Letters to the Editor.
Wednesday December 22 2010
The scale of the crimes against children, and against humanity, committed by priests and other members of the Religious Orders over many decades is now a matter of historical record.
Those who suffered don’t need to and probably won’t read Chapter 19 of the Murphy Report, nor did they read the Report on the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. They know what happened. It happened to them.
I have heard it said by well-meaning people that the ‘victims can now hold their heads up high’, they have been vindicated. It’s not that easy. Lives have been destroyed, spouses, partners and children compelled to live with the impact of the nightmares inflicted on their loved ones.
I have seen men and women now in their 60s and 70s suffer such mental anguish that they have never been able to work and hold few friends dear. They are not even angry any more, just beaten and defeated. Many live out lost and desperate lives in the British cities of London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. They came to these places hoping to forget their past and start new lives. Some did, but they were very few.
They have a right to justice, to be compensated and for the Catholic Church, the Garda Siochana and other state institutions to tell the whole truth. We must not let those who still suffer, feel abandoned.
The burden of fighting for justice and for reparation must not fall on them but it must fall on the rest of us in Irish society. It is the legacy of our parents and grandparents who stood by and let it happen, but mostly it is the legacy of a corrupt and amoral Catholic hierarchy where the child who suffered was of no consequence.
For those who emigrated from Mother Ireland, thoughts of Ireland only bring pain. I see those who suffered in the streets of London and I rage inside against the injustice.
I have reflected a lot on Pope Benedict’s calls for a renewal of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and more and more I believe that is not the path to justice and truth. We should instead dedicate our lives in pursuit of justice for those the Irish State failed to cherish.
Cllr Sally Mulready
Founder Irish Women Survivors Support Network
Camden Sq, London
Irish Independent
We who were prisoniers need to feel independent. all these groups are slowing people up with false friendship. lets be honest caringfor a minority and ignoring the magority is only causing trouble between us .we should not have to beg its humilating.in cases where people have to bow down there is no respect. we bowed down so much as children that we were walked on .
If justice is to be SEEN, To be done, then the dept of Justice will have to change from the Dept of Just US and rid the court system of all Opus Dei agents.The HSE, Probation Services are all guilty of supporting abusers.It is not long ago when i learned how the Catholic indoctrination was influencing these agencies too- when i was ordered home to obey my abusive husband- with the excuse “This is holy Catholic Ireland and it is the duty of women and children to obey the male or suffer the consequences”. The judge was indoctrinated with this thinking. The lawyers and barristers were indoctrinated with it. Probation Services were indoctrinated with it. HSE social workers and managers were indoctrinated with it.
So, judging from this experience , we Irish need to be all deprogrammed from the lies we were all taught.
Being a professional I was totally shocked, because I believed in Justice. But as a famous lawyer told me recently “Portia, there is no such thing as justice or truth inside the Just Us system- it is a corporation whose agents swear allegience to a British Corporation BAR- so it is all about MONEY. That is crystal clear to all from the child abuse cases so far. Who pocked the most money? Yes, the patriarchal system.
Decent human lawyers would have done the work for free.
Sally,
Looks like there was a mad rush to crush a few more before Ireland explodes in a eruption of PUS, with the latest revelation of the Cloyne Report (1996-2009 NINE!), and this in spite of the horrendous stories that have kept emerging (for example the Roscommon case).
As stated in the Irish Times on 22nd December,
The number of confirmed cases of child abuse increased by more than 20 per cent between 2006 and 2008 to 2,164. The majority of cases related to neglect (44.6 per cent), followed by cases of physical abuse (22 per cent), emotional abuse (20.1 per cent) and sexual abuse at 13.4 per cent.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1222/1224286077074.html