I am aware as Lord Mayor you can nominate people for Freedom of the City. Christine will be 65 years old next year and I think it would be very fitting for her to receive this most prestigious award after 26 years fighting for justice for the most marginalised in Irish society; survivors of institutional abuse.
Last year Christine won the Ireland Involved Award which is part of a European-wide initiative to recognise the work of volunteers. Christine as Irish Volunteer of the Year then went on to represent Ireland at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Saturday 5th December 2009 on International Volunteer Day. She was awarded the Trophee Europeen du Benevolat in the European Parliament in Strasbourg along with the title “European Volunteer of the Year” in recognition of the years of work to raise awareness of institutional child abuse. She gave a most powerful speech and I was very proud to be part of that most momentous occasion.
As you are aware Christine has campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of institutional abuse for more than 26 years and is truly a remarkable selfless woman. Christine spoke privately about these atrocities in 1984, and then went public in 1992. Dear Daughter (Louis Lentin) was televised on 22nd February 1996 and yet again Christine spoke of the horrors. In 1999 we had States of Fear (Mary Raftery). Prior to this Christine had attended meetings with Bertie Ahern and the then Minister for Education, Micheál Martin.
Further meetings followed which culminated in An Taoiseach’s (Bertie Ahern)apology on behalf of the State and the people of Ireland to all victims of institutional abuse on the 11th May of 1999. This was followed by the establishment of a nationwide counselling service, a Commission of Inquiry into Institutional Abuse and the establishment of the Redress Board. From that first meeting with the former Taoiseach, it was obvious that not only did Bertie Ahern listen but more importantly, he believed everything Christine had said.
In 2000 during a further meeting with An Taoiseach, Christine explained the difficulties survivors were encountering in trying to access records to help them find their parents, siblings and extended families. Again, Bertie Ahern listened attentively and in 2001 Origins- a tracing service was set up by Barnardos. This has led to numerous survivors being reunited with siblings who poignantly were separated at the time of their incarceration. In some cases, survivors have been reunited with their mothers.
Centres have been established such as Aislinn Education and Support Centre in Dublin and Right of place in Cork together with others in the UK and again Bertie Ahern played a pivotal role in that regard.
In 2004 following another meeting with An Taoiseach Christine expressed concerns about vulnerable survivors receiving compensation without adequate supports, Bertie Ahern provided the solution when he advised the Redress Board to institute measures with the Money Advice & Budgeting Services (MABS) centres to assist survivors in vulnerable situations on how best to use their monies. I strongly believe without Christine’s intervention none of the above would have happened. I do believe it is high time she is recognised for her pivotal role in changing society hopefully for the better. We as survivors are so lucky that she is such an advocate working on our behalf, and we should acknowledge her role as a person who always puts fellow survivors before herself. (Neither myself or Christine have had time to get our papers ready for Redress)
There aren’t many people in Ireland who wouldn’t recognize Christine particularly in the current climate since the Ryan Report. She has devoted so much time and effort to this cause to the detriment of her health, family and not forgetting her education. She had been attending University and had to leave before she completed her degree. This was not an easy decision but things became so hectic in the last few years she had no choice but to abandon her love and desire to pursue a degree. I am sure you can empathise with Christine’s dilemma. (I also found myself in the same situation I was attending Trinity Access Programme and I too had to abandoned because of pressures running our centre,
My own sister died 3 years ago aged 50 years. It was shocking and I am still trying to come to terms with it. I have now lost 3 members of my family due to so called institutional care. We know only too well the scale and extent of institutional abuse in Ireland has not been properly addressed, it has scarred almost an entire generation and must be acknowledged. There isn’t enough money in the world to reclaim our stolen childhoods! But I think if Christine was to receive THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY it would certainly make all of her efforts worthwhile, and it would be a way that her husband and children could celebrate her huge achievement and bravery for telling her story over 26years ago. I think it is important that she receives her award while she is in relatively good health.
As children our innocence was stolen, we were robbed and deprived of our childhoods, so many of us were told every day that we were worthless nobodies and unwanted, beaten, sexually abused and tossed out on the streets when we reached16. So many of our people left these hell-holes were illiterate and Christine has always had this passion to have a centre were fellow survivors could meet and feel a sense of belonging.
She fought doggedly to get a centre to enable survivors’ avail of an opportunity to get the education they so justly deserve, and in the early days she battled cancer and still continued to be actively involved in the centre. She would attend the centre attached to her drip! What a women were does she get her inner strength? I sincerely hope it does not go unrecognized.
Christine’s courage has enabled thousands of people to feel free – free from untruth, free from the cowardice that characterised relations between church and state. There is a huge sense of freedom from the scarring of the emotional – the physical and sexual abuse, at last the awful shame so many feel is slowly shifting. I think the time has come when we have to award Christine the accolade she so justly deserves THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY.
Redress to be Extended/Magdalene’s to be Included
On another note I would urge that the Redress Date be extended in the light of the revelations of The Ryan Report. We have had so many who have asked us why was there a closing date before the report was COMPLETED, some didn’t know anything until after Report, so many are illiterate and so many fled this country and did not know about The Commission until it went out on international news. The Magdalene Laundries should have been included as some of these women were incarcerated for years and years against their will.
I anxiously await your reply.
Yours sincerely
Carmel McDonnell-Byrne
353879175105
(Fellow Survivor and Co-founder & Director of The Aislinn Centre)

 

28 Responses to “A letter Sent to Councillor Dr. Bill Tormey.”

  1. Mary O' says:

    Carmel Mc’Donnell-Byrne, What Industrial Reformatory school where you in , what years. just wondering as I had never heard of you,you were not in Goldenbridge when it was a Industrial reformatory School for I would have known you.all I know of you never having met you is that you are Mrs Buckley’s best friend many survivors are Scared of her she says she represents survivors >Lets see the Names who she says she represents?????, It’s herself she represents ONLY. we want you to open your Books for all to see , including what and where all the huge funding you recieved went to and on. Every Euro must be accounted for. Now I hear you want her to have the Freedom of Dublin award’ Well you would wouldn’t you , , She is a scary person and quiet a big Bully ,She does NOT deserve it ‘No way.

  2. well its a relief to see that others can see that these things are imaginary. In future years I dont want to lose my credability. On u tube i saw vidios that were truthfull but then we get Christine talking about herself in most of the things said just dont fit in to the goldenbridge i remember. Xeveria never ran lashing out with sticks in the dormatry after beating us. it was done coldly and it hurt a lot.We are all affected by these places. I have never seen or heard Christine talking about the present. she might do this i wouldnt know as i wouldnt go to the aisleen centre. all the hate shown is strange. Christine even has her say about the ones condemed by the courts. I dont believe that court records exist for her as she was placed in g b by her foster family.In the future all this will come out. and then what. the whole of goldenbridge inmates will be touched by these storys. No child could be stiched up to that extent and walk out on her two legs. i only bought a computer recently but i am shocked by her passing herself off as the joan of arc of g. b.it wont stand up to questioning.rubbish like that is not a help at all to any of us .

  3. Rory Connor says:

    Christina asked: “Is it not unfair then that Christine Buckley is open to all kind of comments, opinions, questions and accusations. Why is Christine not believed and why are others deemed to be infallible?

    The following may explain why some people have difficulty in believing Christine Buuckley. It is an extract from the Sunday Times article of April 1996 referred to by UK cultural historian Richard Webster (quoted above):
    http://www.alliancesupport.org/news/archives/002059.html

    “Medical View ‘Inconsistent’ with Goldenbridge Abuse

    A senior surgeon who worked at the hospital where children from the Goldenbridge orphanage were treated during the 1950s has said that he cannot corroborate the description of the most severe injury inflicted on Christine Buckley. She claims injuries were inflicted on her by beatings at the hands of Sister Xavieria, the Sister of Mercy nun at the centre of the controversy over alleged abuse at the orphanage.

    “Buckley, who was the subject of the Dear Daughter documentary on Goldenbridge broadcast by RTE television last month was among 18 former residents who alleged physical and verbal abuse by Xavieria. Their claims have since been supported by dozens of former residents. But in the medical opinion of J B Prendiville, a surgeon attached to Dr Steeven’s, the hospital which treated Goldenbridge children from 1955 until its closure in 1987, Buckley’s claim in the documentary that her leg was split open from her hip to her knee alter a beating by Xavieria is difficult to comprehend.

    “This has added to controversy over the claims made by Buckley and others against Xavieria. The nun denied abusing the children on RTE’s Prime Time programme last week and a number of former Goldenbridge residents have supported her. Now Buckley says she is appalled that the abuse is denied by Xavieria, questioned by medics, and missed as exaggeration some former residents.

    “Buckley said she was viciously beaten by Xavieria after it was discovered she had smuggled a letter out to a newspaper with the bread delivery man. The nun, she claims her repeatedly on the legs with a stick, using such force that her thigh burst open from her hip to her knee, leaving a scar that stretched from her buttock to the end of her thigh.

    “She says she recalls being brought to the hospital covered in blood. She was treated in casualty, or “the dispensary” as it was known to the children. She recalls her wound being sutured and dressed, she believed she received 80 to 120 stitches. She was not admitted as a patient to the hospital, and after her wounds were dressed was sent back to the orphanage.

    Prendiville said he cannot recall ever treating a Goldenbridge child with a lacerated thigh. He said an injury needing such extensive stitching would not have been treated in Casualty. Standard medical practice would have necessitated that such an injury would require extensive surgery under a general anaesthetic, and a child with such an injury would have been detained as a patient at the hospital. In his experience, injuries to limbs caused by blunt instruments do not cause significant lacerations, but are more liable to cause fractures and muscular injuries, a medical view supported by R B Fisher, consultant at Belfast City hospital with 10 years experience of treating the victims of punishment beatings.,

    “As a specialist in soft-tissue injury and burns Prendiville said that such an injury would have been referred to him by medical staff; since it was an unusual case he would have undoubtedly recorded it for academic purposes. But he has no record or memory of any such case although he concedes he might well have been away at the time Buckley’s leg injury brought her to Dr Steeven’s.

    “Moreover, he has not seen the scars she still bears on her leg. His assessment is based on what was the standard practice in the casualty department, of which he was in charge. Neither he, nor three other medics who worked at Dr Steeven’s in the 1950s, can recall anything suspicious among the Goldenbridge children who regularly attended the hospital with typical childhood ailments.” …….

    from ‘The Sunday Times’ (Irish edition) 28 April 1996

    Why have these allegations not been the subject of a criminal prosecution or even a civil case for damages? Does anybody actually take them seriously? Journalists seem to ignore them to avoid causing embarrasment to Christine Buckley who has become a media pet!

  4. Well i understand what Christina means. i cant ignore her because of her being well known . But I was also in gb. and my memories are also there in my mind. in the future it could be treated as a case of racism against one person. in those days there were very few coloured people and it wasent an issue in there. it was the whole system that was inhuman . that my memories differ from christies well my memories still are there. i dont have to adapt them for anyone.

  5. I had never intended to hurt anyone. I am 65 years old. for so many years now we have been held in expectation of something. its keeping the past in focus. also i have no other reason for writing except to say that these places operated in full view of society.for years and years children were tried and condemed. Then we lived as prisoners. it wasent about one or 2 or even a hundred. it was thousands. thay are all part of the story. if history only has whats on u tube then its very sad. i have had time now to measure the loss of family there is no way back into whats changed while we were locked up.thousands of lonely people.this has changed for some but many never get any attention whatsoever. this is what we can say on here.

  6. Paddy says:

    The comment is aimed at everyone who contributes to this website and not at any one single person. I trust this clears up the issue. Paddy

  7. Christina says:

    Paddy, I only saw your comment after I had sent this through to Pauline. If this is aimed at me, then this is very unfair. I thought the discussion about Christine was wrong and I thought I was allowed to call it as I saw it, obviously not.
    Regards

  8. Christina says:

    Pauline, I don’t think you are telling lies and I don’t think for a moment that you are a bully. It was not my intention to upset you at all.
    I just didn’t think the discussion was fair (for various reasons and I’d really rather leave it at that).
    I hope you are feeling a bit better now.

  9. Paddy says:

    I’m glad Robert mentioned bullying. Any person engaging in bullying or insulting behaviour will be excluded from making comments on my website. What individuals do on other websites is a matter for the person in charge of that website. Paddy

  10. @Christina, There is no Bullying Allowed here as the site is Moderated. Sally has not been without her Critics nor myself? Information and debate is fascinating and is to be encouraged??

  11. Christina Well of course you can have yourr own memories. The xs i remember was a religous fanatic. Why is it that only a few seem to be able to talk for all of us .Xeveria kept all outsiders at a distance. even doctors and dentists. No one would have dared interfere with her orders. Xeveria dident give a damn about any of us . There were 136 inmates in goldenbridge. she showed no interest in children at all. we were lined up on the landing for getting things wrong or getting things right was insolence. I left 3 months before my 15th birthday and at that time Christine was fine. what happened afterwards i dont know. But no one came out after several years in there in a good state of mind. i have no reason at all to lie. as for bulling chrissie i wouldnt dare. the only time i have seen her since was in the redress board. we had a row because she accused me of lying to the board.She doesnt like the fact that i came back at all. but i have my records which proves what i had said. if you believe all she says thats fine with me. we all have our own memories.

  12. Christina says:

    Pauline if you read Culchiewoman’s comment on ‘The President’s Emigrant’, 23/1 @ 19.20 Culchiewoman writes about Sally (Mulready) and says ‘they are her recollections, told in her own words. No one has the right to dispute them’. Is it not unfair then that Christine Buckley is open to all kind of comments, opinions, questions and accusations. Why is Christine not believed and why are others deemed to be infallible?

    This isn’t right. It seems like bullying so I’m bowing out of this discussion.

  13. I left golden bridge because i was being sent somewhere else to protect society from the likes of me . What i said was that at that timein 1961 we were the same age and her leg was fine then . she needs the attention that it gives her that she was beaten more than the others. i hadent seen Chrissie for over 40 years and knew nothing of all this going on. on the tele she did the same thing with daidmund martin and no one questioned the fact that in the same sentence she was accusing a surviver on hunger strike of cheating by drinking tea.She seems to be imagining a relation between her and xs that i do not remember at all. i saw a photo of her in a newspaper where she was showing her scar but thats the first i had ever heard of it. I also remember when she wrote to the press. she told me about it at the time but nothing happened as usual. the press would never have contacted xs. we all wrote letters hoping our familys would come and take us out . She stayed 2 years over her time so she wasent that badly treated. the rest of us had to look after ourselves. the press have helped to make her act like that as thay believe things that arent believable.

  14. Christina says:

    Why on earth would Christine lie about such a thing? An injury of that kind, requiring 80 to 120 stitches would have left a very large visible scar on Christine’s leg for the rest of her life. I would guess that she would have had to show evidence of this injury to the makers of the programme before they broadcast the show.

  15. I was in goldenbridge at the time Christine came. She dident know Sister Bernadine who was head nun untill 1954.So her memorys arent very exact.Sister xs was very voilent but so was bernadine. When Xs took over it was not any different from before. it was misery and fear for all of us. But no one was treated to so much attention. X looked straight through us.and of course no one poured boiling water on her or split her leg. It does look like a car accident. we were all treated in the same way . Christine was lucky as the new nun took a fancy to Chrissie and helped her out in many ways. In fact i heard that thay stayed friends after Christine left goldenbridge.

  16. Rory Connor says:

    The following is an extract from UK historian Richard Webster’s essay “States of Fear, the Redress Board and Ireland’s Folly” re Christine Buckley and the “Dear Daughter” documentary.

    http://www.richardwebster.net/brynestynireland.html

    “In 1996 the producer and director, Louis Lentin, made a television documentary about abuse in children’s homes which was shown by RTE, the main public service broadcasting station in Ireland. It focused on the brutal regime which was said to have been operating during the 1950s at St Vincent’s Industrial School, Goldenbridge, one of a network children’s homes or detention centres which were funded by the state and run by the Catholic Church.

    The documentary featured allegations made against Sister Xavieria, one of the nuns belonging to the Sisters of Mercy order which ran the home. The woman ‘survivor’ at the centre of the film claimed that, on one occasion, she had been caned by Sister Xavieria so severely that the entire side of her leg was split open from her hip to her knee. She says she was treated in the casualty department of the local hospital and believes that she received 80 to 120 stitches. No medical evidence has ever been produced to substantiate this bizarre claim.

    The surgeon who ran the casualty department at the hospital in question has given evidence which renders it highly unlikely that such an incident ever took place. Apart from anything else, the surgeon points out that caning would not have caused a wound of this kind, which would have required surgical treatment under a general anaesthetic and not stitches in a casualty department. Yet although the evidence suggests that the woman’s memory was a delusion, her testimony was widely believed at the time. In the wake of the broadcast, atrocity stories about Goldenbridge and other industrial schools began to proliferate.”[3]

    3. Sunday Times (Ireland), 28 April 1996, citing the views of the surgeon, J. B. Prendiville.

  17. I have Just Sent this Email I will Update you if and When I get a reply??
    ______________________________________
    From: Rob. Northall [mailto:rob.northall@ntlworld.com]
    Sent: 15 January 2012 14:46
    To: ‘billtormey@gmail.com’
    Cc: ‘enda.kenny@oireachtas.ie’
    Subject: Christine Buckley for Freedom of Dublin City

    Dear Councillor Tormey,

    Recent correspondence between Carmel McDonnell-Byrne and yourself regarding awarding Christine Buckley Freedom of Dublin City has come into the Public Domain.

    You are Quoted as Saying “I will bring this to the Fine Gael Group and propose the granting of this signal honour to a remarkable woman. I will ask Enda Kenny to support this also.”

    I and many others are quite alarmed by this?

    On the 19 June 2011 I sent an email to ‘charities@revenue.ie’; ‘michael.noonan@oireachtas.ie’; ‘alan.shatter@oireachtas.ie’; ‘brendan.howlin@oireachtas.ie’

    In it I asked that a full investigation be carried out into the Financial Irregularities at the Aislinn Centre and Right of Place. (The Full correspondence appears bellow). This request to date has fallen on Deaf Ears.

    I would like to draw your attention to the “Note to the accounts of the AISLINN CENTRE 2000 -2008”

    “What is clear from the accounts is that for two years, and for part of a
    third year, money received could only be reported as having being
    advanced to directors. It is possible that this money was channelled to
    previously existing organizations and used in their work. Otherwise it
    is hard to see how the expenditure could have been justified, as the
    company had no other staff or premises. Whether a similar situation
    existed for the rest of the periods of accounts from 2003 to 2008, it is
    not possible to say from the information given in these accounts.”
    Nial Mc Gahon, Consultants. A S M HORWATH

    The Amount Referred to is Quite Considerable € 272,475.

    It also shows quite clearly in the notes actual Accounts that €110,420 was dispersed to Director in 2003.

    It States quite Clearly @ http://www.revenue.ie/en/business/faqs-charities.html#section17

    Q. Can a Director/Trustee be paid as director/trustee?

    A. In general no payments should be paid to Directors/Trustees other
    than out of pocket expenses. Specifically Directors/Trustees are not to
    be paid for holding such an office.

    I am asking that a full and frank investigation should be carried out in order that you and other do not end up with Egg on your face in the fullness of time?

    If nothing else this investigation may vindicate the Directors and you can proceed with the Award on Merit?

    Yours Sincerely

    Rob Northall

  18. Christina says:

    Christine has received plenty of recognition and awards for telling her story, wanting more is just plain greedy!
    Considering their life experiences (and given the line of work they are in), I find it hard to comprehend that Carmel would think campaigning for such a frivolous privilege an important matter and one deserving of such a very long (begging)letter. That Carmel should crave praise and awards from the very people who incarcerated her (and Christine), the very people who ignored the abuse they AND ALL THE OTHER CHILDREN IN STATE CARE SUFFERED for decades is just pitiful.

  19. This person is claiming that the commission into child abuse in the industriel schools was all thanks to Christine but what about states of fear and all the rest done by mary raftery. thay know the people in places of power including church leaders. i have the impression from vidios on u tube that she has all of them around her little finger. perhaps she will be made a saint. who knows whats next. but mary deserves the credit she earned.

  20. robert says:

    Leaving Mrs Buckley aside here a second something just struck home,
    Ever since Noel C Barry left the right of place, the so called finances left with him.
    It just goes to show the finances were for something that that (( witnesses )) would never see.
    A SHOCKING TRUTH, WHY? IT WAS NOT INTENDED FOR WITNESSES OF ABUSE IN THE FIRST PLACE ?
    So if we make known the truth, the rug will be pulled from under us.
    I thought the right of place was given land money and support from the bishops?
    WAS THIS ALSO A LOAD OF BULL AS THE GOVERNMENT APOLOGY?
    TUT TUT TUT you deceiving men and women of the dark cloth what ever next?
    I believe every thing the religious and Government say to be completely opposite this way I know the truth.

    SATAN IS THE GOD OF DARKNESS AND THESE ARE HIS MESSENGERS SENT ONCE AGAIN TO KILL STEAL AND DESTROY, as it is actually written in the bible.

  21. In the late 60ths many things had changed. The head nun whom Christine talks about had left in 63. she herself describes the change when the other took over . A place of laughter in the yard . the terrifying industriel sized tap was a fauntain then and the factory had been closed. As for education well the catholic church had taken over all that so the whole of ireland was learning propaganda. ignorance is bliss so thay say but its no help at all. i also love reading and have learned lots from different. from portia for example. i had never known that in fact it was the church that caused wars by giving ireland to some bloody king .

  22. Martha says:

    Carmel McDonnell-Byrne wrote:-

    “But I think if Christine was to receive THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY it would certainly make all of her efforts worthwhile, and it would be a way that her husband and children could celebrate her huge achievement and bravery for telling her story over 26years ago. I think it is important that she receives her award while she is in relatively good health.”

    On reading the above, I thought of the old adage : “Charity begins at home”. I met Christine Buckley in person and I also visited her Aislinn Centre (not so long after it opened in Dublin city) and from my personal experience of her and her HQ, I got the distinct impression that she was on some sort of Ego Trip, ie., she was lusting for Power, like a rabid dog attacking a bone or a carcass. That was just my impression of both Ms. Buckley and the Aislinn Centre. Quite frankly, I found her somewhat scary. I guess she was “dehumanised” from a very early age.

    Carmel McDonnell-Byrne goes on to say:-

    “As children our innocence was stolen, we were robbed and deprived of our childhoods, so many of us were told every day that we were worthless nobodies and unwanted, beaten, sexually abused and tossed out on the streets when we reached16. So many of our people left these hell-holes were illiterate and Christine has always had this passion to have a centre were fellow survivors could meet and feel a sense of belonging.”

    What Ms. McDonnell-Byrne fails to appreciate is the vast majority of the Irish people were dominated by the “Iron Fist” of the Catholic Church at that time (when Christine Buckley and herself) were incarcerated in those “hell-holes” such as Goldenbridge. I was relatively lucky to have grown up in my own family home with my own biological parents and siblings, and whilst we children attending the local National School, the vast majority of pupils left school semi-illiterate – myself included. I would like to point out that “schooling” is not the same thing as “education”. I educated myself when I left primary school having spent approximately 10 years in an Irish Catholic primary national school. I got a good start in that direction due to the fact that both my parents were avid readers of all kinds of literature, plus the fact that I was lucky enough to have one or two (at most) dedicated teachers, who obviously found themselves trapped in such a totalitarian system.

    I’ll finish by paraphrasing one of my favourite quotes by Mark Twain: “Never let your schooling get in the way of your education”.

    Happy New Year to one and all here.

    Martha

  23. David Lane (UK) says:

    I would like to nominate Paddy Doyle for The Freedom Of The City Award. At least his ego (doubt he has one) is not like a shadow following him around.

  24. Christina says:

    I have never considered Christine Buckley to be a spokesperson for ‘us’. It is quite apparent that her ego is now greater than any goal she may have had to fight for the survivors of institutional abuse. This was never more obvious than the day she sat in a church and allowed a bishop to wash her feet (!), while other survivors were prevented from entering the church. That she didn’t object to the unfairness of the treatment of her fellow survivors shows that her only agenda is herself. It is quite apparent that her own need to be ‘accepted’ and to be ‘important’ interferes with her ability to properly represent those she claims to fight for. Like Robert above, my call to her was not returned (even though I was told she would call me and I was in a very distressed state). I suppose I should be glad that she didn’t return my call as I managed to get proper and helpful support from an obviously better run support agency. I would suggest that survivors go elsewhere for help.

  25. robert says:

    What strikes me most of all is that we never got a personal apology from the Government all they have to do is type the apology and sign it, even if they have to sign 1400 times it is still not hard work, it does not take a lot of time as does an essay.
    If they mean anything at all to us they would do this at least.
    BUT EVER SINCE THAT APOLOGY FROM MR AHEARN NOTHING HAS BEEN EVEN ATTEMPTED.

  26. FXR says:

    I don’t know everything about Christine Buckley but I do know on at least one occasion she lied to make the bishop look good. In a TV 3 interview in a voice dripping with emotion she claimed that Diarmaid Martin had come out to John Ayres with tea and biscuits while John was outside the bishops palace on hunger strike. It never happened. Buckley wouldn’t know what went on because she wasn’t even there.

  27. robert says:

    I left messages with this so called aislinn center many times no one was ever there and I never ever got a call back.
    I was in Dires traights at the time I notice the “title” dropping it is just like bird poo.
    You people are so arrogant unqualified unexperienced have not got a clue.
    There is no titles in running a group and to do so you need a vast amount of experiences and qualifications other wise dump all the pros as there is no such thing at all then dump universities sack all the people in top jobs sack you bosses sack the whole world SACK THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS SPIN DOCTORS AND EVEN TOP DOCTORS AND PROFESSORS.
    How arrogant of you Carmel. You people are so far removed from the survivors that you actually want the freedom of the city.

    HOW DARE YOU. THE ONLY REASON YOU AND YOUR CRONIES ARE THERE IS YOU TOOK IT ALL AND NEVER SHARED WITH THE PEOPLE WHO NEEDED IT BADLY.
    What you both need to be doing is apologizing to all survivors one for giving that title.

    Paddy Doyle site was open to you and all so called survivor groups, no you did not have to argue with the comments but the site is here and thousands read it every day ( i am sure you even keep an eye on it privately ) BOT you never leave any INFORMATION.
    YOU LOT ARE SO FULL OF YOUR OWN EGO IT IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE, RESIGN NOW. TITLE DROPPINGS THEY STINK

  28. Paddy says:

    According to Carmel, Christine “As you are aware Christine has campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of institutional abuse for more than 26 years and is truly a remarkable selfless woman.” When Gerard ‘Mannix’ Flynn wrote “Nothing to Say” or when “Children of the Poor Clares” was published, I cannot recall a word from Christine Buckley. Likewise, when my own book, THE GOD SQUAD was published in 1988 there wasn’t as much as a chirp out of Ms Buckley.
    While Carmel McDonnell-Byrne may well believe that Ms Buckley is a ‘remarkable selfless woman’ there were others before her who highlighted horrendous abuse of children while in the care or religious orders and the State.