Madam, – While Mr Justice Ryan’sreport did a good job for the Government in uncovering and documenting serious wrongs in these institutions, it fell down in blaming it all on the religious.
He failed to put incidents of punishment in the context of their time. In the 1940s there was no social welfare. Life was hard for ordinary people. They had to be tough to survive. Just as modern people believe in equality, people in the 1940s and 1950s believed in punishment. They had the death penalty for murder, minor theft warranted a jail sentence and parents at this time wanted their children to be beaten, toughened up and disciplined.
When I was a child, a common question asked of a boy upon telling what school he attended was, “Are the priests or brothers tough?”. If the answer was yes, the inquirer was satisfied that it was a good school.
I believe all religious who sexually abused or used violence resulting in injury should be prosecuted in special courts set up for this purpose. But Mr Justice Ryan should exonerate all religious who worked hard for the good of these children. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I don’t understand why the religious orders implicated in the Ryan report get to decide their own terms and conditions for making restitution to their victims and to the rest of Irish society. All criminals are punished in our courts, using laws enacted by our elected Government, in a manner that befits their actions. Why isn’t that happening now? The situation is so shocking that it is beyond belief. I now doubt the power of this or any elected Irish Government to protect my children.
I didn’t see any member of Cori stand for election to Dáil Éireann and yet I heard their spokeswoman say on radio how they would decide with the religious orders how best to directly help the victims, because if they had to pay more money they would have to stop providing some services.
I don’t want them providing services – I want our elected Government to provide services. The money the religious orders should be paying would provide a lot of services that we desperately need and that the Government cannot now afford. I want our elected Government to govern – and no one else. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Sean Alexander Smith (May 29th) refers to the calls for the complete removal of religion from the educational sphere as a call effectively for secular dictatorship. In Ireland, what we have now is a religious dictatorship, especially at primary level. Parents want an alternative either in the form of Educate Together or VEC-managed schools. In many parts of Dublin such an alternative does not exist.
I respectfully suggest in the interests of the establishment of a more balanced type of educational provision in this country, that the Catholic Church and the Department of Education work together to arrange for the handover of schools to be managed under the VEC or Educate Together banner.Such a handover should occur in a timely manner and should be concluded within two years. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – May I suggest the following as a lasting memorial to all those abused by the religious orders? On one of the darkest days, December 21st would be apt, at noon, from this year and for all the years to come, let the sirens blare or bells peal throughout the land. For one minute, let traffic stop and the nation stand heads bowed, in silent remembrance and shame. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I was alarmed to read that members of the commission were to meet that day to decide on the fate of thousands of original documents, detailing the abuse of children in institutions and that they were expected to retain some documents but that the vast majority of them would be shredded (Paul Cullen’s article on May 26th).
While I applaud the work of the commission and the subsequent publication of the report, I believe the disposal of any of the original documentation would not only be reckless and short-sighted and an affront to the casualties of church and State maltreatment, but it would also deny future analysis from a socio-historical perspective. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Joseph A Geoghehan (May 28th) says: We all knew which brothers to stay away from. While many of them were obviously gay, not all were paedophiles. This statement is utterly flawed as any man/woman who indecently assaults a child is a paedophile, not necessarily gay. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In Saudi Arabia the law dictates that any person guilty of paedophilia be publicly beheaded. To some this may seem extreme but I wonder would the abused think so.
In Ireland a person guilty of paedophilia is incarcerated and conditioned in the hope that upon their release they will not reoffend. However, it now appears that when such a person was a representative of the church they not only avoided the rigour of the law but were fully protected by that church along with its other members who practised horrific physical abuse on children.
With the implicit aid of the State, these monsters continued to abuse ad infinitum.
Should Jesus Christ re-enter the world, would he view the Catholic Church as his representative on Earth? As Christians we believe he sacrificed himself for us. The Catholic Church on the other hand sacrificed our children rather than their abusers. I am proud to be called a Christian but ashamed I was once a Catholic. If one is a Catholic it then follows that one believes in Catholic heaven populated by unrepentant child abusers in habits and collars. I wonder did Jesus have that in mind.
My father was incarcerated in the now notorious institutions along with his brother, who died there. He never spoke of his experiences and was true gentle man throughout his life. I am ashamed at my ignorance of the horrors he may have endured and humbled by his fortitude. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – One aspect of the abuse which didn’t get the emphasis it should is the fact that the “Mercy Nuns” who ran Goldenbridge and Moate orphans took what little dignity the little girls had left to them – their names.
The nuns gave each child a number and from then on, each child had to answer to the number which was given to them: “Number 17, stand up”; “Number 86, sit down”; “Number 35, hold out your hand”.
A friend of mine who taught in Goldenbridge when she was training to be a teacher told me that the abiding memory she has of Goldenbridge is the smell of urine she got from the little girls in each classroom. The little mites had to wet themselves in the classroom as they weren’t allowed go to the toilet and they had to sit in their wet underwear all day.
Those responsible for this degrading behaviour had the gall to say they were committed followers of Jesus Christ. They made a mockery of everything Jesus Christ lived and died for.
I am an ex-Cistercian Brother. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – On behalf of my family, friends and community, I wish to demand our Government do everything in its power to assist and support all victims of child abuse, including all of the children who have survived the tortures of the institutions and schools detailed in the Ryan report, and those children and adults who have not had a voice. Victims of child abuse who have spoken out about their experiences are the true heroes of our society. They not only have a vital role in ensuring that criminals are caught and punished for their inhumane crimes, they have also educated adults about the risks to our children. They must be treated with the highest regard and respect.
We want to see all child abusers and paedophiles exposed, prosecuted and sentenced as criminals.
We want all those who have attempted or are attempting to cover up child abuse exposed, prosecuted and sentenced as criminals. We want all children afforded full protection. We want this done without further delay. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Even in a blinkered parochial and priest-ridden society, like our very own, words of wisdom sometimes emanate.
Lift up the shutters and let in the light, remarked Mary Robinson on being elected president.
Relieve me of my peasant roots, said the late Paddy Kavanagh some 50 years ago. Oh Paddy, could you ever come back to us, our country badly needs you. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Whatever else it is, the systematic and widespread abuse of thousands of children in Irish institutions should never be described as “the Irish Holocaust”. To do so not only serves to diminish the term Holocaust – the systematic extermination by the Nazis of over 11 million people of various ethnic minorities – but also distracts from the unique and different nature of the evil of abuse that has taken place in this country.
However, one striking feature which both evils do have in common is that the vast majority of the perpetrators – in Ireland’s case, this includes the abusers themselves, the responsible religious congregations, the officials in the Department of Education who had been made aware of the abuse, as well as the politicians responsible for its continuation – were never brought to court to face justice. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Regarding the concealment of abusive regimes, the author Primo Levi explained the concealment of all such tragedies when, as a victim of the Holocaust, he wrote, “A particular code was widespread: those who knew did not talk; those who did not know did not ask questions; those who did ask questions received no answers.” – Yours, etc,