Eighteen groups that were involved with the running of residential institutions for children investigated by the Ryan commission have refused to contribute to the €1.36 billion costs incurred by the State in compensating people who had been abused in the institutions. Source
Why is this thing dragging on? Why can’t the Criminal Assets Bureau step in? Has anyone in the present government actually read the Final Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse? And if they have read it, have they read it out loud to these Religious Congregations? Here’s a few of their findings with my own comments added:
A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from. Seeing or hearing other children being beaten was a frightening experience that stayed with many complainants all their lives.
It’s high time these Congregations were subjected to ‘pervasive fear’ and ‘terror’ – Let them live with the fear that their assets will be taken from them. Introduce them to the terror of being flat broke.
Children who ran away were subjected to extremely severe punishment. Absconders were severely beaten, at times publicly. Some had their heads shaved and were humiliated.
Shaving them of their assets would be perfect justice.
The boys’ schools investigated revealed a pervasive use of severe corporal punishment. Prolonged, excessive beatings with implements intended to cause maximum pain occurred with the knowledge of staff management.
Corporal punishment in girls’ schools was pervasive, severe, arbitrary and unpredictable and this led to a climate of fear amongst the children. The regulations imposed greater restrictions on the use of corporal punishment for girls. In some schools a high level of ritualised beating was routine whilst in other schools lower levels of corporal punishment were used. Girls were struck with implements designed to maximise pain and were struck on all parts of the body. The prohibition on corporal punishment for girls over 15 years was generally not observed.
Corporal punishment was often administered in a way calculated to increase anguish and humiliation for girls. One way of doing this was for children to be left waiting for long periods to be beaten. Another was when it was accompanied by denigrating or humiliating language. Some beatings were more distressing when administered in front of other children and staff.
Maximum pain must be returned to these Congregations – this is the sword they wielded on children, they lived by this sword, let them die by this sword. Never mind that this punishment will be public and humiliating: this is Justice.
The recidivist nature of sexual abuse was known to religious authorities. The documents revealed that sexual abusers were often long-term offenders who repeatedly abused children wherever they were working. Contrary to the Congregations’ claims that the recidivist nature of sexual offending was not understood, it is clear from the documented cases that they were aware of the propensity for abusers to re-abuse. The risk, however, was seen by the Congregations in terms of the potential for scandal and bad publicity should the abuse be disclosed. The danger to children was not taken into account.
The Congregational authorities did not listen to or believe people who complained of sexual abuse that occurred in the past, notwithstanding the extensive evidence that emerged from Garda investigations, criminal convictions and witness accounts. Some Congregations remained defensive and disbelieving of much of the evidence heard by the Investigation Committee in respect of sexual abuse in institutions, even in cases where men had been convicted in court and admitted to such behaviour at the hearings.
Any other organisation, or group of organisations, found to have endangered children in such a despicable way for so long would be shut down and their assets seized. These Congregations terrorised children. They made children feel worthless. It’s high time these Congregations were worth less …
Children were frequently hungry and food was inadequate, inedible and badly prepared in many schools. Witnesses spoke of scavenging for food from waste bins and animal feed. The Inspector found that malnourishment was a serious problem in schools run by nuns.
Bearing in mind that the stated reason the majority of children were consigned into the ‘care’ of these Congregations was that they were children from dysfunctional families; yet here we have findings that the Congregations were dysfunctional, dangerous and utterly unsuited to caring for children. Yet the State funded them and the Congregations took the money under false pretences. It’s time these monies were fully refunded.
Clothing was a particular problem in boys’ schools where children often worked for long hours outdoors on farms. In addition, boys were often left in their soiled and wet work clothes throughout the day and wore them for long periods. In all schools up until the 1960s clothes stigmatised the children as Industrial School residents.
There was a further stigma if you absconded, at least in Ferryhouse. They made you wear short trousers – the thinking here was that you would be easily spotted if you re-absconded: Here’s a pic from Ferryhouse. See if you can count how many of the children in the pic absconded:
Their only crime was that they wanted to go home – and this was only part of the ‘justice’ the Congregations meted out to children. Time they were put into short trousers.
Where Industrial School children were educated in internal national schools, the standard was consistently poorer than that in outside schools. National school education was available to all children in the State and those in Industrial Schools were entitled to at least the same standard as that available in the country generally. Internal national schools were funded by a national school grant and teachers were paid in the same way. There was evidence particularly in girls’ schools that children were removed from their classes in order to perform domestic chores or work in the institution during the school day. When discharged, boys were generally placed in manual or unskilled jobs and girls in positions as domestic servants. Even where religious Congregations operated secondary schools beside industrial schools, children from the Industrial Schools were very rarely given the opportunity of pursuing secondary school education. Industrial Schools were intended to provide basic industrial training to young people to enable them to take up positions of employment as young adults. In reality, the industrial training afforded by all schools was of a nature that served the needs of the institution rather than the needs of the child.
It’s time to serve the needs of survivors and victims and not the sensibilities of these Congregations. The statutory objective of CAB is to target the proceeds of criminal activity to ensure that those engaged in criminal activity do not benefit from it. These Congregation were unjustly enriched by the slave labour of children.
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Realistically though all the above actions would only happen in my dreams – and they would be wild dreams. As a child I never had such dreams in anyway. Never did I dream that what I, and so many other children, were suffering should be revisited on those making us suffer. I’ve never dreamt of pushing a nun’s hands into a fire; I’ve never had the dream of battering a member of the clergy with a hurley stick or a wheel brace or a coin-embedded leather strap; I’ve never dreamt of starving or enslaving members of the Religious Orders. My dreams were more fantastic than those – fantastic, because I knew they were not going to come true; for you see I dreamt of decent and enough food on my plate; I dreamt of warm places, of running free in a meadow; of confusion explained; of childish puzzlement satisfied; of a little red bus; of loving touches; of being wanted;
And then there’s a squeeze on my shoulder and I’m released from my reverie. I sit at a big table and the Minister repeats his question:
“Would you like a bun with your coffee, Andrew?”
It’s not a religious Minister that’s asking the question but a democratically elected Minister and 18 years of an almost unrelenting childhood flashes before me:
Flashes of a loving family that soon went sour; of loving relatives who wanted to care for us; of a father’s refusal to allow that; of a final 6 weeks of being locked in a room with my sister and crippled brother, surviving on rainwater, nettles and mushrooms and sometimes milky eggs; of men in spacesuits rescuing us from the filth and squalor; of being scrubbed and washed and togged out it new clothes; of being in Court and being handed an orange and my brother; of hooded heads with faces and long dark corridors lined with statues; of children kneeling in a hall chanting ….. and all the horrors that followed.
And I’m not looking for revenge – only justice. And I can still dream.
The papal leghead has been recalled to rome…..goog time to burn his gaff!
I am stunned but not surprised. Amazing!
And when they had the dinner in Dublin castle for the new president who did they invite? A representative of CORI of course! They screw the tax payer by getting Bertie to hand us the bill for their child rape and torture and we still have to buy them dinner.
While I passionately agree with the above comments of Andrew, there is, and has been, a more insidious cancerous and vile group of ABUSERS working AGAINST the interests of Survivors, the so called GROUP LEADERS, far WORSE than these BLACK GARBS and PENGUINS. These useless bastards ALSO need EXPOSING.
Totally agree Angry. They’re a cossetted and protected group. Their interest in this saga has always being self-interest and self promotion. I expect them to drop out in the new year as the new Government is going to cease payments to them – or is that the same old bull only from a different voice?
1.5 MILLION ???. Fair play to the father Reynolds for this hefty and crippling payout from the STATE coffers of RTE for a DAMAGED REPUTATION.??
THOUSANDS who went through the redress board SUFFERED REAL DAMAGE , LASTING DAMAGE, DAMAGE WHICH WILL NOT ABATE UNTIL DEATH BRINGS RELIEF. As far as I,m aware NO ONE RECEIVED 1.5MILION EURO,S FOR for their “MENTAL DISTRESS” from the redress board.!!.
Has the fr Reynolds WINDFALL set a precedent??. Is it NOT a fact that up to the day pending publication of the Ryan Report into CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN, the BLACK GARBS AND THE PENGUINS WERE STILL ISSUING STANDARD LETTERS OF DENIAL TO THE REDRESS BOARD TO EVERY CASE IT HEARD.!!.
Will the STATE now call for an inquiry as to how THESE FALSE ALLEGATIONS of the christian brothers and various orders of nuns DEPRIVED GENUINE SURVIVORS OF JUST AND FAIR SETTLEMENTS !!.
Of course the fallout from this RTE debacle highlights ONCE AGAIN an Irish “solution” to an Irish “problem”, in paricular for the catholic church who have been searching for some years now for a way in which to get the PRESS and MEDIA of their case.?? . Well, the answer has now been handed on a BIG SILVER SALVER to them, courtesy of RTE.! Will the STATE BROADCASTER EVER APPROACH ANOTHER “CHILD ABUSE CASE”, WILL THE PRESS EVER AGAIN BELIEVE A VICTIM OF CLERICAL ABUSE ? .
Next week “rumours” abound of the possible release of the RAPHOE REPORT, but already we see DEFERENCE to the religious raise its ugly head again, as a central figure to this report SUDDENLT SUFFERS “ILL HEALTH” AND LEGS IT THROUGH ” RETEIREMENT”.! IS THIS THE SAME SEAMUS HEGARTY OF SOME YARS AGO WHO THROUGH HIS SCAM OF “”STEWARDSHIP FUNDING”” INTENDED TO IMPOSE A SECRET LEVY ON PARISHONERS TO PAY FOR CLERICAL SEXUAL TERRORISM INFLICTED ON CHILDREN ????? .
I read BRADYS “”EULOGY”” to Hegarty this week, AND MY HEAD IS STILL IN THE PUKE BUCKET.
HOW COULD ANYBODY POSSIBLY “””HAVE A NICE DAY”” WHEN BANDITS LIKE THESE STILL ROAM THIS FAIR AND PLEASANT COUNTRY. !!
Not mentioned in the RTE/Reynolds saga is the fact that his religious order (Mill Hill Missionaries) cut him loose – it was only the Association of Catholic Priests who supported him. Reynold’s court case was taken pro bono.
Bishop Cornelius Schilder has been accused of molesting young men while he served as a bishop in Kenya. He resigned his post in the Ngong diocese in 2009, citing health reasons. But there were rumors that the Vatican had demanded his resignation, and the Mill Hill missionary order, of which he is a member, later revealed that he had been suspended from ministry, lending credence to the abuse charges. Michael Ole Uka accused the Dutch Bishop of sexually abusing him in the early ‘90s when Schilder was a parish priest in Ngong. The victim also accused an Irish priest by the name of ‘Gerry’ for abusing him who has since been stripped of his priesthood. Cornelius Schilder has maintained that he is innocent. He has however been denied to perform duties of a bishop. He is currently living at a Mill Hill retirement home in the Netherlands.
Needless to say, the usual suspects have come out from under the rocks to berate RTE – and none of them have compared and contrasted Reynold’s lottery win with the ‘shut your mouth’ money that rape and torture victims have received at the Redress(sic) Board.
One of these ‘usual suspects’ was actually Press Officer for Dearest Dessie when Dessie was on his ‘mental reservation’ drug in Drumcondra. The same guy’s response (in the Senate) to the Ryan Report was that the ‘children had not committed any sin” !!! I kid you not.
In the case of the Roman priest Reyonlds the embedded forces of the Vatican in Ireland got a chance to show their teeth. The whole thing is an over reaction. If a reputation is worth €1.5 million then a destroyed childhood would be worth €20 million instead of a measly few thousand. How can anyone imagine that a Roman Catholic cleric could be defamed when he defames himself by wearing their dog collar and propping up a global child rape ring.
Good point FXR – the same collar choked the life out of civil and community discourse in Ireland – and elsewhere. These guys want the collar to rule again.
I’ve been on the website for the Broadcasting Authority. I can’t find a list of names for the board members. No doubt it’s another gravy train for the in-crowd. I know that the moany mush pro-catholic John Waters was supposed to be on it. There is no way to tell if any of them are Opus Dei or Knights of Columbanguskids..
Is this them:
http://www.rte.ie/about/authority.html
Ms. Eunice O’Raw is a familiar name to me from the Mahon Tribunal – can’t remember any stunning or legal pronouncements from her except apparently whatever her job at the Mahon Tribunal she ‘earned’ a whopping €4.2m !!!
CRIME PAYS, make no mistake about that, as Seamus Hegarty legs it into the sunset with his BIG PENSION, HOUSE, AND NO DOUBT “”HOUSEKEEPER”” to see to his “comforts”, HEGARTY follows a LONG LINE of bishops, cardinals and other assorted reprobates connected with CLERICAL SEXUAL TERRORISM now living the good life amid a welter of LUXURY paid for on the backs of children who were RAPED, BUGGERED, SODOMIZED, TORTURED, and in every manner suffered degradation and humilitation, which in essence has totally wrecked and destroyed their lives, and left in its wake the destroyed families also.
The answer to this CARNAGE by some bishop geezer from Boyce was , “” HORRIFIC ABUSES WERE CARRIED OUT ON CHILDREN””, this same geezer also makes the comment that yes, “”WE MADE SOME MISTAKES” , notice the “WE” bit.?? Just who are these “”WE,S””, will we ever know.??
The disgusting accomadation by this catholic church to facilitate HEGARTY to remove himself from the SCENE OF HIS CRIMES before publication of this so called “report” will, and must remain forever a horrific dereliction of DUTY BY THIS STATE. HEGARTY and this cardinal guy BRADY MUST BE BROUGHT TO BOOK. AIDING , ABETTING AND WHOLESALE CONSPIRACY TO PERVERT THE COURSE OF JUSTICE ARE I BELIEVE STILL ON THE CRIMINAL CALENDAR.???
The Garda Officer involved in the original investigation of one this catholic church`s MARAUDING PERVERT PAEDOPHILES has stated that this Raphoe report is NOTHING MORE THAN A WHITEWASH, how right he is. THE SAD AND SORRY THING IS THAT PEOPLE STILL BELIEVE IN THIS catholic church, a church which heads THE WORLDS LARGEST PAEDOPHILE RING, A church BESOTTED WITH PERVERTS , a church WHERE CHILDREN CAN NO LONGER BE LEFT ALONE WITH A priest, HOW SAD IS THAT. ??
Just HOW LONG can Diarmuid Martin keep his finger in the hole stemmimg the dam, WHY WONT DIARMUID MARTIN CALL FOR BRADY TO STEP DOWN.????.
The MUSH and pious crap now being pedalled to the media about “”BETTER SAFEGUARDING”” being in place for children WHO ARE UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO FIND THEMSELVES IN A church SETTING must raise bile among the abused, along with the catholic church`s offer of “”help”” to the abused.!! How sick can these vile reprobates get.
AS THE BUZZ AND WHIRR OF THE SHREDDING MACHINES GO UNABATED THROUGHOUT THE PARISHES OF IRELAND, THE bishops SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE “MUSIC” OF THESE SHREDDING MACHINES, SATIATED IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THE RESIDUAL PILES OF ” CONFETTI” WILL ALWAYS ENSURE THEIR PENSIONS ARE SAFE.???????
MEANWHILE, THEIR VICTIMS CONTINUE TO SUFFER.
Casey, Comiskey, Dear Dessie, Ledwith, Hegarty, and “”other retirements”” which have occured over recent years of prominent heads in this catholic church must present a formidable DRAIN on church resources as these “”retiree`s”” enjoy fortified and luxurious lifestyles COURTESY OF THE HARD PRESSED PARISHONER.!
As the great majority of ABUSED CHILDREN , now elderly adults, WORRY OVER THE PRICE OF A TIN OF BEANS, perhaps SOMEBODY in this catholic church would take the opportunity to INFORM US just how these former “princes” of the church live, types of houses they live in, do they have “”housekeepers””, do they have cleaners, cars, how well stocked are their cellars, where do they holiday, their food bills, how are their gas and electricity bills paid, do they enjoy free medical care, just WHAT are the benefits of a bishops pension.??? WILL ANYBODY TELL US.??
One of Brady’s (and Smyth’s) victims was on the radio this morning tearing into Brady. I think it’s the first time RTE have actually interviewed (in depth) on of the people forced to take these oaths. Ulster TV had already done it.
I hope to get the RTE podcast tomorrow.
Raggedwaggon, be very interested to hear that broadcast.
Regards Angry.
Here’s the audio – http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1204/bolandb.html#audio …
I have made a copy and hope to be able to use it in a YouTube video.
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McQuaid is Front Page news today in the Irish Times:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2011/1208/1224308744391.html?via=mr
Morning Raggedwaggon, how good to see that all your good work on Mc Quaid over the past twelve years now bears fruit. This despot and PAEDOPHILE of extraordinary proportions will now hopefully get the FULL EXPOSURE he so rightly deserves.
HOPEFULLY SOMEBODY MAY TAKE THE TROUBLE TO MICROSCOPICALLY STUDY THE “”ANTICS”” OF THIS TYRANT DURING HIS EARLY YEARS AT CLONGOWES, WHERE “” INTERESTING “” INFORMATION OF HIS PROCLIVITIES THERE MAY GET A PUBLIC AIRING.???
I see Mary Kenny has once again donned her “defensive hat” in favour of the church. All we need now is Breda O Brien and David Quinn to follow suit maintaining the status quo of “fuzzy ” journalism.
Will they APOLOGISE to John Clooney, I wonder.??
Hi Angry
Quinn did swear that he would give up on writing about the abuse ‘saga’ after the Murphy Report … but all his done since that report is point the finger away from the Church.
Breda, as smug as ever, turns up here:
http://www.tv3.ie/videos.php?video=42615&locID=1.65.169
on the Vincent Browne show. There’s a long lead in with ads
Reblogged this on Oconnellpadd13's Blog.