The sins of the fathers

I met John Barrett in the shop today. I’ve known John for years as he has an intense interest on schoolboy soccer and our teams often met on the soccer pitch. John is a survivor of child abuse who spent his early years in the institutional custody of (I can’t use the word care because he didn’t get any) the Christian Brothers. John is justifiably angry at the treatment he received from both the state and the order that ran the institution. He established an organisation called Right of Place. He is at present writing a book that sets out his experiences and it will be published in Ireland and Britain in the new year.
John is not surprised at the findings of the Yvonne Ryan report into Dublin archdiocese. Neither am I. The findings and the modus operandi of all responsible is broadly similar to what went on in Ferns. Bishops prioritised containment of scandal in Ferns and Dublin. Garda inquiries ran into the sand in both diocese when they went up the line from investigating younger gardaí. The Ferns report was released four years ago and at the time I thought that there was nothing that would suggest that the level of clerical abuse in Ferns was no less and no more than what was going on elsewhere. At the time the suggestion was made that because Ferns had its own seminary that the small number of seminarians made abuse easier and that the problem may be ring fenced in the south east. This excuse cannot be rolled out now. Other dioceses have question marks over leadership and the values taken when dealing with clerics accused of sexual abuse.
The Catholic Church is like any institution. The desire to protect the institution from scandal apparently superseded all. It is no longer about a church leader hiding behind health or an alcohol addiction. No system failure in Dublin. The system worked and worked well down through the years in the interest of the institution and against those of the victim. Those in authority in the church and the Garda colluded in what today we call reckless endangerment and effectively the perversion of justice.
At the time of the inquiry I met Dr Walsh who was the administrator of Ferns. I think he had the most difficult job in the Irish church and he came out of affair with his reputation enhanced. That’s why I’m disappointed when I heard him on radio today dodging the question as to whether investigations are now needed in other diocese. I think they are.

Don’t forget that the late Fr Fortune was effectively run out of the boy scouts in Belfast within weeks of reports of inappropriate behaviour there. How can standards be better 25 years ago in the boy scouts, a voluntary organisation that’s just 100 years old than in a 2000 year old church that shortly will mark the birth of its founder? There has to be the same level of commitment in child protection in all diocese otherwise we’re condemned to repeat the errors of the past. It’s not enough for the state to stand back from the issue and set the standards and allow self regulation of child protection. In economics we’ve seen how self regulation doesn’t work. The state has a duty to those of our citizens who it shares the responsibility for ruining their lives in the past and also to today’s children

John Barrett and I talked about the importance of his book. Survivors not only need to tell their story but to get vindication from our society that they were the victim. That’s why there is a need for a further enquiry. I’d rather it to be quicker than our tribunals for the sake of the victims and the church itself. It is in the interest of the Catholic Church and its adherents that best practise is in place asap in a clear and transparent manner.
I hope John’s book sells well, I hope that its still read in 30 years time and that people then will ask how did we have a country like that but more importantly what did we do to change it, and Yes negligent church leaders must resign.

Brendan O Carroll launches his political campaign

Right on que to promote his tour, funny man Brendan O’Carroll has said he intends to run in the next General Election in either Dublin Central or Dublin West. Brendan was given time on this morning’s Tubrudy Show to set out why he should be elected. He says he’s been courted by all the party’s and to be fair I think he’s endorsed Fine Gael and Sinn Fein candidates in the past while his mother was a Labour TD. So there’s political blood in him and he has a hard neck.
This time I think no one’s laughing. O’Carroll says he would support the banks, increase tax on consumption something which would impact enormously on large families on social welfare and also bring in a 10% income tax. Where would the money come to pay the public service? He didn’t explain. Interestingly he hinted at possible tax issues for himself as he’s in the middle of an audit, but sure he wouldn’t be the first TD who found the tax code challenging.

Personally Brendan O'Carroll's type of humour doesn't appeal to me but this morning he brought a smile to my face. I seem to remember Brendan a number of years ago about to launch an airline that would link internally Irish regional airports but then Aer Aran beat him to that. The response from listeners seemed mixed and later the comment was made that Ben Dunne and himself would run the country properly. Ben flagged recently his interest in running for Europe. I wonder what they’d say to a recently unemployed worker and spouse with 2 children, mortgage to pay who is waiting 8 weeks for his jobseekers benefit to come through. Taxing the likes of him at the same rate as those who’re wealthy won’t solve our problems. He may find out that the easy bit is getting elected it's then the real work starts.

Tony Gregory RIP

I understand that Tony Gregory TD has died this afternoon. I didn’t know Tony and he had been ill for quite some time. I first heard about Tony in 1981 when some student activists I knew in college campaigned for him in the General Election. He was educated locally in the inner city and was a local teacher before being elected to Dublin Corporation in 1979. He was a man with out any airs and graces. From the word go he broke convention refusing to wear a tie. It’s bizarre to think that could have been a note of controversy but it was.
He stood up to the gangsters that broke his community with heroin in the 1980’s. His political path started on the Republican left moving through to Community Activism in what is still today a very deprived and marginalised community. He famously spent a week in jail arising from his support for women trading in Moore St without a license. Needless to say his Gregory deal that saw CJH return to power significantly improved the housing stock in the inner city. As a child I vividly remember the tenements that previously stood in this area, his lasting achievement and legacy will be the houses that now stand in their place.
Tony was a strong supporter of animal rights, indeed I saw him on an RTE repeat 3 days ago hill walking in Connemara and his companions asking him about this very issue and I remarked as to how young and well he looked then. Tony also was a strong opponent of US involvement in Central America and he walked out when President Ronald Reagan addressed the Oireachtas in 1984. I often thought that he should have held ministerial office and retrospectively the best time for him to have got there might have been the 1992-97 period. The maths could have worked out to his advantage given he fluidity. I believe he had an understandably terse relationship with his Constituency colleague, Bertie Ahern, that’s very much to Tony’s credit in my book and I believe his supporters can reflect on his life in politics as someone who gave an awful lot to this community and constituency than many others. His door literally was always open to his constituents 24/7 before that term was coined. He was part of the Technical group in the last Dail and one of his key achievements was that he provided a voice for those whowere marginalised and that issues which in other large cities sometimes resulted in allienation or strife were highlihted. He was a genuine voice for the the voiceless. Fear fresin a raibh suim mór aige faoin gaelige.
It’s a sad start to the new year, my sympathies to his partner, family and supporters that he died at such an early age.
bout

Batt’s Man U week-end no compensation for 70,000 education protesters

Yesterday while 70,000 protested in Dublin against the education cuts, the minister responsible was far from the maddening crowd enjoying the delights of the Sretford End! It seems that Minster O’Keeffe had a long standing commitment to watch Sunderland play Manchester United. Sunderland were of course managed by former Cobh Ramblers star, Roy Keane until Thursday and while all politics is local, once Keane had resigned as manager, you’d have thought there was no need for the Minster’s attendance.
Last June, I was on holiday in Manchester too. My family spent a wonderful afternoon at MOSI. This is the museum of science and industry. Central to the museum work is the importance of encouraging a child’s imagination. Our youngsters loved the art in the original Manchester railway station, the world’s first. The emphasis is on hands on learning and activity. It’s fabulous! The teachers I met were aghast to hear that there was nothing with such an imaginative curriculum in south eastern Ireland. They may find it even stranger that Minister O’Keeffe has abolished financial grants to schools that teach chemistry or physics.
Is it too much to expect that Minister O’Keeffe might visit places like MOSI and come back invigorated for his brief? Somehow I think I it is, he seems more intersted in the nation's finances every time he talks!