Pain and struggle of survivors palpable as questions remain
By Noel Baker
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
FINGERS were jabbed through the air, thick with recrimination and hurt – the only surprise is that for once the Government wasn’t the target.
Michael Waters, the grey-haired spokesman for Survivors of Child Abuse (Soca) UK, had spoken coherently and concisely about his experiences of social work and had questioned Children’s Minister Barry Andrews about plans to boost resources in the area.
Then, suddenly, he stood up and made his way onto the stage at the Government Press Centre.
He pointed first at the screens behind Mr Andrews and his two colleagues, and the words “Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse”.
Then he turned his guns on John Kelly, sitting in the front row, the spokesman for SOCA Ireland.
“Mr Kelly, you boycotted this committee,” Mr Waters said. “You called it a toothless tiger.”
His ardour rising, he said if people had listened to Mr Kelly, little would have been achieved for survivors. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” he said. “You are a coward.” There is little doubt that Mr Kelly strongly disagrees.
Maybe it was no surprise that emotions ran high yesterday.
For the victims of institutional abuse any efforts to make up for the past, no matter how well-intentioned, is going to be too little, too late. Any pledges to ensure such horrific abuse cannot be perpetrated in future is likely to be met with scepticism, anger and frustration.
Having been ignored for so long, the survivors from various interest groups are determined to have their say. Among those listening to the minister’s promises yesterday was Michael O’Brien, the former mayor of Clonmel whose explosive performance on Questions and Answers burnt a hole in TV screens around the country in the aftermath of the Ryan Report’s publication.
“I feel ashamed as a citizen of this State that nothing was done years ago to protect children,” he boomed. He said he had had to bare his soul on Questions and Answers, and that the ball was now in the minister’s court.
The Implementation Committee could not, he said, become a body that meets up “to have tea and coffee and run away”.
Bernadette Fahy, of the Aislinn Centre, asked why some childcare settings were the subject of scheduled inspections, while another survivor, Victor Hackett, said the lack of aftercare for those in the care system now was “a major problem”.
Other problems abound, despite the welcome afforded many of the measures announced yesterday.
The implementation plan does not mention those who suffered abuse in Magdalene Laundries, or those who were traumatised in psychiatric institutions and hospitals.
One speaker, Olive Wilson, said these facilities were often “dumping grounds” in the past. Abuse survivors who moved away to Britain and elsewhere are also seemingly outside its scope.
Paddy Doyle, whose eloquence and insight has been a feature of recent months, asked why those who engaged with the Redress Board were still subject to legal “gagging orders” preventing them from speaking about their experiences.
Unlike other speakers, his voice didn’t buckle under the strain, and he joked about not wanting to tell the minister how to do his job. However, he also questioned the mandate of some of those who are speaking on behalf of the thousands of victims.
“The first question that you might consider asking is, ‘who are you?’,” he instructed Mr Andrews.
As ever, more questions than answers.
The Irish Examiner.
What MOST Irish people don’t realise is they are the products of 800 years of British colonialisation, i.e., that they have been systematically ‘psychologically raped’ over the generations and so, they don’t even know how dehumanised they are.
Personally, I don’t know of one Irish family, whose collective mentality (dynamic) has been shaped by Roman Catholic dogma, that is normal. That is, a family that actually gives the love and support to its members in times of need. The only people I know who are like that, are those who have absolutely nothing to do with the Catholic Church, i.e., people who think for themselves, and therefore live for themselves and their own children – the very thing that the Vatican (Mafia and other thugs) despise and ultimately fear!
The only reason they placed gagging order on victims is to keep the truth hidden- just like the secret family courts which sentenced these innocent children in the first place.
2009- and still the gagging orders exist in secret kangaroo family courts whre social workers lie and perjure themselves in order to acquire a valuable commodity- child -for the state “child industry”.
By keeping the truth hidden, the survivors are kept in control.
Gagging orders keep truth hidden.
Gagging orders lead to serious psychological affects-and physical affects too- jaws needing to be manipulated open- ask Dr Ali in London- and he will tell you.
If you work in these courts- then you understand why it is all kept hidden- and it has nothing to do with keeping the identity of the child a secret.
Hitler coined the phrase “best interest of the child”- as used in every court today- and remember what he did in their best interests.!
I’m with you there too Paddy.
This video may be of interest to you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7by_2N79Qog
Let’s hope now that we saw the first of a series of questions being asked of Mr. John Kelly who claims to have “Thousands of e-mail’s” He also claims to have a large membership of SOCA Ireland yet I’ve never heard of them having a meeting, an AGM nor have I even been asked to give Mr. Kelly or SOCA Ireland a mandate to speak on my behalf. I know that I’m not alone.
The press conference yesterday was interesting in many ways. The more I see of Barry Andrews the more impressed I am. I think in the future I’ll be able to say: ‘I knew him when he was just a junior Minister’
Michael Waters had interesting and serious things to say. Michael noted quite correctly that if survivors had listened to John Kelly’s call to boycott the Child Abuse Commission there would have been no Ryan Report and he went on to state that Kelly was feeding off the pain of survivors and that Kelly didn’t represent him or others. Kelly DID boycott the Commission and even on the day of its launch implied it was a whitewash. So WHO ARE YOU Mr. Kelly ?
These ‘gagging orders’ are mad – truly mad. Something I didn’t twig until yesterday (and revealed by Paddy) was that a person breaking the ‘gagging order’ could be fined MORE than they even received from the Redress Board … tellingly this means that speaking about your abuse in the Institutions is legally WORSE than been raped, and starved and enslaved!