By Evelyn Ring
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
SUPPORT agencies are urging survivors of sexual abuse to reach out for help when the Dublin Archdiocese Report is published.
After the Ryan Report was published last May thousands of people contacted counselling and advocacy services for help.
According to a joint statement issued by Connect, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Faoiseamh and One in Four, there were a number of suicides associated with the period after the Ryan Report was published.
The agencies have asked relatives and friends of people affected by the soon to be published Dublin Archdiocese Report to be supportive.
It also wants doctors, nurses and other professionals working in hospitals and the community to be aware of the challenges facing survivors at this difficult time.
Meanwhile, six survivor representative groups have expressed shock and disappointment that they were not consulted about the appointment by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe of a committee to oversee the establishment of a memorial to victims of institutional abuse.
Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, The Alliance Victim Support Group, Right to Peace, Justice and Healing for victims of Abuse, Right of Place and Survivors of Abuse International said they expected Taoiseach Brian Cowen to keep his promise that survivor groups would be kept fully informed and not allow his ministers and civil servants to make decisions for them.
The Irish Examiner
Ask who is the Director of SOCA Ltd and then poses as a shocked and horrified individual at the cunning of the church! You learned well Andrew!
Rob, I totally back what your saying and I would like Paddy to speak and fully represent us.
For all these years my mum thought she would get all kinds of help from these groups but she didn’t, and, in fact she has been more or less homeless living in insecure Accommodation for the past 20 months waiting on the housing list to be offered a home.
She’s 62 Paddy! she doesn’t drink, smoke, I honestly don’t know how she does it. And it kills me because she deserves so much better,like so many others.
Back in June we found out about the meeting with the Irish President Mary McAleese and, so I wrote her a letter, a long heart felt one explaining all we had been through and to be fair we received a lovely letter back and she said she was really upset about our situation and she said she would forward this to Brian Cowen to see what could be done. We were extremely desperate at this point,and also we had not long lost my father who had spent 6 months in intensive care.
We have never received anything back! nothing from anyone else since! I was also Angry that the survivors groups did not invite my mother and I have gathered there are only a selected few who know certain things and get any sort of help,if any!??!..
I plan now to write back to Mary McAleese. Because I feel like there is no one to help and I think these groups have received far too much money for things like counselling?
I’m sorry Paddy but my mother was in St Joseph’s from the age of 4 to 16 she’s ‘riddled’ with arthritis, spondolosis, mental health, shattered heart and soul. She has never felt the need to go to counselling and from many of the victims we have spoke to neither have they, so where is this money going?
We need practical help,there are still victims that our homeless, suffering from poverty and fuel debt! The church, Government, should be putting there hands in their pockets and taking care of the ones who are left and in their senior years that’s what we need help with!
I’m going to spend next year pushing for more Paddy and I’ll do anything in my power to get results for the victims. And for my Mum.
Paddy, if you need me for anything please let me know.
You have our full support
NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US…GOD BLESS PADDY DOYLE,A REAL ANGEL.
Anne and family..xx
How many areas can the government and church help survivors. Better still what areas in survivors lives do they want to help? How much money did the support groups make and for what purpose?
I vote for Paddy Doyle to be our voice as we can see he does it from the heart not for himself but for every single individual survivor and done everything for no cost or wage.
Thank you Paddy for your stand I hope every survivor does the same and vote for you Sir to be our voice that is if you would accept.
Clever aren’t they?!!?..Or so they think they are, the game of chess begins and now different rep groups turning on each other exactly what the cunning ***** want. (Shame on some of you “REPS”…you sold out and have succumbed to the Gangsters grip!)yes that’s right, they are nothing more than organised gangsters-in suits!
Paddy, You would be the only person we would trust to voice our concerns, because you are transparent, passionate and deeply caring. I also think you make a lot of these “Group Reps” very nervous, but how sad?!??!?…
I think it’s about time we all got our heads together, maybe organise another march or something just to keep on highlighting not only the abuse we all suffered, but to also highlight the corrupt Government, Church and all the others involved in prolonging the misery and suffering as if they haven’t caused enough damage!!!….
To all you Holy men of the cloth, take note, you shall all meet your maker and will face the wrath of God! remember you cannot hide from him what you hide with lies, deceit and cover ups from those that have and are still suffering.
Its about time you all got your money out and took care of the ones you so wrongly hurt. Do not prolong it any longer and do not underestimate the strength,determination and fight us survivors have in us all,and also that of our children, grandchildren and family.
NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US
Truth,Love and Peace to All……xx
“No wonder, as the so called “helpers” are trained by the same cult who abused them as children.”
Catherine, I couldn’t agree with you more!
As a foreigner I do not want to be pig-headed in your discussions.
But since asked for a reaction (and impotence in solidarity) a few remarks allowed, I hope.
Why not used the (experience )wisdom Evelyn Ring seemingly did not have and cut the article -thus the discussion – in 2 separate parts?
Although I’m not Irish, I’m rather sure these fights are not Irish. (And, sorry if wished for, not even part of church politics either)
Unfortunately enough though, they are part of power struggles (or powerlessness and despair) of and between former victims.
Don’t you think these support agencies are fully right to urge people for heavensake to reach out? Pointing others, society,
to the need to be supportive and reaching out as well?
You really think these (growing?) public fights between the victims groups/individuals of institutional abuse empower those affected by Dublin Archdiocese Report?
Aren’t there hands to be reached out now, lives to be protected, instead of … names/organisations/hurt feelings and so many emotions?
Let it be your solidarity in experiences to guide you now, not a newspaper article.
Warm wishes to all, please do take very good care.
And another meeting to be held by the Dept. of Ed. on 29 Oct. and only those who attended the Aug. 3 meeting are to be allowed in. I say it’s time we told them all where to get off! Nobody represents me and I mean not one of those group leaders, in England or Ireland. Perhaps we’re not as malleable as the Group Leaders and that is why we’re being excluded. I am prepared to make my feelings well known by demonstrating if any of you out there think that to be a good idea? Let Paddy know, and he’ll be in touch.
Shocked? Disappointed??! The ‘Gang of Four’ made us the ‘Island of Misfit Toys,’ disincluding us from their in camera secret meetings, ignoring Magdalene survivors altogether and generally making a bollix of things.
The HORROR! Now THEY’VE been disincluded and perhaps someone at higher levels is finally realising they have no mandate to speak for anyone but themselves, and have abused the trust placed in them by thousands of survivors.
I can’t think of a better soul than Paddy to oversee a memorial project. He was the ONLY soul ever to take the time to listen to me prattle on about Magdalene survivors and has stood steadfastly behind us.
‘Bout damned time. Ah, karma…
This “Gang of Four” jumped the gun a bit as they must have put their clocks back earlier than the rest of us – and they didn’t put their clocks back an hour – NO – they put their clocks back 40 YEARS to the time when WE were excluded from society by our DETENTION …. not only did they, in their SECRET MEETING with the Bishops in Maynooth, exclude US but INSULTINGLY they excluded ALL the women who suffered horribly in the Institutions as there were NO WOMEN allowed to attend this secret meeting with the Bishops.
It’s also notable that these Bishops run an organisation that criminalised women and girls in this country (and other countries) and made the female sex the EVIL SEX. These Bishops represent an organisation that sat astride the social and political life of Ireland in the 20th. century – a century that gave us ALL of the RYAN REPORT.
And the “Gang of Four” speak of their ‘dismay & disappointment’ at Paddy and Bernadette’s appointments yet they thought little of meeting these Bishops despite their knowledge of it’s culpability in the criminalising of women and children!
Survivors of sexual abuse urged to reach out for help…
Help from who?
Who is going to trust any state agency with their darkest secrets?
Has anyone ever gone to some of these “helpers” and experienced how little they know of abuse and how abused people feel.?
No wonder, as the so called “helpers” are trained by the same cult who abused them as children.
Has anyone else noticed the way some “helpers” get their kicks from listening to the accounts of abuse.?
As one solicitor put it- it is like being abused all over again- and that is a crime.
Typical.
So what naughty people have been using the Delphi Technique then.?
Have the groups been infiltrated? as that is what it looks like to me.
The Catholic Church cult has all the knowledge of how to manipulate fragmented souls- and victims who are not healed are fragmented.
Paddy, I salute your strength in this.
Would it not make more sense for all the groups to unite under one umbrella with you Paddy at the helm.
I say this because you understand the mind games being played and everyone knows to TRUST you.
Trust is a huge issue for abused human beings and the church and state agents know this and are playing with the abused once again like cats with mice.
It makes me want to vomit, when I see the whole picture.
At the end of the day, Paddy, we “motherless children” are on our own. And unless and until we recognise that FACT we will never move on.
Forget about Irish Society & its Roman Catholic domination. Just be yourself. Separate yourself from that dehumanised “evil” and you will be alright!
Regards
Martha x
By what right have these “six survivor representative groups” the right to be either “shocked or disappointed” at not being consulted by the Education Minister regarding the setting up of the Memorial Group?
The arrogance of these self appointed groups expressing “shock” is breath-taking. None of them have a mandate to represent people who where abused while in industrial schools and other institutions.
As one of the people appointed to The Memorial Group, I will be doing all I can to ensure that people who suffered abuse will be informed of everything that is decided by the Ministerial appointed group. I won’t be sneaking off to consult with Bishops and other clergy without informing any of the people these groups purport to represent in order to get the clergymen to put pressure on the government to do anything. The same groups were at the meeting where “NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US” was introduced to them and to the government. They ignored that and choose to “do their own thing”. I repeat what I’ve so often said in public, none of these groups have ever sought a mandate to speak on my behalf. Had they done so, they wouldn’t have been given it. This is a view shared by many survivors who have written publicly to this website over the past weeks.
It’s to me that begrudgery is alive and well among groups who claim to represent “victims of abuse” is to say the very least of it, dubious.
Questions abound not the least of which is: Where were these representatives when “Nothing to Say” (Mannix Flynn) “Children of the Poor Clares” (Mavis Arnold and Heather Laskey) and “The God Squad” (Paddy Doyle) were published?