I read with interest Claire O’Sullivan’s article entitled, “Year delay before abuse inquiry decides on documents” (Monday, July 5, 2010). The very idea that any documents related to the Ryan Commission would be destroyed is deeply concerning. These documents—all these documents—constitute part of the nation’s heritage and, as such, they should be preserved and protected so that future generations never forgot the past while also ensuring no repetition thereof.
Survivors of the State’s residential institutions, moreover, are deeply divided, indeed sceptical, regarding the whole Redress Board and Ryan Commission process. One must ask therefore who precisely is being served by destroying documents? Might it be the State itself? Or, the religious congregations? Given the potential conflict of interest, it would seem appropriate that the Minister for Education commission an independent review prior to any irreversible action.
In this context, I would also ask whether documents related to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission were destroyed? Would anyone consider destroying documents related to the Holocaust? Confidentiality and privacy are, of course, always legitimate concerns. But professional archivists can ensure ethical handling of sensitive materials.
The Ryan Commission documents also contain material related to Ireland’s Magdalene institutions, and other institutions ultimately excluded from the Residential Institutions Redress Act, 2002. Given that the religious congregations refuse to provide access to records for women entering their Magdalene institutions after 1 January 1900, it is inconceivable that the State would consciously destroy documents that might help us better understand how such institutions operated, as well as the nature of the relationship between Magdalene laundries and State residential institutions. Again, there would appear to be a potential conflict of interest at play in this particular regard.
The Ryan Commission will remain significant in helping Irish people understand who we are as a nation, in the present as well as the past. These materials must be preserved.
Sincerely,
James M. Smith
Associate Professor
English Department and Irish Studies Program
Boston College
Chestnut HIll, MA 02467
617-552-1596
smithbt@bc.edu
hello solder well it sounds as if you could have been one of those great actors. improvising yourself over and over again. you know i think that the ryan report spoke of how we grew up but not about the adults we have become ,lots of us seem to be considerd strang. it is my case to .we cant fit in because i think that people are afraid we expect help from them. i am afraid of affection to i am frightened of showing the hole in me.i cant afford to let go.i need to defend myself in this world of manipulaters
Me to Pauline, every time I have to go out I go to the toilet 5 times ,I always feel someone is going to come up behind me and attack me beat me up, I have been terrified of the world and people Thats part of the legisy Those Black Clad Monsters left us with, Ps sorry about bad spelling I have a sore arm holding the Dictonary all the time to write on this site.
People used to say I was Odd they couldn’t figure me out at all I had totally reinvented myself so much so people believed I went to the same school (Posh Private school)as them and all thought yes they vagly remembered me I was even Invited to the reunion totally excepted by everyone as a past pupil.when people tried to get to close I was off with another identity I even worked several jobs in different names I would pick one I felt was the real me, I never even gave a hint I was Irish not even my children knew , I had totally blocked out anything to do with my past in Ireland I never remembered myself ,I often adopted families and fitted in buying them presents but as soon as anyone said boo I was off again never seen again by them,It was not until 1997 when someonne tracked me down because of the abuse we suffered in the Indistrial Reformatory and started to ask me questions I got into such a bad state I had a Nervious breakdown and had to see a Psychiatrist and a psychologist I completely lost my head I sold my house Way Undervalue in secret left all my belongings there I told noone and left the area my head was in a big gray cloud ,I slept in my car and forgot to even wash or eat properly ,this went on for months until some man kept knocking on the window he wanted to know if I was Ok he brought a woman to help finally I got out of the car they took me to their house ,let me have a bath ,cooked me a meal, I stayed with them for two months they seemed to know I was distressed by something finally I told them about the abuse I suffered in The Industrial Prison as a young child until I was sixteen ,I was in a terrible state they took me to their doctor who sent me to see a psychologist I couldn’t bare to again They were Angels and I developed a fear of anyone being nice to me incase my childhood upset them which I didn’t want to do as my childhood was so GRAY, BRUTAL,like anyone’s worst nightmare they were to good to involve them with such Dark horrible things that happened to me as a child at the hands of Black clad monsters , I left again . My grown up life has been a disaster ,I have been getting help from my Doctor and a councellor all FREE,I have NEVER used any of the so called services for survivors , so called group leaders who don’t give a fart about real survivors they are in it to get Funding just to make as much money as they can out of the real survivors suffering while WE the real survivors are still out in the cold , as for Miss Mary Coughlan;s idea to put our compansation into a trust fund that is stealing from Survivors,I want my share of that compansation I don’t want to have to be at the MERCY of the government nor any Group Leader what happens to our rightful compansation if we die ??I want to help my family with my share now , WE ARE THE ONES THAT SUFFERED NOT THOSE WHO COME AFTER US .DO the government still keep it .???THEY ARE DISHONIST CROOKS, noone represents me BUT ME. STOP BULLYING AND STEALING FROM THE REAL SURVIVORS .SHAME ON YOU MARY COUGHLAN FOR EVEN CONSIDERING KEEPING OUR COMPANSATION.The government should just close off all funding to so called services for healing of survivors (>they can hold survivors Back in the past)JUST PAY US OUR COMPANSATION FOR HERDING BABIES INTO THE CRIMINAL COURT AND CHARGING US WITH A CRIME NOT HAVING A MOTHER AND SENTENCEING US TO DETENTION IN PRISONS >lITTLE CHILDREN.
how many of us suffering from post post-traumatic illnesses are able to do something like going back into the net of the administrative world , even when i am just going for a paper i need i go through all kinds of things like the shakes, an iron bar in my tummy , i look first of all for the way out , feel as if everyone is talking from a long way off .i need to know where the toilets are . So i am frightened of these buildings where i don’t feel safe even though i am 64, And going forward is impossible because there is no end yet to the unfair treatment we have received . as i see it the government is trying to pass of this fund as their business,that will keep their descendents rich and respectable ,
As has been said by Paddy Doyle and others the whole area of clerical terror in Ireland should be taken to the Hague and Strasbourg. Maybe the experiment we call the Republic is closing down.
Hats off to the Belgium police force. They have set a precedent. The global reaction has been one of releif and admiration that a small country would dare take on the might of the Roman Empire. When would one see anything like this happening in Holy Ireland?. Well done Belgium.
Destroying these testimonies would be another abuse
did they destroy our child convictions? No!
As children we were told to shut up and be quiet – if we disobeyed this instruction from the holy orders we were battered. Seems to me that those who oversaw all the abuses – indeed they were a knowing partner in all the abuses – want us to shut up and be quiet. Destroying these testimonies would be another abuse. As children when we appeared in the District Courts, without legal representation, our voices were not asked for and would not have been listened to. As adults we spoke up and our voices are now in these testimonies.
Is it any surprise that the state wants to destroy these testimonies?
what will go down in history regarding the whole truth on how survivors were treated after they came forward. i suggest this site of paddy doyles be kept on as the views of how survivors felt about the whole issue.
i am sure there is a lot of information here for those who want to research properly into the views of the whole issue regarding the abuse of industrial school survivors and the magdalene laundries survivors. who feel completely let down by the government, religious, especially the so called groups who claimed to represent all survivors. ( this was impossible) NO MANDATE but they had private meetings and made decisions without the concent of the survivors.
the redress was set up between these so called groups,government and religious before survivors even knew about the redress. who are these groups to make decisions.
where is their highly educated experiences. there is none why? this is the first time this kind of thing happened to such a scale even the government had to think, the only thing they came out with was how to save money and face. that is what mattered to them most not the sufferings of survivors by the damage they the religious had done.
how funds are to be forced down their throats without consideration for their well being after a life of hell.
how the redress came out before the ryan report.
how so many people made a great deal of money that survivors would only dream of for their sufferings.
how the welfare department ignored the needs of survivors to date. well aware they received very little redress.
that very harsh decisions were made in the cuts of mainstream society, but no safety net for survivors who have problems in coping with life due to this office especially from when they were children.
survivors of both industrial schools and magdlene laundries need to be understood personally due to the kind of upbringing they had, that altered their lives, many for the worst and they need that care from the welfare/hse.
regarding the funds will the survivors have a voice individually on how they wish to be funded? that question remains.