A chara, – I read with anger the reports and comments made by the Minister of Education in the recent Dáil debate on the Ryan report (“Department failed thousands of abused children – OKeeffe, June 13th).
Mr Batt O’Keeffe apologises for his department’s failure in responding to abuse in institutions under his department’s care and supervision. Might I suggest that Mr O’Keeffe and his department continue to fail children in their care by reducing special needs provision in primary schools, culling the number of special needs assistants for children in need, closing special education classes, increasing class sizes in mainstream classes and discontinuing grants for resource/learning support resources? Will we be facing another report on child “abuse” in years to come? – Is mise,
JOHN WILLIAMS,
Scholarstown Park,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Madam, – It might be worth remembering on Bloomsday that among the various issues compelling James Joyce up that steamship’s gangplank was the frustration of being let down by an Irish publishing house. Maunsel was to publish Dubliners but took fright at the last minute. The story An Encounter concerning a meeting between truant schoolboys and a pederast was particularly problematic. It could cause offence. After all, had not Maunsel been recently appointed publishers to the newly-formed Catholic institution University College, Dublin? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The adage “the corruption of the best produces the worst” is certainly verified in the Ryan report. No one should seek to condone in any way the grave abuse and neglect it reveals and justice requires that full apologies and practical assistance be offered to those affected.
However, it would be regrettable if we were to forget how indebted generations of Irish people are to our religious Orders in terms of educational and health services and practical concern for the poor.
A summary of their commitment and dedication to the welfare of the people of Ireland over generations is to be found in Eaten Bread published in 2007 by my colleague Fr Con McGillicuddy. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Dennis O’Driscoll is a fine poet and his poem, The Long Corridor, (Weekend Review, June 13th), is a well-crafted poem with a viewpoint that will undoubtedly strike a chord with a great many people in the wake of the Ryan report. “God is well and truly dead and buried, his name no longer raised in polite company”. The Ryan report has undoubtedly struck a heavy blow to the roots of Catholic clericalism in this country. It may not die as a result, but die it most certainly will if it doesn’t significantly change over the coming years. Before his death John O’Donohue wrote of the profound metaphysical crisis that existed in Irish Catholicism, a crisis, he said, that was far too deep to be resolved by “repackaging”. The American writer Flannery O’Connor wrote, “If you want faith, you have to work for it”. For generations Irish Catholics have been fed on a simplistic diet of watered-down Christianity and have been positively discouraged from questioning their clerical “betters”. Questioning is essential to a mature faith and it was never more needed than now.
Whether or not the present clerical model could survive the types of questioning the bankers have been subjected to it is hard to say, but it is essential for its survival that it responds positively in the present situation. We have witnessed the collapse of some of capitalism’s most sacred cows. The Catholic Church in Ireland is now in a similar situation. The present model of hierarchical clericalism has patently failed and the church needs now to take note. It needs to put aside the glossy business models, forget the marketing gurus and the legal eagles. Re-branding simply will not work.
But even if the present hierarchical model withers away, even if all of the seminaries fall into disuse, none of this in itself can be taken as evidence of the fact that God is dead. All of us, poets included, continue to feel a need for the transcendent in our lives, for contact of some kind with a higher entity. If God was indeed dead and buried, why would so many of us continue to experience such a strong need? God can and will survive the current travails within the Irish Catholic Church, whatever their outcome. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Our father, Peter Lemass, was born and bred in Dublin. Both his parents died when he was quite young and the family were dispersed. Father was sent to the O’Brien Institute, Glasnevin, which was run then by the Christian Brothers.
He completed his education there and went on to do medicine in Trinity, so he cannot have had a bad education. He always spoke well of the brothers and how he was treated when he was in the orphanage as a boy.
He would be disturbed by the recent charges made against the brothers and which did not correspond with his experience of them. When he died he left them money in his will – which speaks for itself.
“The evil men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones”. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The Bishop of Cork Most Rev Paul Colton is addressing half the problem when he advises that the victims of Catholic abuse “must be the centre of all our concerns and efforts.” (“Focus must be on victims, C of I bishop says on Ryan report”, June 15th). In criminal cases, decent societies focus on more than victims. They seek out perpetrators and prosecute them. Hand wringing and platitudes are not a substitute for justice. – Yours, etc,