Monday, 06 September 2010 14:23:59
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01 Aug 2010
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22:59:46
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New children’s hospital will have to raise €200 million........25 July 2010, By Susan Mitchell........... Plans for the National Paediatric Hospital (NPH) will be submitted to Dublin City Council next month, with building due to begin next year. At a cost of €650 million, it is one of the most important capital projects in the history of the state’s health service. But many medical professionals continue to have serious concerns about the space constraints of the new site and the capital deficit that needs to be buttressed by some €200million in funding from private organisations. When the design of the hospital was unveiled in October 2009, the government pledged €400 million from the exchequer. An additional €50 million is due to come from the Health Service Executive (HSE). That leaves the NPH with the unenviable task particularly given the economic climate of securing some €200 million from philanthropic, commercial, research and education organisations. If the NPH has locked down any of that money, it certainly has not said so and it declined to respond to queries from this newspaper regarding any commitments it may have received from private or not-for profit groups. The Sunday Business Post understands that the NPH is seeking over €130 million from the National Lottery and some €17 million in funding from the capital’s universities, in addition to €23 million from research bodies including the Children’s Medical and Research Foundation, the fundraising umbrella for both Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, and the research centre. ‘‘That raises major issues about donor intent," said one hospital consultant at Crumlin hospital. ‘‘If people in Kerry paid to take part in a golf classic for Crumlin or medical research, do they want to see that funding diverted to get a foothold in a new public hospital?" The head of one organisation that was approached for funding said the NPH had to raise a ‘‘phenomenal’’ amount of money. ‘‘There is a serious shortfall. We had to tell them ‘at the end of the day we are a charity .We are not a bottomless pit’." Counting the cost: The total spend on the project, according to the NPH ,will be some €100million less than the €750 million originally envisioned. The saving is undoubtedly good news for the exchequer, but the funding model deserves some closer scrutiny. The approximate rule of thumb for recent builds and a number of the proposed co-located hospitals is a spend of up to €1 million per bed - meaning €450 million would be more in line with expectations. The children’s hospital did not have to buy the land and does not have to factor financing costs into its equation. It will also be 16 storeys high, and given that surface area is the biggest determinant of construction costs, that should have worked in its favour. Its proximity to an adult hospital will undoubtedly help achieve economies of scale with regard to the running costs of the children’s hospital, but those economies of scale would also apply at the more spacious site at St James’s Hospital in Dublin. Construction work has not begun on the project, but some €23 million has already been spent on contracts, ranging from business services and project design to public relations. That represents just 3.5 per cent of the total capital spend of €650 million. An inordinate amount of work has undoubtedly been done and the consensus from a number of senior private hospital figures was that the figure - when taken as a percentage of the overall cost -was not out of line with the industry norm. However, looked at in isolation, some believe the figure to be high. ‘‘The industry norm is €8million or €10 million at that stage of development. Granted it is for hospital projects that are considerably smaller in size, but even still, that does not explain such a huge cost differential," said one senior industry source. Concerns: The decision to build a state-of-the-art national paediatric hospital on the site of the Mater has been dogged by controversy and was widely derided as being a political decision. It would be, it was said, ‘‘in Bertie’s back yard’’. The HSE vehemently denied any political interference, but the claims took on new meaning when former Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte produced a letter in which the chairman of the Mater Hospital’s board of governors, Des Lamont, thanked former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for pledging the children’s hospital to the Mater. The letter was written five months before the so-called independent selection process (it was in fact a joint HSE and Department of Health taskforce) chose the Mater site as the location and some three months before the McKinsey report was published (McKinsey & Co was appointed to advise the HSE on international best practice in tertiary paediatric services). Nobody questioned the principle of combining the three existing paediatric hospitals under one roof, but concerns about traffic congestion, poor accessibility and the space constraints of the Mater site - it claims to have 6.15 hectares of available space - were repeatedly raised. Those concerns did not vanish overnight. ‘‘Anxieties are inevitable," said Professor Alf Nicholson, a consultant paediatrican at Temple Street. ‘‘But this is a positive project and it is a prize worth buying into. It will transform the care of children in this country." Some specialists and patient groups, however, continue to have grave concerns about the plans that are due to be lodged with planning authorities in the coming months. The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) believes there should be two fully functional emergency departments in the Dublin area to provide an optimal model of care. Triona Murphy, chairperson of the Tallaght Hospital Action Group, said she met NPH chief Eilish Hardiman to outline the group’s concerns last March. ‘‘At that meeting we were given the strong impression that Tallaght would retain a full emergency department. That changed when we met her [Eilish Hardiman] again in June. She said the HSE had gone through its figures and they were going to go with an urgent care centre. The HSE obviously said funding was an issue and scuppered the plan," Murphy said. Consultants in emergency medicine are unhappy with the proposal. The NPH has told doctors that Tallaght’s urgent care centre could deal with 55,000 visits, according to a consultant in emergency medicine at one of the children’s hospitals. ‘‘That is a completely unrealistic figure," the consultant said. ‘‘Parents are naturally risk-averse. They won’t want to bring their children to an urgent care centre, as many will believe that they won’t get the same standard of care or access to paediatric subspecialties." If the new hospital on the Mater site were to receive 80,000 visits, it would be ‘‘the biggest paediatric emergency department in the world’’. ‘‘Yet the space allocated to the department is completely inadequate. Frankly, we were pissed off when we saw it," said the consultant. He also expressed concern at the suggestion - from the NPH - that the urgent care centre at Tallaght would close at 10pm. ‘‘The busiest time for any paediatric emergency department is between 4pm and midnight," he said. Configuration: Although a certain amount of horse-trading is inevitable in a project with so many stakeholders, there is concern among other specialties at the space that they have been allotted in the new hospital. It is not just the size that is of concern, but also the configuration. Wards, outpatient clinics and diagnostics for some specialties will be on different levels, but the ultimate expression of the configuration problem is the Tallaght hospital situation. According to doctors involved with the NPH project, there is still no clear vision of how the urgent care centre at Tallaght will be configured, or what services it will provide. A sizeable amount of paediatric surgical work will be carried out at Tallaght and an estimated 40 per cent of outpatients will be seen there. ‘‘An enormous volume of work is now going to be done at Tallaght. That means we are dividing our pool of experts however many miles apart," said one source. ‘‘We still do not know what specialties will work out of Tallaght. Will it be the less complex work? Will it be the work that won’t fit into the Mater? I find it amazing that we are going for planning without fundamental questions like what will be done in Tallaght being clarified. The workforce plan has not been completed. These are all big strategic issues. It is as though we are retrofitting a hospital to suit the constraints of a site," the source said. The NPH, which has engaged extensively with all stakeholders, claimed significant progress had been made over the past two weeks and that agreement had been reached with many specialties. It also said much of this detail would not affect the external shape and look of the building. Many voiced concerns about the failure to progress plans to move the Rotunda maternity hospital to the Mater campus. That move was announced a number of years ago, and there has been at least one mention at board level of the footprint for the Rotunda affecting the potential expansion space for the paediatric hospital. At present, if a child is born with a serious medical problem, that child is transported directly to Crumlin or Temple Street children’s hospitals. Many doctors consider close proximity to a maternity hospital, which helps reduce transit times for at-risk newborns, even more important than close proximity to an adult hospital. The plan for the Rotunda seems to have been long-fingered at best. Although all three paediatric hospitals are cooperating with the team appointed to bring the National Paediatric Hospital to fruition by 2014, it remains the subject of much debate. Right now, however, it is the only game in town.
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Date:
02 Aug 2010
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10:01:22
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12 survivors of institutions get names cleared........... By Conor Ryan, Monday, August 02, 2010.......... A dozen people locked up by the state in industrial schools on tenuous charges have had their names cleared. Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has issued 12 certificates to former residents of the institutions who had carried criminal records because of the state’s treatment of them. This was because the 1908 law, which established borstals and juvenile homes, used the courts to take children into care. The figure was revealed in the Children’s Minister Barry Andrew’s first report on the implementation plan for the 99 recommendations arising from the Ryan report. The progress report approved by the Cabinet last month showed the most recent certificate of innocence was finalised on May 25. It said the 12 people had written to the minister requesting such certs and that the courts had agreed to deal with their applications as a priority. The progress report also revealed the pace at which former residents are seeking the truth about their own care has not let up in the year since the publication of the Ryan report. In 2009 the Department of Education received 478 Freedom of Information applications from former residents to have their personal records released. Already this year 319 similar requests have been made. However, the report also identified a number of areas where the Government’s plans to implement the recommendations have stalled. Many of these relate to the responsibilities of the Health Service Executive. The HSE had been expected to carry out a full national review of its policy of putting homeless children directly into accommodation without being referred to the health authorities. However, this audit will not take place until the autumn. The HSE was also to carry out an audit of all resources, finance and staff in the childcare area across all the various agencies involved in the sector. This was not achieved for the target of February 2010. The progress report said there was a lack of "consistency, co-ordination and inter-agency focus" in the area of professional training for people working with children. But this was being addressed by the HSE, it said. It revealed Mr Andrews is considering expanding the powers of the Health Information and Quality Authority to give it a wider remit over child protection. This change of policy was offered up as the reason HIQA’s social services inspectors had not begun independent inspections of all residential centres and foster services. Child welfare groups have criticised the pace of progress on the implementation plan and in May joined together to pressure the Government to act. Meanwhile, Andrew Madden, who was abused as a child in his Dublin parish, is considering running for the Dáil and said he is open to discussions with any party except Fianna Fáil.
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Date:
02 Aug 2010
Time:
10:06:12
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HSE to put children in secure unit it promised to close down........... Carl O’Brien, Chief Reporter, Irish Times - Monday, August 2, 2010.......... The Health Service Executive is planning to admit children into a secure unit for troubled children that it had pledged to close down following a damning report by social services inspectors. In a special report last year, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) strongly criticised care practices at Ballydowd in west Dublin and said the building was “no longer fit for purpose”. On foot of this, the HSE pledged to close down the 12-bed unit and move the young people to a modern facility at Crannóg Nua, a special care unit in the grounds of St Ita’s psychiatric hospital in north Dublin. However, the HSE has confirmed to The Irish Times that it is planning to place eight children in Ballydowd as a “short-term” measure. The children will be moved from Crannóg Nua to allow for building works at the north Dublin facility. Social work sources say authorities have nowhere else to place the children due to a chronic lack of special care places, which are used as a measure of last resort to detain troubled young people. The move is understood to have been met with concern with inspectors from Hiqa. A spokesman for the authority confirmed that it wrote to Minister for Children Barry Andrews last week to express its concern at the use of the facility. It is planning to publish an updated inspection report on the centre over the coming weeks. Hiqa’s special report into the facility last year was prompted by concerns about care practices and the physical environment that were brought to its attention. Its report, while not explicitly calling for the closure of Ballydowd, said it was no longer an acceptable premises in which to detain children. It detailed a series of areas where the facility failed to meet acceptable standards, including management, staffing, the promotion of good order, accommodation and security. In a statement, the HSE said some minor enabling works needed to take place at the Ballydowd site to allow for the forthcoming transfer of children. This work is under way, it said. “Within a matter of weeks the special care services in Dublin will be part of a redefined Crannóg Nua special care and high support service. At the end of the development of the Crannóg Nua site, the Ballydowd site will be phased out as a special care service,” the HSE added. The HSE did not state how long the children will remain in Ballydowd, although internal documents suggest it could be for at least two or three months. While health authorities began transferring children out of Ballydowd late last year, the facility never closed. At least one child has consistently been living in the unit over recent months, while another two are understood to have been admitted in recent weeks. When Hiqa inspectors visited the unit last year, they expressed concern over high-risk events such as an outside visit when three children absconded. The unit was in disrepair in many areas and was generally not fit for purpose, the inspectors found.
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Date:
03 Aug 2010
Time:
17:49:28
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Brave sex trade victim, 14, praised..........03/08/2010...... A children's charity has praised the bravery of a 14-year-old girl who helped convict nine men after she was sexually exploited The vulnerable teenager was targeted with vodka and cigarettes when she was spotted wandering the streets and then made to have sex with a string of Asian men before she was forced into prostitution, Greater Manchester Police said. The child went missing from home in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, on two occasions in February 2008 before she told officers she had been sexually exploited. Over the following weeks the girl was spoken to by a specialist team of officers, police said. She was able to identify the places she was taken and the men who had abused her. Penny Nicholls, from The Children's Society, said: "This is a heartbreaking story, but sadly this is not an isolated case. "Many children and young people run away from home or care each year and all of these children are at risk of sexual exploitation. "The lack of support services and the decreasing number of refuge beds only adds to the number of vulnerable children wandering the streets alone. "As this case clearly demonstrates, they can find themselves being targeted and sexually exploited, forced into prostitution and crime. Local authorities need to do more to help provide support for these vulnerable runaways. "100,000 children will run away overnight every year before the age of 16. One in 12 of these children told us they were hurt or harmed in some way whilst away from home. "Our direct work with runaways has shown this group of children to be the most at risk of sexual exploitation."
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Date:
03 Aug 2010
Time:
17:52:20
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Church in shift away from schools provision..........Tuesday August 03 2010..... The Catholic Church in Ireland does not see itself being the sole or dominant provider of primary schools in the future, it said today. The Irish Catholic Bishops said they have long stressed their willingness to allow different groups to oversee primary school education. A report from Tanaiste and Education Minister Mary Coughlan suggested 10 possible areas where the Church would no longer run certain schools. In a statement, the Council for Education of the Irish Bishops' Conference said the Church was committed to providing a Catholic education to children whose parents want it. But it added: "However, the Catholic Church in Ireland does not see itself in the future as the sole or dominant provider of schools." The Church runs 91pc of the state's 3,165 primary schools and the Department of Education has pinpointed 10 areas where the Church could divest its patronage. In the capital they include Dublin 4, Dublin 6, Portmarnock/Malahide and Whitehall, as well as the towns of Arklow, Athlone, Ballinasloe, Birr, Killarney, and Tramore. "The Catholic Church authorities may now wish to identify some areas to trial the modalities by which the number of catholic schools could be reduced and thus releasing some schools for other patrons," the Department said. It said the Bishop, parents and parishes would decide which school will be trialled. While welcoming the study, the Bishops said no particular school has been prioritised. "Importantly, no school will undergo a change in patronage without a transparent process of consultation which takes full account of parental choice, the concerns and interests of the local community, teachers' rights and the common good," it said. The six town areas were randomly chosen from 43 that met various requirements, including having a population greater than 5,000 but less than 20,000 and where the schools are mostly Catholic
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Date:
03 Aug 2010
Time:
17:55:55
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Bulk of HSE files on deaths pass to experts............By Noel Baker, Tuesday, August 03, 2010............... Most of the HSE files regarding the deaths of children in the care system have been passed to the experts charged with reviewing their deaths, it is understood. It is also believed that all the files regarding the deaths of children known to social services, but not necessarily in the care of the HSE when they died, will be passed to the Independent Review Group by the middle of September. Those files involve a much larger group of children, including those who were accessing aftercare services having turned 18, and are now included in the transfer of files after a change to the terms of reference under which it is operating. The Office of the Minister for Children and the HSE confirmed that the transferring of files has begun in recent weeks. It is understood that approximately 34 files were passed on by the HSE to the minister’s office the Friday before last, before then being handed over to the Independent Review Group. It is believed another two files were passed on last week, with a technical issue delaying the transfer of one remaining file. Regarding the larger group of deaths being reviewed – those of people known to social services but not necessarily in care at the time of death – around 29 files are thought to have been passed on by the HSE. All files are due to be in the possession of the Independent Review Group by mid-September, with group members Norah Gibbons and Geoffrey Shannon due to report back to the minister by Christmas. However, if it is deemed that more time is needed to review some cases that timeframe can be extended. A third member of the Independent Review Group is still likely to be appointed, according to the minister’s office, but that person is likely to be from overseas and will have more of an oversight function, possibly joining when the bulk of the work has been carried out. Concerns have been raised since the setting up of the review panel over its powers and a perceived delay in the transfer of files. In recent weeks the terms of reference have been changed, allowing the group to access additional information relating to the cases
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Date:
03 Aug 2010
Time:
17:59:05
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Dáil child welfare committee proposed.......... By Noel Baker,Tuesday, August 03, 2010.......... DÁIL deputies and senators are proposing to form a new sub-committee to deal with child welfare issues. Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, Sean O Fearghail, confirmed he had proposed forming such a sub-committee which could be established when the Health Committee sits this month. Mr O Fearghail said the sub-committee could include Oireachtas members who are not members of the Health Committee, if they have an interest and expertise in child protection and child welfare. Last week, the committee heard presentations from both Barnardos and the ISPCC, both of which criticised existing government policy and the HSE’s role in the provision of care. James Reilly, Fine Gael deputy leader, said he found the presentations "depressing", a view echoed by his party colleague, Senator Frances Fitzgerald, who said the HSE was now not fit to oversee the adequate delivery of child welfare and child protection services. Speaking yesterday, Mr O Fearghail said the sub-committee could help monitor the level of service provided to vulnerable children. A paper on children’s issues will be brought before the next meeting of the committee on August 10. Mr O Fearghail said any new sub-committee could be "more effective" by incorporating input from other Oireachtas members. The Fianna Fáil TD added that a sub-committee on suicide is already working and has been in touch with groups around the country. Last Tuesday’s sitting also heard criticism of the Government for failing to set a date for a referendum on the proposed amendment to the Constitution which would safeguard children’s rights. Yesterday Fine Gael children’s spokesman, Charlie Flanagan, said: "Fianna Fáil’s claim that it needs time to identify issues is ridiculous given that an Oireachtas committee has already examined the matter in great depth. The bottom line is if the Government wanted to put an amendment to the people with a view to giving vulnerable children the protection of the Constitution, it could do so."
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Date:
04 Aug 2010
Time:
10:11:40
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A BROKEN SYSTEM.......By Jennifer Hough,Wednesday, August 04, 2010........ Child protection services are "dysfunctional, ineffective and inconsistent" and do not safeguard the rights, welfare and best interests of a child, a former HSE social worker has claimed. Mary- Rose Waterman, who now works in Australia, said the death of teenager Christopher O’Driscoll — with whom she closely worked for two years — demonstrated a clear need for a radical overhaul of child protection services. According to Ms Waterman the 17-year-old Cork boy met an "untimely and inhumane" death last year because of "serious inadequacies" within the social services sector. An inquest last month heard how the body of Christopher O’Driscoll was found clutching a pair of rosary beads in a derelict house in Cork in May 2009. His tragic case joins almost 190 other vulnerable young people who, over the past 10 years, have died while known to, or in the care of, child protection services. Ms Waterman worked with Christopher at Pathways, a hostel in Cork city for homeless young men, and said staff had "desperately" wanted to help the teenager, but they lacked the tools, resources and influential status to make a difference in his life. She said his short life was spent "floating" through an inconsistent and dysfunctional child protection service. According to Ms Waterman, who maintains she was compelled to speak after learning of Christopher’s death, the 17-year-old needed "vigorous intervention" of services to save his life. Regrettably, she claims, plans to help him never developed due to his social workers’ lack of authority and the unwillingness of other stakeholders to come on board. "My question is — how did it get to this point? How did a child under the full care of the HSE die in such horrific circumstances? "Christopher’s intensive case was well known for some time to medical practitioners, community services, statutory services, and the judicial services. But somehow he went unnoticed and without adequate care," she said. Ms Waterman, who is from Cork and left the HSE position of her own accord, said she did not want to play a "blame game" but said the social services are a top-heavy system in which social workers follow invalid protocol. In a deeply moving tribute to the young man, Ms Waterman said Christopher was in crisis since the day he was born and felt unloved and unwanted by most. Despite his problems, she said Christopher was an articulate, highly emotional and intelligent young person with a great sense of humour. "The name Christopher O’Driscoll will forever remain with me through my personal and professional lifetime," she said. Ms Waterman’s words are yet another damning indictment of the HSE’s management of child protection and welfare services and mirror recent comments from child protection chief Fergus Finlay, who said "serious consideration" must be given to whether the HSE should be left in charge of child protection services. Local HSE health manager Gretta Crowley said everyone involved, from senior managers to social workers, deeply regretted that the young man died while in the care of the HSE. Childcare manager Kieran Campbell said the unexpected death of a child under any circumstances is a tragedy, but particularly so when efforts to care for vulnerable children break down.
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Date:
04 Aug 2010
Time:
10:14:55
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Child protection – Another indictment of services............... Wednesday, August 04, 2010............. There can’t be a person in the country who does not recognise that we must dramatically improve our child protection services. There can’t be a person who would, even in these slash-and-slash-again times, begrudge a single cent spent on trying to protect or rescue young, unformed lives in terrible jeopardy, often for no reason other than random circumstance. A comprehensive range of reports — many heartbreaking, all shaming — have made it impossible to pretend that this society’s relationship with children caught up in some of life’s desperate situations is functional. We might like to pretend that the difficulties are historical and that things have improved. They may have but there is still a distance to go before we can be satisfied that we are doing all that is necessary; that we have procedures and services vigorous enough to make a real, life-changing difference for a young person in crisis. The Murphy, Ryan, Ferns, Monageer and the Health Service Executive reports on the deaths of young people in state care all point to a system in crisis and to a society that has not accepted its responsibilities. Today we publish an angry, passionate letter from a former HSE social worker Mary-Rose Waterman who underlines again how inadequate and dangerous our present arrangements are. Ms Waterman focuses on a case she was closely involved with but tragically ended with the death of the young person involved. Christopher O’Driscoll was a teenager facing huge difficulties and died, alone in a derelict house, last year. He was in state care and his file can now be found among almost 200 others related to young people who were in care, or known to child protection services, when they died at a desperately young age. The HSE’s role in childcare has been under scrutiny for some time and there are very many aspects of how it does its work that cannot inspire confidence. Even though the HSE is a relatively recent departure, and even though it inherited very many difficulties, it also inherited considerable experience and professional capabilities. It has been in existence long enough to have made considerably more progress than it has. Even if you accept that resources will always be an issue it seems that the organisation is unable to bring about the kind or speed of reform this situation demands. Ms Waterman’s cry from the heart strengthens this view. This impression is so strong that Fergus Finlay, the chief executive of the children’s charity Barnardos has said that it may be time to consider taking responsibility for childcare away from the HSE. Some members of the Oireachtas are so concerned that they have suggested that a Dáil committee dealing exclusively with children’s issues be considered. Even the Minister for Children Barry Andrews has conceded that his relationship with the HSE was "fraught" at times. He admitted that a low point in their relationship came in May and June, when there was considerable confusion surrounding the number of children who had died while in state care. That a date has not been set for the referendum on children’s rights adds to the view that these issues are not a priority for anyone. The immediate response to this kind of plodding is anger but how very much better it would be for everyone if real progress was made.
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Date:
04 Aug 2010
Time:
10:19:25
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Planning for new children's hospital set to be lodged......... Paul Cullen, Irish Times - Wednesday, August 4, 2010........ A planning application for the new national children’s hospital on the Mater site in central Dublin is to be lodged later this month. The development team behind the new hospital confirmed yesterday that it was pushing forward with the project, despite renewed criticism in recent weeks from retired heart surgeon Maurice Neligan and other leading doctors. A spokesman for the National Paediatric Hospital Board said a detailed planning application for the project would be lodged in the week beginning August 16th, at which time detailed information on the plans would be provided. The Department of Health said the project was “advancing to schedule” under the direction of the hospital board. A detailed design brief had been finalised and the board was preparing to submit planning documents. He declined to comment on the criticism by Dr Neligan, who last month announced he had changed his mind about the project and now opposes the development on the Mater site or at any of the existing children’s hospitals. Writing in his regular column in The Irish Times’s HEALTH plus magazine he admitted he had been wrong to support the plan when it was first unveiled: “I feel that neither the Mater nor the joint children’s hospitals may be best served by this proposed development on a geographically constrained site.” Dr Neligan suggested a greenfield site with plenty of space and easy access be found as an alternative to current plans. His stance has been supported by 25 leading medical specialists who say the placing of a national paediatric hospital in Dublin’s city centre is not in the best interest of the sick children of Ireland. Last week, the Government included the proposed hospital in a list of priority projects that will go ahead, but dropped other healthcare projects. Construction is due to begin next year and the completion date is 2014. The original budget for the hospital was €750 million but it is now expected to cost less
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Date:
04 Aug 2010
Time:
10:25:40
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Church won't hand over schools without extensive consultation........... By John Walshe Education Editor......... Wednesday August 04 2010............. The Catholic Church is insisting on an extensive consultation process with parents before it starts to hand over some of its schools. The church made its position clear last night after the Department of Education published a list of areas where there are too many Catholic schools for the population. The publication of the list is the latest development in a long saga which will eventually change the face of Irish education. It will mean a reduced, but still significant, role for the church in primary schools. The department has identified 10 areas that could be looked at initially -- four are in Dublin and six are in small and mid-sized towns around the country. The six were selected at random from a longer list of 43 towns where the provision of schools is exclusively Catholic or where there is very limited diversity at present. The six are Arklow, Co Wicklow; Athlone, Co Westmeath; Ballinasloe, Co Galway; Birr, Co Offaly; Killarney, Co Kerry; and Tramore, Co Waterford. In addition, the department listed four areas of the capital where no new schools will be needed in the medium term and where the population is relatively stable. They are: Dublin 4; Dublin 6 and 8; Portmarnock/Malahide; and Whitehall. Education Minister Mary Coughlan said the decision about which schools would be divested rested with the bishops, as patrons, after consultation with parents and staff. Church sources feared last night that the listing of the 10 areas would spark fears of imminent closures. The Bishops' Council for Education said no particular school listed on the department's document- ation was being prioritised as a candidate for divesting. The council set down three requirements before progress can be made. The first is a transparent process of consultation. The second is the clear definition of key terms such as denominational, non-denominational and multi-denominational schooling. Diverse: "It is often suggested that multi-denominational schools are more diverse, plural and inclusive. However, many denominational schools (Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist) have in fact been leaders in embracing social diversity," Catholic Schools Partnership chairman Fr Michael Drumm said. The third requirement is an internal church reflection on the nature and scope of Catholic schools and education for the next generation. This will involve consultation with patrons, trustees, parents, students, parish pastoral councils, boards of management and Catholic colleges of education. Publication of the list was welcomed by Paul Rowe, Educate Together's CEO, who said the 43 areas identified by the department matched those for which Educate Together had demand for both new and additional school places. "Educate Together would be happy to hold constructive dialogue with the Department of Education and the Catholic Church to facilitate patronage transfer where local parents are in favour of it," he said.
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Date:
05 Aug 2010
Time:
17:24:13
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Don’t let Magdalene statue go the way of Padraic O Conaire, warns Boston professor Galway Advertiser, August 05, 2010. By James M. Smith (associate Professor In The Eng Galway City Council decided this past week to remove a statue memorializing the women who lived, worked and, in some cases, died at the Sisters of Mercy Magdalene laundry in the city. Dedicated in March 2009, the Mick Wilkins statue was commissioned by the same city councilors who now seek to remove it. It is located at the corner of Forster Street and Bothár Breandan O Eithir, standing in full public view close to where the laundry institution once stood. The memorial itself is straightforward in its composition. A woman stands, dressed in drab institutional garb, holding a bed-sheet aloft behind her back. The bed-sheet signifies the endless hours of forced labour associated with these commercial laundries. It works on a symbolic level too. The woman has emerged as if from beneath a shroud. She steps into the public arena. The statue announces an identity long held secret by Irish society. And yet, the sheet/shroud remains insistently at hand, signaling the possibility that the woman may again be cloaked with invisibility, hidden away in the present just as she was disappeared in the past. Galway City Council's plan to remove the statue realises this potential. A few summers ago I visited Galway and, together with Patricia Burke Brogan, walked along Forster Street to the former Magdalene laundry site. Author of the plays Eclipsed and Stained Glass at Samhain, Brogan at the time was one of the prime advocates for a Galway memorial. Her poetry adorns the plaque at the foot of the statue: Make visible the Tree its branches ragged with washed out lines of a bleached shroud Brogan pointed out where the proposed statue would be erected. The organizing committee had already encountered stiff opposition, especially from the local parish priest. It would stand a mere stone's throw from the entrance to the local church. Was it really necessary for Mass-goers to be reminded of days gone by? It would stand in the shadow of the new Discover Ireland/Aras Failte building. Tourists visiting the glass-adorned information centre would be confronted with the statue's reflection, mirrored back at them as they looked to uncover the real Ireland of thatched cottages and traditional pub scenes on display in the same windows. Diagonally across from the tourist office stands the building that replaced the Magdalene laundry. The nuns sold the site in the early 1990s. The buildings were demolished. And today the local Anglo-Irish Bank branch stands in its stead. Not much has changed really. Gross exploitation and immoral business practices predate the Celtic Tiger boom. There are social forces in Ireland—including Church, State, and Economic—who would welcome the removal of the Magdalene statue. This in itself may be a good enough reason why it should remain where it stands. There is another, more pressing reason the memorial should remain in place. As we continued our walk, Patricia Burke Brogan directed me to the back of the bank building, past the new town houses and condominiums, alongside the old 12 foot high stone wall with broken glass bottles cemented on top, past the "Private Property" signs, in through the imposing gates at the rear of the Sisters of Mercy's convent. We were trespassing. Turning to our right inside the gate, at the back of a small patch of lawn, and positioned directly under the aforementioned stone wall, stood six black marble headstones. Each headstone listed twelve women's names in gold lettering. The dates ranged from the late nineteenth century up to the 1980s. These seventy-two women were the "Consecrated Magdalenes," women who, after a probationary period, undertook a religious vow to remain in the institution for life. They chose to forego liberty and material possessions and accepted a life of prayer and servitude. Their earthly reward was the promise of burial on convent grounds. Galway's ordinary "penitent" women, it should be noted, were buried in what amounts to a mass grave at Bohermore cemetery in the city. When the laundry buildings were demolished the "consecrated" graves were in the way of the new development. And so the bodies were exhumed and re-interred at their present location. Galway's City Council this week decided that the Magdalene memorial statue is also in the way of a proposed new ‘bus lane.’ Now it is the statue that impedes progress. There is talk of relocating the statue, although the treatment meted out to the Padraic O'Conaire statue, formerly at Eyre Square, does not augur well in this regard. City councilors might well decide on an out of the way side street, off the beaten track, away from the glare of mass-goers, tourists, and the city's financial gurus. To borrow Patricia Burke Brogan's words, "Mak[ing] visible" is precisely what the Galway Magdalene memorial is all about. The survivor advocacy group Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) calls on Galway's City Council to reverse its decision and leave the statue where its cultural resonance remains strongest—on the public thoroughfare, in full view of locals and visitors, near where the laundry itself stood. To do otherwise is to "bleach" clean society's complicity in the abuses meted out to women and young girls in these institutions. James M. Smith is an associate professor in the English Department and Irish Studies Programme at Boston College. He serves on the advisory committee of Justice for Magdalenes (JFM). He is the author of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries and the Nation’s Architecture of Containment (2008).
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Date:
05 Aug 2010
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17:27:10
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Pope will cash in on 'paying pilgrims' Thursday August 05 2010 CATHOLICS in Britain are being asked to pay between £10 (€12) and £25 (€30) to attend Masses and Pope Benedict XVI's other public appearances during his four-day visit in September. The donations, described as "pilgrim contributions" by the church, are needed to help defray costs of up to £20m (€24m) and were disclosed as the 'Protest the Pope' coalition announced its first public event to campaign against the visit, in Richmond upon Thames, southwest London, next week. The most expensive event, at £25 a head, will be the Mass in Birmingham on September 19, which is expected to attract 70,000 people and will beatify the Anglican convert Cardinal John Henry Newman. The September 16 Mass in Glasgow will cost £20 and includes a performance by Susan Boyle. Biography The cheapest event will be the prayer vigil in Hyde Park in London on September 17, with tickets selling at £5. Each pilgrim will be given a "pilgrim pack" containing their "pilgrim passport", a commemorative CD and a "how-to-keep-in-touch postcard". Meanwhile, a new biography of the German Pontiff has claimed that Pope Benedict's place in papal history will depend on how he deals with paedophile clerics. The book, 'Pope Benedict XVI, The First Five Years' is written by an Irish priest, Fr Michael Collins, an expert in Vatican affairs, and is published today. This, Fr Collins's latest book, covers the first five years of what he describes as "arguably one of the most important pontificates in recent history for the Catholic Church". Inevitably, the rivetting part of the book is the focus on the paedophile scandals of the Ryan and Murphy Reports. 'Pope Benedict XVI, The First Five Years', by Michael Collins, and published by The Columba Press, is now on sale at €11.50. - Ruth Gledhill and John Cooney Irish Independent
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Date:
07 Aug 2010
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11:30:11
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Bid to reassure Magdalene survivors over memorial statue............ By Jennifer Hough, Saturday, August 07, 2010........... Galway City Council has moved to allay the fears of Magdalene survivors by quashing suggestions that a memorial statue will be relocated due to a new bus lane being put in place. The statue, the Final Journey, which pays tribute to the pain and suffering experienced by the women of the Magdalene laundry, is located at the corner of Forster Street and Bothár Breandan O Eithir, close to where the laundry institution once stood. Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), an advocacy group for survivors of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries, said it had become aware that the statue might be relocated. Professor James Smith, anadvisory committee member of JFM and author of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries and the Nation’s Architecture of Containment, said moving it would be to "bleach" clean society’s complicity in the abuses meted out to women and young girls in these institutions. He said that victims and survivors deserved better. Joe Tansey, head of Galway Transportation Unit, said the council was "highly conscious" of the significance of the statue and the appropriate nature of its location in close proximity to the site of the former laundry. "To accommodate a much needed bus lane in this area, the statue will be moved a few feet from its current location," Mr Tansey said. "We are also in discussion to ensure that this minor move maximises the visibility of this significant Magdalene Women memorial for members of the public.
07 Aug 2010
14:33:25
Mother charged with murder of her three children.............. The mother of three children found dead in a flat in Edinburgh has been charged with their murder, police said on Saturday. The bodies of Gianluca and Augustino Riggi, both 8, and their 5-year-old sister Cecilia were found on Wednesday after emergency services were called to reports of an explosion at their home. Lothian and Borders police later said they had found little evidence of fire damage and nothing to suggest there had been an explosion, or fault with the gas supply. The children's 46-year-old mother Theresa Riggi was found outside the property having fallen from the second floor of the house. She is in a stable condition in hospital. Police said the post mortems of the children had been concluded and a report submitted to the prosecutor fiscal. The youngsters' father Pasquale Riggi thanked those who had offered support since their deaths. "Our family is struggling to come to terms with the immense and tragic loss of three beautiful children," he said in a statement.............. (Reporting by Michael Holden)
07 Aug 2010
14:37:37
Time for parents to ask the primary question....... Irish Times - Saturday, August 7, 2010........... Divesting some schools could be liberating for the Catholic Church, writes Breda O’Brien........ So, the process of divesting some primary schools of Catholic patronage has finally begun. It is an important moment, not just for parents and educators, but for the future of Irish society. Irish society is no longer as homogenous as it once was, but that is no bad thing if we learn to deal with our differences in an atmosphere of respect. If handled well, this dialogue could provide a model for helping us to face other challenges. It is an opportunity for a real debate about the values, virtues and attitudes we want for our young people and for education. It is important to remember that we are not talking about dismantling a failed system. By many criteria, including structure, management and maintenance of discipline, Irish primary schools are judged internationally to function exceptionally well, particularly in spite of decades of under-funding. In fact, much of the pressure came from the Roman Catholic Church itself, as it recognised that there were a significant minority of parents who, if given a choice between schools of equal excellence, would not choose a Catholic school. A Catholic school is a faith community, and it is in no one’s interests, least of all the church, to see parents forced to choose a model with which they are uncomfortable. Divesting some schools is also an opportunity for Catholic schools to reflect at a deep level about the future of Catholic education, and what distinguishes it from other educational models. Far from damaging the Catholic Church, it could be liberating, and enable Catholic schools to forge even stronger bonds with the parents who choose to belong to and support this faith community. Ironically, we only have enough schools to potentially provide a choice because we have an unusually high number of schools by international standards. There are some 3,300 primary schools, which would never have been economically sustainable if so many of them had not been supported financially and otherwise for so long by the extensive social network of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has 20,000 volunteers working on boards of management and elsewhere, without any recompense or expense claims whatsoever. Certain senators and county councillors, please take note. Recognising a need is not as easy as fulfilling that need in the best possible fashion. Parental choice is not just a mantra. In order for choice to be meaningful, it has to be made with full information about the consequences and outcomes. The Department of Education report concentrated on demographics. That is only the first, and simplest step. Precision in defining the alternatives on offer will be important here. We need a real process of consultation and research, and absolute clarity about what each model of school patronage represents. We need to conduct research with parents, teachers, principals, pupils, and other stakeholders such as past pupils. There is nothing wrong with opinion polls that suggest X amount of people would choose a particular model of school patronage. However, far more profound factors influence people when it is not just a matter of ticking a box in a survey, but of choosing something as vital as the school where your child will spend so many years of her or his life. There has been a simplistic analysis of secular education as automatically more plural, diverse and egalitarian, with denominational education automatically assumed therefore to be the opposite. However, people familiar with Irish primary education know that on all sorts of criteria, from integration of minorities from abroad to catering for very disadvantaged groups like Travellers, denominational education scores very highly on inclusivity. As The Irish Times Religious Affairs Correspondent, Patsy McGarry, put it on Wednesday, Catholic education is not sectarian, and it would be a shame if increased diversity of school patronage led to more social stratification, not less. One of the most important issues needing clarification is what exactly is meant by denominational, inter-denominational, multi-denominational and non-denominational education. From the department’s report, it appears that they recognise three basic categories. There are denominational schools, run by one particular faith community. There are inter-denominational schools, run by two or more faith communities, generally two or more Christian churches. So far, so good. But they then appear to think that all the rest are multi-denominational. However, internationally, multi-denominational is generally taken to mean that denominations are respected to the extent that religious education is provided for each of the major faith communities (within reason) within the school day. So in Ireland, at primary level, the two new VEC primary schools are multi- denominational. (Of course, constitutionally, non-believing parents may remove their children from any faith instruction.) There is an obvious demand for Educate Together schools, and they provide a valuable service. However, Educate Together also refers to itself as multi-denominational, but do something quite different to the VEC schools. Educate Together provide education about religion, as a cultural phenomenon deserving of respect, but all education aimed at belief must happen outside of school. Choosing alternative schools is not just a matter of each patron body setting out its stall, but of gathering a representative sample of parents, who would be willing to volunteer for sophisticated focus group research, and also to be informed about the implications of each educational model. It may be that parents come up with something different to any of the existing models. There has to be a genuine openness to all possibilities
07 Aug 2010
14:43:05
Release of rapist sparks call for reform................ Jamie Smyth Social Affairs Correspondent, Irish Times - Saturday, August 7, 2010.............. One of the State’s most notorious sex offenders, Larry Murphy, is set to be released from jail next Thursday after serving 10½ years of a 15-year sentence for the brutal rape of a woman in the Wicklow mountains. His imminent release prompted calls from Fine Gael yesterday for a radical overhaul of the prison remission system, which entitles most prisoners to one-quarter remission off their sentences. A carpenter from Baltinglass, Murphy kidnapped a woman in February 2000, drove her into the mountains, raped her several times and threw her in the boot of his car with a shopping bag over her head in an apparent attempt to suffocate her. The woman in her mid-20s was saved when two hunters stumbled upon the scene late at night, causing Murphy to flee the area in his car. He was arrested a short time later at his home, which he shared with his wife and two children, close to the village of Baltinglass, Co Wicklow. Murphy, whom gardaí have also questioned about the disappearance of several missing women in Wicklow, Kildare and Carlow, is due to be released from Arbour Hill prison on August 12th. He is being released without serving his full 15 year sentence because of the established practice in the Republic, whereby all prisoners (except for those handed life sentences) have a right to one-quarter remission from their sentence. Fine Gael TD Billy Timmins, who lives in the Baltinglass area, yesterday criticised the decision to release Murphy when he had not served his full sentence and called on the Minister for Justice to revoke the granting of remission. “During his imprisonment, he did not partake in any rehabilitation programme and did not co- operate with investigations into other crimes. The prospect of him only serving nine out of 14 years is a prime example of a dysfunctional justice system. Our remission policy is unacceptable and Fine Gael want remission earned as opposed to an automatic right,” said Mr Timmins, who noted there was a lot of concern about the case. More than 12,000 people have joined a Facebook page called “Don’t let Murphy out”. Mr Timmins said the common good should supersede an individual’s right to remission. The Minister must be able to give assurances to the wider community that an effective monitoring system is in place, he added. The Department of Justice said a decision to penalise prisoners by a loss of remission was made by the prison governor depending on their behaviour. Prison sources have indicated Murphy has been a quiet prisoner and has not engaged in misconduct. However, they have also confirmed he refused treatment offered to all sex offenders. Local gardaí in Baltinglass yesterday moved to reassure the public about Murphy’s release. “We want to reassure you that the clear focus at all times is the safety of all individuals in the community,” a spokeswoman at Baltinglass Garda station said......................... “The gardaí have a comprehensive approach to the management of convicted sex offenders . . . This includes a plan to manage any risks posed by the offenders.” Fears of gardaí and offender’s brother a real cause for concern: Larry Murphy will be 45 years old when he walks out of Arbour Hill prison on Thursday a free man. The convicted rapist is considered by gardaí a high-risk sex offender. They note his refusal to take part in a sex-offender treatment programme in jail and his reluctance to speak to gardaí about where he plans to live on release. International studies suggest about a fifth of sex offenders reoffend within a 20-year period following conviction. This rises above 50 per cent for very high- risk sex offenders, says Donald Grubin, professor of forensic psychiatry at Newcastle University. “Attending treatment courses generally reduces re-conviction rates by up to a third,” he says. The calculated and brutal nature of Murphy’s abduction and rape of a woman on February 11th, 2000, shocked the country. It also led gardaí to make him their chief suspect in the cold-case inquiry, Operation Trace, although no evidence has yet been found to link him to it. Operation Trace is investigating the disappearance of six young women – Fiona Sinnott; Deirdre Jacob; Jo Jo Dullard; Ciara Breen; Annie McCarrick and Fiona Pender – in the Leinster region between 1993 and 1998. Murphy’s brother Tom recently told RTÉ he thought Larry was connected to the disappearances. “There’s nobody gone missing [since] and I find it difficult now to believe that he wasn’t involved. I can’t put my hand on my heart and say he didn’t do it or that he did do it,” he said. Given his brother’s statement, it is hardly surprising people in the Baltinglass area are concerned; about 12,000 people so far have signed up to a Facebook campaign to keep him in prison. A call by Fine Gael TD Billy Timmins for Murphy’s remission to be revoked, however, is unlikely to be heeded given that this is standard practice across the prison system. This leaves gardaí with the difficult task of monitoring Murphy upon his release to reassure the public while also respecting the civil rights of an offender who has served his sentence for a crime. Under the Sexual Offenders Act 2001, Murphy must notify the Garda of his address seven days after release. He must also notify any change in address or name and must give notice if he intends to leave the State. Failure to notify gardaí is an offence punishable by up to five years in prison. Gardaí will keep Murphy under surveillance for a period following his release, but around-the-clock supervision for the rest of his life is simply far too expensive. At the moment electronic tagging is not an option in Ireland, although the prison service has recently put out a tender to trial the technology. Murphy is also not subject to a post-release supervision order, which is a mechanism enabling courts to impose conditions on his release and monitor his compliance with these for a period. The orders were introduced via the 2001 Act, which became law shortly after Murphy’s conviction. However, Murphy is sure to face close monitoring by the tabloid media upon his release if he decides to stay in the country. Michael Murray (49), who raped four woman over a six-day period in 1995, recently took a case to the High Court to prevent newspapers from publishing photographs of him and publishing his address. The High Court refused the injunction on the basis that Murray failed to prove in court that there was “a real risk to life” arising from the publication of his address. There are concerns that alienating sex offenders and preventing them from integrating into the community can be dangerous. Tom O’Malley, senior lecturer in law at NUI Galway, says there is a real hazard in chasing sex offenders away from particular areas as it “drives them underground”. “Offenders could find themselves homeless and then it is difficult for the gardaí to keep them under surveillance,” he said
07 Aug 2010
14:49:34
Children starve as famine stalks Niger............ By Grainne Cunningham, Saturday August 07 2010............ Small, helpless and starving -- 11-month-old Chafana Abdoulaye waits with her mother Rachida, just one of the millions of people affected by devastating drought in Niger, West Africa. The severely-malnourished baby is waiting for a medical assessment at an outpatient clinic, similar to the many supported by Irish charity Goal in this famine-ravaged African country. Once again, drought has brought misery to this extremely poor landlocked country that borders the Sahara Desert in the west of the continent. Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable families across the country have no access to food and are at risk of starvation in August and September as a result of poor rains last year, which led to a failed harvest. Medical personnel at clinics such as these are helping to ensure that those most affected by the crisis are given the vital aid that they require. This clinic in Magaria in the Zinder region of south Niger, is run by Medecins Sans Frontieres. GOAL, which has based its operations in the same region, has been working with the extremely poor here since 2005. Each month, the charity distributes emergency, special high-energy food to 2,500 severely malnourished children -- under five years -- along with family food rations to more than 220,000 people. While continuing to provide emergency feeding, GOAL has extended its programmes to include extensive water, sanitation and hygiene projects, as well as education support and school refurbishment. With little primary education, Niger has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. The health system is basic and disease is widespread. Its main export, uranium, is prone to price fluctuations. Other livelihood mainstays, such as subsistence crops and livestock, are constantly at the mercy of drought and creeping desertification. Niger is currently ranked last (182nd of 182 countries) on the UN's Human Development Index. .
08 Aug 2010
07:36:17
Australians investigate Irish abuse connection 01 August 2010 By John Burke Public Affairs Correspondent The Australian Catholic Church plans to contact child abuse investigators in Ireland to find out if any clerical abusers in Ireland had connections to ministries in Australia. The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, chaired by Judge Sean Ryan, published its report last year outlining the extensive sexual and physical abuse of children over a 60-year period by priests, nuns and lay staff within the Irish Catholic Church. Its publication has led to calls for a royal commission in Australia, amid concerns that there was a significant contingent of Irish clergy living and working in Australia. The Australian Church has now said that it will seek information from the Irish commission, although details of the exact information being sought are not known. The Archdiocese of Sydney did not respond to queries on the issue from The Sunday Business Post. Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney and head of the Catholic Church in Australia, has said that he believes it is unlikely that any ‘‘problem priests’’ were sent from Ireland to Australia. While Pell was strongly tipped to head an apostolic visitation to Ireland, announced by the Pope last March, he has played down those suggestions. There were strong similarities between the findings of the Irish commission and those of a senate committee in Australia in 2001 into the abuse of children that had been sent from Britain to institutions in Australia. Almost two-thirds of the sexual assault allegations that were received by the Australian committee were against Christian Brothers institutions.
08 Aug 2010
08:13:29
Hello everyone? 3 weeks to go I sure hope everyone gets their submissions in on time, NO FUND. we are too old to be accessing a fund run by self searving bureaucrats been paid a wage to see over our money, say no to a fund, regards. Anonymous.
08 Aug 2010
20:22:59
Horror house victim attacks HSE over abuse report....... Family are being kept in dark, claims eldest son.......By Mark Hilliard....... The eldest victim in the notorious 'House of Horrors' incest case in Roscommon has attacked health authorities for keeping his family in the dark over the findings of an inquiry into the case. The 20-year-old claimed they are being told nothing in relation to the content and progress of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the failings of the state to intervene in the abuse. However, the Health Service Executive (HSE) denied the allegation, claiming the children have been kept abreast of developments relating to the report. Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, the eldest of six siblings said he was angry about the way they were being treated. "[We heard] only that it was gone to the HSE and that it would be published," he said. "But I want to know what it will say and the reasons they will give as to why this was let happen – why the HSE didn't act sooner. You would think that they would contact you and tell you or give some sort of idea when it will be published. I don't want to wake up and find it's already published and the media are ringing me." Earlier this year, the father in the case was found guilty of 47 counts of rape and sexual assault against his son. In 2009, the children's mother was given a seven-year jail term after being found guilty of incest against another son and neglect of her children. Following the mother's conviction, the HSE commissioned the report into how the children's case was handled by authorities. It was originally expected to be published by the middle of last March. A spokeswoman said: "The HSE has received the report and, as is normal in these circumstances, it is now undergoing legal review with a view to publication." The report is expected to reveal a series of mistakes by authorities, who failed to bring the children into care despite their harrowing living conditions and abuse. However, with some delay to its production, the eldest son said he was frustrated that others would be made aware of its content before he and his siblings. He said he chose not to cooperate with the probe because he had long since lost faith in the authorities' ability to deal with the matter and because he and his siblings simply wanted to move on. None of the children has had any contact with their parents since their incarceration, he said. "Apparently it has to go to the HSE and then on to [junior minister] Barry Andrews," the victim said, adding that he and his siblings should be allowed view the report before others. The report was commissioned by the HSE and was executed by Norah Gibbons, director of the children's charity Barnardos. The investigation had previously come under fire for its inclusion of two HSE managers on the team. Roscommon councillor Tony Ward said: "How independent can this inquiry be when there are two officials from the HSE on it?" In a statement of response, issued through the HSE, Gibbons insisted the make-up of the team would provide "the knowledge and expertise to navigate a complex system". According to earlier reports, it is expected to shed light on a series of missed opportunities in which social workers might have intervened.
09 Aug 2010
07:31:06
Mon, Aug 09, 2010 PATRICK McCABE, a former priest accused of sex abuse offences, is in jail in California awaiting an extradition hearing on warrants relating to offences which it is claimed took place more than three decades ago. Details of his alleged offences are outlined in papers filed with the US District Court office in San Francisco, including Garda statements supplied to the US authorities in support of the State's case to have Mr McCabe extradited. The first offences were alleged to have occurred when he was a priest who provided religious instruction at an inner-city school some time between January 1st 1973 and the end of the school year in 1975. A former pupil said he was indecently assaulted by Mr McCabe in the hallway of the school. An alleged second attempt to indecently assault him ended when the pupil fell on a coat rack and the principal came to investigate. Although the allegations are the furthest back in time, they were reported only in June last year when the complainant went to gardaí in Store Street in Dublin. He said he had been taking alcohol and drugs in an attempt to block out memories of the abuse, but made a complaint to gardaí after many sober months. Mr McCabe's defence claims that due to his problems with drink and drugs the complainant is not a reliable witness. A second man complained that Mr McCabe indecently assaulted him at an inner-city parochial house between 1974 and 1977. He alleged Mr McCabe approached him after confession and invited him back to his parochial house on the pretext that he might be taking him on a trip to Australia. The man said Mr McCabe assaulted him on two successive occasions, once asking his brother to wait next door. The man made his complaint in 2008. He said it had taken him nearly 30 years to talk about it properly and that he suffered from depression as a result. A third man claimed he was assaulted in early 1977 while at a boarding school. He told gardaí he was enticed back to Mr McCabe's car and the assault lasted an hour. He had also received a letter from Mr McCabe after the assault which stated he was "always welcome to drop a line, ring or call". The alleged victim told a priest and his parents what had happened. He also made a statement to gardaí in 1987 when Mr McCabe was working as a priest in the US. According to the court documents, Mr McCabe admitted he had met the boarding school student and that the allegations made against him were the reasons why he left the priesthood in 1988. "He met all my requirements to match up my fetish and I embraced him and fondled him with no further sexual behaviour. We had a conversation and just parted," he is reported to have told gardaí when they interviewed him in 2007 about the allegation. When gardaí initially attempted to interview him about the case Mr McCabe refused, but he later consented in November 2007 and spent three days under interrogation, the papers show. Three other men have made allegations of abuse by Mr McCabe when he was a curate in Dublin in the early 1980s and was undergoing therapy in England. One man said he was indecently assaulted when lured to Mr McCabe's parochial house on the pretext that he would pose for a photograph for the parish magazine. That complaint was made last year after the man had received marriage counselling. Another man said he was indecently assaulted in front of two other boys. One of those boys made a separate complaint of indecent assault. 2010 The Irish Times
10 Aug 2010
08:15:28
Three men who sought to hold the Vatican liable in an American court for sexual abuses by Roman Catholic priests in a Kentucky diocese are abandoning the case. Lawyers looked to question Pope Benedict XVI under oath but had to leap the high legal hurdle of the Vatican's sovereign immunity status in the U.S. But plaintiffs filed a motion on Monday asking a federal judge in Louisville to dismiss their claims. Their attorney, William McMurry, said he was seeking to end the case because of an earlier court ruling that recognized the Vatican's immunity and failure to turn up new plaintiffs to add to the lawsuit who haven't yet been involved in a Catholic clergy abuse case. "Virtually every child who was abused and will come forward as an adult has come forward and sued a bishop and collected money, and once that happens, it's over," McMurry told The Associated Press. McMurry represented more than 240 abuse victims who settled with the Louisville Catholic archdiocese for $25 million in 2003. The lawsuit was considered the first in the U.S. to make it to the stage of determining whether victims had a negligence claim against the Vatican, which argued the plaintiffs never showed a connection between Rome and the American clergy abuse scandal. Filed in 2004 by the three men abused by priests in the Louisville diocese, it argues in part that U.S. bishops should be considered employees or officials of the Holy See. The case was being closely watched as the clerical abuse scandal swirls around the Holy See. Lawsuits naming top Vatican officials were also filed recently in Wisconsin and another one in Oregon. Both are making their way through the federal courts and it wasn't immediately clear if dropping the Louisville lawsuit would affect them. An attorney for the Vatican, which is referred to in the lawsuit as the Holy See, said the Kentucky lawsuit lacked merit. "This development confirms that, contrary to what the plaintiffs' lawyers repeatedly told the media, there has never been a Holy See policy requiring concealment of child sexual abuse," attorney Jeffrey Lena said in a statement. "The theory crafted by the plaintiffs' lawyers six years ago misled the American public." "That the case against the Holy See always lacked merit does not mean that the plaintiffs themselves did not suffer as a result of sexual abuse," Lena said. "But bringing this case only distracted from the important goal of protecting children from harm." The judge must still rule on whether the case can be dismissed, but attorneys on both sides say it has virtually ended. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the Holy See in the Oregon lawsuit that was filed in 2002 by a Seattle-area man who said a priest molested him in the late 1960s. Attorneys there are also arguing that priests are Vatican employees for the purpose of American law. The Wisconsin lawsuit claims top leaders at the Vatican knew about allegations of sexual abuse at St. John's School for the Deaf outside Milwaukee and called off internal punishment of the accused priest, the Rev. Lawrence Murphy. McMurry wrote in the Kentucky dismissal motion that an earlier court ruling that recognized the Vatican's immunity allowed the plaintiffs to proceed on the narrow argument that U.S. bishops are officials or employees of the Holy See. McMurry said because of the court's determination, "the grant of jurisdiction was so narrow that it's meaningless." The Vatican has argued that its U.S. bishops act independently, control their own budgets and are not employees of the Holy See. McMurry said one of the plaintiffs, Michael J. Turner, was involved in the 2003 settlement against the Louisville archdiocese, which voided his ability to seek a claim from the Vatican. Two other plaintiffs, James O'Bryan and Donald Poppe, alleged abuses that occurred several decades ago. "In both cases the bishops in question are deceased and further discovery regarding the bishops' actions is believed to be impossible," the motion said. McMurry said a months-long search for new victims who haven't settled in a clergy abuse case failed to find any willing to come forward. "No one who has not sued a bishop is in a position to help us despite our best efforts over the past several months," McMurry said. A Fighting Survivor
Paedophile abused girls for 40 years.............. A paedophile who raped and abused girls for 40 years has finally been jailed. Geoffrey Tift was described as "nothing short of evil" by the judge who imprisoned him for 18 years. Tift, 62, raped and sexually assaulted his victims, aged between five and 15, from 1970 until 2009. The month-long trial at Bristol crown court heard how he targeted children in Kent, North Wales, Somerset, Devon and Bristol. Complaints were made to police but charges were never brought due to a lack of evidence. He was snared in April last year when a friend of his latest victim alerted cops. Tift, from Lawrence Weston, Bristol, was found guilty of eight rapes, 10 indecent assaults, four charges of sexual activity with a child and three charges of indecency with a child. Judge Neil Ford QC said: "Your acts were nothing short of evil and were perpetrated against vulnerable children who had no real means of defending themselves"
HSE care of children ‘unacceptable’........... By Catherine Shanahan, Thursday, August 12, 2010.............. Children in a care home run by the Health Service Executive (HSE) — including one child whose home it has been for the past 10 years — are being housed in unacceptable conditions, according to the health watchdog. The HSE was warned two years ago by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) that it needed to upgrade the rented premises, a semi-detached house in a housing estate in a Co Meath coastal town. However, the HSE failed to act on the 2008 recommendation and has now told HIQA there are no plans to invest in it, because the proposal is to amalgamate it with another home. However, the HSE could not say when this might happen. HIQA said young people received "an important message from the environment in which they live about how they are valued" and that the HSE needed to give "urgent attention to the physical condition of the centre". The 2008 report had highlighted the need to replace windows and refit the bathroom and kitchen. In a separate inspection in April 2010 of a care home in Dublin North East, last inspected four years ago, young people said they had little confidence in the complaints procedure. One young person said they would not bother making a complaint because it "would not get past the office desk". HIQA found some aspects of the care commendable, but said systems related to child protection requirements needed improvement. "There were several child protection concerns in the year prior to inspection, and these were not recorded in the child protection sections of the young people’s files," the inspectors said. They also said that staff did not have a clear understanding of what was a complaint as opposed to an allegation. The same concern was expressed by HIQA in relation to staff at a second care home in North East Dublin, where one child had made a serious allegation about a staff member which took nearly a year to resolve. None on the staff, including the person against whom the allegation was made, were interviewed. The child who made the allegation had "displayed sexualised behaviours and spoken in a manner about sexual acts that were not age appropriate", HIQA said. The same child assaulted other children in the centre and while the assaults were reported to the child’s social worker, inspectors were "unclear" as to how the assaults had been dealt with. On a positive note, inspectors found the home was well managed on a day-to-day basis, and had a committed, resilient and motivated team. However, inspectors were concerned that one young person in need of psychological assessment had not been facilitated, despite a request by their social worker four months previously.
Civil servant to take over Adoption Board reins........... By Conall O Fátharta, Thursday, August 12, 2010........... A top civil servant has been drafted in to take over the running of the Adoption Board following the sudden departure of the chief executive last month. The Office of the Minister for Children confirmed that the duties of chief executive of the board had been "temporarily" taken over by director-general of the department Mary Doyle. John Collins left the post of chief executive of the Adoption Board at the beginning of July. He has transferred to the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs. Mr Collins was appointed to the Adoption Board in 2004 and acted as the first chief executive of the authority. His permanent replacement has yet to be announced by Minister for Children Barry Andrews. A statement by the Office of the Minister of Children read: "Mr Collins left the position at the start of July. There was no specific reason for Mr Collins leaving his post. The transfer to a new department was of a routine nature. "An announcement of a replacement will be made at the time of appointment. The replacement process is taking place in the context of the establishment of the new Adoption Authority of Ireland, provided for in the Adoption Act, 2010." The Adoption Board will soon be abolished and replaced by an Adoption Authority under the recently passed Adoption Act. The act will come into effect in November.
Pope rejects bishops' resignations...... Patsy McGarry and Paddy Agnew Thursday, August 12, 2010............. Dublin's catholic archdiocese last night confirmed that offers of resignation by auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field had not been accepted by Pope Benedict XVI. A spokeswoman said there would be no comment from Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on the decision by the Vatican not to accept the resignations, submitted last Christmas Eve. Senior Vatican figures are said to be concerned about the possibility of a “domino effect” if it were to emerge that other Irish bishops had mishandled allegations of clerical child sex abuse cases, and this is understood to have played a part in Pope Benedict’s decision. To a certain extent, the pope has opted to differentiate between sins of “omission” and sins of “commission” in relation to the clerical sex abuse scandals, Vatican observers also said. Yesterday Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said it was not policy to comment on resignations which had not been accepted. Vatican sources said the Secretariat of State had recalled the excellent work done by Bishop Walsh in the role of apostolic administrator in the diocese of Ferns. The decision not to accept the resignations is in line with the decision of the Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal Seán Brady, last spring not to resign despite his involvement in an investigation 35 years ago of a case involving Brendan Smyth. The three-page letter revealing the Vatican’s decision, which was sent by Archbishop Martin to his priests, deals mainly with preparation and arrangements for Baptism and Confirmation. In a two-line reference to the auxiliary bishops the letter, which was leaked to the Irish Catholic newspaper, said that: “Following the presentation of their resignations to Pope Benedict it has been decided that Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field will remain as Auxiliary Bishops and are to be assigned revised responsibilities within the diocese. This means they will be available to administer Confirmation in any part of the diocese in the coming year.” The two bishops had been continuing in their normal duties pending the decision. Two other bishops named in the Murphy report – Bishop Donal Murray and Bishop Jim Moriarty – have had offers of resignation accepted by the Vatican. A fifth bishop named in the report, Bishop Martin Drennan of Galway, has resisted calls for his resignation. Abuse survivor Marie Collins strongly criticised the Vatican’s decision, saying she was “at a loss” and “past being angry”. She said there was no hope that the hierarchy or the pope were going to change anything. The church was not “going to be accountable or take responsibility”. She felt “people, survivors in particular, are also entitled to an explanation as to why Bishop Moriarty’s resignation was accepted but Bishop Walsh’s and Bishop Field’s were not”. Another Dublin abuse survivor, Andrew Madden, said reports that Pope Benedict had not accepted the offers of resignation were “no surprise”. He said that “since the Murphy report was published the Catholic Church in Ireland and at Vatican level has failed to take responsibility for the findings of that report, in particular the finding that sexual abuse of children by priests was covered up by archbishops and bishops for decades”. He continued: “Pope Benedict and Cardinal Brady both failed to protect children from priests they knew to be abusers and in both cases those priests went on to abuse more children.”
Clerical abuse survivors angry at Vatican's 'extraordinary' decision.......... REACTION: Survivore of clerical child sex abuse have reacted angrily to the news that Pope Benedict has rejected the resignation of two Dublin auxiliary bishops named in the Murphy report. Clerical abuse survivor Andrew Madden said he was not surprised to hear the resignation had not been accepted by the Vatican. “Since the Murphy report was published, the Catholic Church in Ireland and at Vatican level has failed to take responsibility for the findings of that report, in particular the finding that sexual abuse of children by priests was covered up by archbishops and bishops for decades,” said Mr Madden. “Pope Benedict and Cardinal Brady both failed to protect children from priests they knew to be abusers and in both cases those priests went on to abuse more children – in that context today’s announcement should come as no surprise to anyone,” he added. But John Kelly, co-ordinator of the support group Survivors of Child Abuse (Soca) said he was “astonished” by the news. “So much was expected of the pontiff and so little was delivered especially as in the pastoral letter to the Irish people the pope said that priests and bishops needed to surrender themselves to the demands of justice. Here were two of many who did surrender themselves and been refused. That sends out a signal that there is to be no change, no closure for victims and no accountability.” He added: “There’s a cancer within the church and the pope knows it. That cancer needs to be eradicated and Pope Benedict is the only one who can remove it and he is refusing to do it.” Deirdre Kenny, advocacy officer with One in Four described the pope’s decision as “extraordinary”. “When the two bishops offered their resignations they said they hoped their action would bring peace and reconciliation to the victims of clerical abuse but that has now been undone by the pope’s refusal to accept their resignation,” she said. It “raises questions about the Vatican’s attitude around accountability and again leaves abuse survivors feeling the church does not understand the damage that has been caused”. Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre questioned why the resignations had been rejected when others had been accepted, while the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said the pope was “rubbing salt into the wounds of victims
Vatican wary of resignation 'domino effect' in Rome…. Irish Times - Thursday, August 12, 2010…… ANALYSIS : The Holy See appears to have differentiated between sins of omission and sins of commission in relation to clerical sex abuse scandals, writes Paddy Agnew Vatican observers last night speculated that Pope Benedict’s decision not to accept the resignations of Dublin auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field is an indication of a Holy See “Maginot Line” on the question of episcopal resignations in light of the clerical sex abuse scandals. For months now, Vatican commentators have argued that the delay in accepting resignations originally tendered last Christmas indicated a reluctance to see more heads roll. This reluctance is at least twofold. First, there is nothing the Holy See would like less than to be seen to be dismissing bishops, solely in response to pressure from the media and public opinion. Secondly, senior Vatican figures are concerned about a possible “domino effect” for the Irish hierarchy. In other words, there may still be many Irish bishops with “mishandling/bureaucratic”, sex abuse skeletons still in the cupboard who would also have to resign. To a certain extent, say observers, the Vatican has opted to differentiate between sins of omission and sins of commission in relation to the clerical sex abuse scandal. While it was absolutely imperative for example that the Bishop of Bruges Roger Vangheluwe should resign last April, after admitting that he had sexually abused a boy, the Holy See argues that the level of “culpability” of the two auxiliaries on the whole does not merit resignation. In particular, too, the secretariat of state has recalled the excellent work done by Eamonn Walsh in the role of apostolic administrator in the Wexford diocese of Ferns in the wake of the controversial tenure of Bishop Brendan Comiskey. Commentators also argue that this most recent decision regarding bishops Field and Walsh is very much in line with the decision of the Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal Seán Brady, not to resign last spring despite his involvement 35 years ago in a case concerning infamous priest paedophile Brendan Smyth. There is little doubt, too, but that those decisions, regarding Cardinal Brady and regarding the Dublin auxiliaries, will have been taken only with the approval of Pope Benedict. Vatican insiders acknowledged that, at least to some extent, this decision has to be seen as a setback for Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin in his attempts to come to terms with the whole ugly sex abuse heritage. At least one commentator compared him to Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn who was summoned to the Vatican in June for a very public rap on the knuckles after he had criticised former secretary of state Cardinal Sodano. The Austrian primate had claimed that Cardinal Sodano had in 1995 blocked a Vatican inquiry into sex abuse allegations against the late, disgraced Cardinal of Vienna, Hans Hermann Groer, accused of paedophilia. Furthermore, Cardinal Schönborn had said that Cardinal Sodano had done “massive harm” to victims of sex abuse when, during Easter Sunday Mass in St Peter’s, he dismissed international criticism of the church in relation to the sex abuse crisis as “idle gossip”. After a “clear-the-air” meeting with Pope Benedict, also attended by the current secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal Schönborn said that “equivocations” created by his words had been due to mistaken (media) interpretations. Cardinal Bertone, a tacit supporter of the current centre-right Italian government led by Silvio Berlusconi, is also believed to have been involved in the decision regarding bishops Walsh and Field.
POPE retains bishops....... Irish Times Thursday, August 12, 2010....... The decision by Pope Benedict XVI not to accept the resignations of Dublin auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field will shock many people. It sends the most contradictory of messages to the faithful about the church’s willingness to reform and is a slap in the face to the man most closely identified with it, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. Both bishops, who clearly unwillingly tendered their resignations last Christmas, had protested their innocence vigorously, and supporters have pictured them as scapegoats, sacrificed to a media campaign. It is true they came out of the Murphy report, if not unsullied, certainly less tainted than most of their brothers. Dr Field, a bishop since 1997, gets a passing mild rebuke over one case, and Dr Walsh, auxiliary since 1990, has hinted that his attempts to report crimes to the civil authorities were in some way thwarted by the diocese. But, as he appeared to be referring to a case absent from the Murphy report, it is difficult to verify what happened. Yet what emerged most clearly from Murphy, beyond the tragedy of individual cases and their cover-up, was the collective institutional failure of the diocese and its managers, a failure for which individual cogs in the machine, however lowly, must take individual responsibility. And both bishops participated at the regular diocesan meetings at which abuse cases were discussed. On resigning last December the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin James Moriarty argued rightly that: “The Murphy report covers far more than what individual bishops did or did not do. Fundamentally it is about how the leadership of the archdiocese failed over many decades to respond properly to criminal acts against children ... With the benefit of hindsight, I accept that, from the time I became an auxiliary bishop, I should have challenged the prevailing culture”. It was a point addressed most emphatically by Dr Martin in a speech to the Knights of Columbanus in May last year. He had been “struck by the level of disassociation by people from any sense of responsibility”. In addition, “while people rightly question the concept of collective responsibility, this does not mean that one is not responsible for one’s personal share in the decisions of the collective structures to which one was part”. Unfortunately these are benchmarks the Pope has decided not to live up to – yet why then was Dr Moriarty’s resignation accepted? The decision will only cause further disillusionment among the faithful and undermine the authority of the much-admired Dr Martin.
Church policy is as clear as mud.............Irish Independent......... Thursday August 12 2010......... Once again, the public -- and the congregation of the Catholic diocese of Dublin in particular -- are left wondering what's going on behind the scenes. The refusal by Pope Benedict XVl to accept the resignations of two Dublin auxiliary bishops appears to be a rejection of the views of the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin. As usual, no clear explanations are on offer. The two bishops tendered their resignations last Christmas in the wake of the Murphy Report into clerical child abuse. Dr Martin made the brief announcement that Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field would be remaining in situ in a letter to his priests that concerned itself mainly with the logistics of administering the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. Although no reasons were given, it could be assumed the Pope refused to accept the resignations because neither Dr Walsh nor Bishop Field were heavily criticised in the Murphy Report. The Murphy Commission was not happy with Dr Walsh's handling of complaints against a 'Fr Dante'. Similarly, Bishop Field did not come in for personal criticism, although he was involved in a number of cases in which priests were accused of abuse. But it appears the Vatican did not deem these conclusions sufficient grounds for resignation. However, when Dr Martin expressed his views in a Holy Thursday homily last March, he insisted that church leaders should accept responsibility, full stop. He seemed to call for resignations, although not in so many words. And he made particular reference to Dublin. He said: "The credibility of the church in this diocese of Dublin will only be regained when we honestly recognise the failures of the past, whatever our share of responsibility for them. There can be no rewriting history." Whatever our share of responsibility. His comments were interpreted by victims as a call on auxiliary bishops Walsh and Field to resign, along with Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan, a former auxiliary bishop of Dublin. In May, the sense that more goes on than meets the eye intensified when Dr Martin told the Knights of St Columbanus, in an address, that "strong forces" in the Catholic Church wanted the truth about clerical sex abuse scandals to remain hidden. The Archbishop of Dublin confided then that he had never felt so disheartened and dejected since assuming the post six years ago. It is unlikely that he has had reason to cheer up in the past day or two.
Resignation offers were 'for benefit of abuse victims' ........... By Fergus Black, Irish Independent, Thursday August 12 2010......... The two auxiliary bishops at the centre of the latest resignation controversy offered to step down last Christmas in the hope their action would help bring peace and reconciliation to abuse victims. Bishops Eamon Walsh and Raymond Field had served as bishops during the period investigated by the Murphy probe into clerical child abuse in the Dublin diocese. Neither auxiliary bishop was singled out for criticism by the Murphy Report. However, they came under intense pressure to resign amid criticism they were collectively responsible for permitting clerical sexual abuse to continue in Dublin. In a letter sent to clergy in December as part of a campaign of support from local priests, Bishop Walsh strongly denied suggestions that he should step down because of "guilt by association". But amid mounting pressure, he and Bishop Field finally announced their decision to offer their resignations in a joint-statement issued on Christmas Eve. Both bishops said they had told Archbishop Diarmuid Martin they were offering their resignations to the Pope as auxiliary bishops. "As we celebrate the Feast of Christmas, the Birth of our Saviour, the Prince of Peace, it is our hope that our action may help to bring the peace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ to the victims/survivors of child sexual abuse. Again we apologise to them," their statement said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have so bravely spoken out and those who continue to suffer in silence." Archbishop Martin subsequently called the two prelates "extremely good bishops", but said good people had to be accountable. However, he also said there was a future place for them in the Irish church. Dr Walsh has been a bishop for more than 19 years and ran the Ferns diocese for four years after Bishop Brendan Comiskey resigned over the abuse controversy in his diocese. Bishop Field served for 12 years in Dublin and is chairman of the Bishops' Irish Council for Justice and Peace.
John Cooney: Latest Papal diktat spells doom for people's church……. Thursday August 12 2010………… Irish Independent……. cooneyjohn@eircom.net.......... The chaotic manner in which the decision of Pope Benedict to refuse the resignations of two Dublin auxiliary bishops named in the Murphy Report trickled into the public domain is a communications calamity on a monumental scale personally for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. The normally media savvy Martin may have been under orders from his Roman superiors to make known the continuation in office of assistant bishops Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field via clerical channels. This manner of public relations is more associated with the Vatican's own dismal public relations record in dealing with such matters. The way it was done was through an off-the-cuff paragraph towards the end of a private three-page letter from Martin -- dated Tuesday, August 10 -- to his priests, which was mainly devoted to framing new guidelines for administering the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. Martin was surely aware that such a letter would find its way sooner or later into the hands of journalists. And sure enough, bishops Walsh and Field were not to be seen or heard when the enterprising editor of the 'Irish Catholic', Gary O'Sullivan, revealed its contents. But Martin's media office had not seen fit to alert in advance the spokesman of the Irish Bishops' Conference, Martin Long, to the papal decision. Inevitably, Long, who must have the hardest public relations job in Ireland, initially dismissed O'Sullivan's disclosure as speculative, thus provoking the intrepid editor to release the full text of the letter to the national media. In the absence of a response from the archbishop -- he is on holidays at the moment -- Pope Benedict's unexplained decision amounts to a vote of no-confidence in his attempts to see off the Drumcondra pitch all present and past auxiliary bishops of Dublin who were associated with the prevailing culture of cover-ups that Judge Yvonne Murphy identified as the hallmarks of the reigns of four successive archbishops of Dublin from 1940 to the mid-or-late 1990s under Cardinal Desmond Connell. It is a chilling reminder to Martin that, for all his talk about greater involvement of the laity in the life and administration of the church, Rome is determined to conduct its ecclesiastical business in Ireland with an iron hand. Irish Catholics in all 26 dioceses, but especially in Dublin, are being subject to a new diet of Rome Rule -- a regime that is secretive about its decision-making in the Vatican corridors of power and relayed behind the scenes to cowered Irish bishops via the Pope's Man in Ireland, Archbishop Guiseppe Leanza. All hopes of a process of renewal signalled by Pope Benedict in his post-Murphy Letter to the Catholics of Ireland now sound hollow, especially when the priests and laity are being kept in dark about how this autumn's nine-member Apostolic Visitation ordered by Papa Ratzinger to probe the Irish church. While Walsh and Field will have stout defenders who will argue Pope Benedict was right and Martin wrong in his wish to sow a culture of co-responsibility in church decision-making, the reaction of honest-to-God Catholics is one of dismay at the diktat from Rome. The alienation and sense of hurt by victims of clerical abuse are further aggravated by 'the Good Shepherd' of Rome. This latest insensitivity from Benedictine Rome that last month outraged women for placing the ordination of women priests on the same scale of grave sin as clerical child abuse may prove to be the last straw for mainstream and liberal Catholics who have lost trust in the Vatican's capacity to get right its response to the papacy's biggest crisis since the Reformation. Nor does the Vatican yet understand that in the age of the internet, its media machinations and crassness towards the Irish church are being watched -- and commented on -- around the globe. Barbara Blaine, the founder-president of SNAP, the American Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests, summed up the mood of despondency in Ireland when she characterised the Pope's decision as "rubbing more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of thousands of child sex abuse victims and millions of betrayed Catholics". Having lost faith in the Pope and his bishops of showing moral leadership, Blaine claimed that "without media scrutiny and public pressure, Catholic officials act recklessly, deceitfully and callously about the safety of children". In recent months the Vatican instructed Irish bishops to refrain from making public statements in favour of radical reform in the expectation that the post-Murphy fury of lay folk would abate. Yesterday's news from Rome -- via an internal Drumcondra clerical letter, with the inevitable leak to the media -- smacks of obtuse cynicism on the part of the Vatican and a backing off by Martin from "his open communications" policy. With Cardinal Sean Brady morally voiceless over his role in the Brendan Smyth paedophile cover-up, and with removed Bishop John Magee facing further censure in the forthcoming Murphy report into the diocese of Cloyne, this latest episode spells doom for a revived people's church in Ireland under his direction.
Man says three priests took advantage of him............. Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, Irish Times Friday, August 13, 2010........ A man has claimed he was taken advantage of as a vulnerable young adult in the 1980s by three Catholic priests who had been classmates at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Bishops from three dioceses in which the priests were based have had detailed discussions with the man who has outlined the circumstances to the Garda. On June 14th last “John” (his chosen pseudonym) met the Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, the Bishop of Killala, John Fleming, and Bishop Gerard Clifford, auxiliary bishop of Armagh archdiocese, to discuss what might be done to help him. The meeting took place at a hotel in the midlands town where John lives. A father of five, with four children from his marriage which ended in 1996 and a daughter from a more recent relationship, John received €40,000 from Killaloe diocese in 2008 and an additional €5,000 in 2009. He also received an estimated €20,000 from the personal funds of Bishop Willie Walsh. He has not issued legal proceedings against the dioceses involved. He claims he has met Bishop Fleming three times and that his only contact with Bishop Clifford was at the meeting on June 14th last. Bishop Walsh confirmed he has visited John in the midlands town “40 to 50 times” in recent years. He described John as “a decent person”, saying “I don’t think I have given as much time to anyone as much as him [John]. . He is very broken.” In a statement, Bishops Fleming and Clifford said: “We acknowledge our Christian responsibility to respond to all allegations of abuse while maintaining due regard for the rights of all concerned.” John made a lengthy statement to the Garda in recent weeks about his dealings with the three priests. Bishop Walsh said he believed that Fr T, a priest of Killaloe diocese who engaged John in a gay relationship for about a year (and who, as with the other two priests concerned cannot be named for legal reasons), “was the worst offender”. Fr T has since left the priesthood. John was 18 and lived in the same parish where Fr T had recently been appointed. John was sent to the priest by his father to seek help because he was concerned at how distraught John was following the break-up of a relationship with a girl. Over time, Fr T made advances and a sexual relationship developed. John claims Fr T took him to visit a former Maynooth classmate of his, Fr U, in the diocese of Killala. John alleges he was raped by Fr U during that visit. His relationship with Fr T lasted a year, John says, and included a six-month stint in London. John went to live with his sister in the midlands town which has been his base since. He married in 1986 and had four children but he could not hold down a job. Depressed and anxious, he sought help from local priests and his doctor. He also claims he sought help from Fr V, a priest in the Armagh diocese who had been another Maynooth classmate of Fr T. John said Fr V asked him to visit. When he did so Fr V promised help but later that night, John claims the priest sexually assaulted him when he was in bed. Speaking to The Irish Times, John said he still felt justice had not been done. In their statement, Bishops Fleming and Clifford said John’s complaints “are now the subject of police investigations”. The Catholic Communications Office said last night Fr U and Fr V were now out of ministry.
Insisting bishops resign perpetuates injustice - O'Loan...... Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, Irish Times Friday, August 13, 2010.......... Baroness Nuala O’Loan, former Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland, has warned against perpetrating further injustice by insisting on the resignations of Dublin auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field, and the former Dublin auxiliary bishop and current Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan. “What happened in terms of clerical sexual abuse and the handling of it across the world has been inexcusable, insofar as any individual did not deal appropriately with any allegation of abuse,” she said in response to a query from The Irish Times last night. “Many of the processes of the church, particularly in the application of canon law, were totally inadequate and not consistent with principles of justice. The consequence for the victims was terrible. However, it is profoundly important that we do not allow further injustice to be added to that which has already occurred. “Where men or women have been shown to have responded wrongly, action should be taken, but each case must be dealt with on its merits. In terms of Bishops Drennan, Field and Walsh, I do not believe that resignation was necessary.” Having looked again yesterday at the references to each bishop in the Murphy report, she concluded that, “taking all this into account, I think that it is vital to the future of the church that we do not perpetrate further injustice. This would be wrong. “What is far more important to my mind is that the church should review its canonical procedures to ensure that what happened can never happen again and that archbishops and bishops, who are autonomous in their dioceses, should become accountable.” She continued: “I do not believe that what the pope has done is indicative of double standards, rather I think it is indicative that there has been an analysis of what actually happened and what Murphy actually said. “It is profoundly sad that we are in this position, but we will not improve the church by seeking to remove men against whom nothing is proved – we have so much to do and we must above all act justly.” One in Four founder Colm O’Gorman said last night that the pope’s decision not to accept the resignations offered by Bishops Walsh and Field was “beyond the point of any rationale”. If the pope “was prepared to accept the resignation of Bishop Jim Moriarty for not challenging the prevailing culture” in the Dublin archdiocese over the period covered by the Murphy report, “why was he not prepared to accept that of Bishop Eamonn Walsh?” He noted that Bishop Walsh had himself in the past said he had recommended that allegations of abuse be reported to the gardaí, “but he had not insisted on that”. He did not challenge the prevailing culture and, “as a barrister and canon lawyer, he has been to the forefront of this issue [in Ireland] for the past 15 years.” Mr O’Gorman insisted he had “no desire to personalise the issue. I have no difficulty accepting that Eamonn Walsh is a good man”, but “what happened in Dublin was so catastrophic for so many lives.” The church had failed to hold anyone to account in any meaningful way, he added. What had happened was also “damaging” to the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, “who has been very courageous” in addressing the abuse issue. “The key now is how parents in Dublin react at confirmation ceremonies next year which are conducted by Bishops Walsh and Field,” he said. A protest against the pope’s refusal to accept the resignations of both bishops is planned to take place tomorrow outside the Papal Nunciature on Navan Road, Dublin, at 3pm.
Vatican observers attempt to shed light on resignations.......... Paddy Agnew in Rome Irish Times Friday, August 13, 2010......... The decision not to accept the resignations of Dublin auxiliary bishops Ray Field and Eamonn Walsh, made public this week, has continued to provoke comment among Vatican observers. One senior commentator suggested yesterday that the two auxiliaries had sent a dossier to the Congregation of Bishops prompting the Vatican to reconsider. Writing in his blog, Andrea Tornelli, Vatican correspondent of Milan daily Il Giornale , offered his explanation of the rejection of the resignations. Having proffered their resignations to Pope Benedict XVI last Christmas Eve in the wake of the Murphy report, he suggests, Bishops Walsh and Field later contacted (or were contacted by) the Holy See to explain that, while they had offered to resign in a spirit of healing and reconciliation, they themselves felt that they had done nothing wrong. Vatican insiders suggest that senior figures in the Holy See may have understood this action to be, if not a withdrawal of their resignations, certainly a good reason to reject them, and advised Pope Benedict accordingly. Vatican observers point out that the decision not to accept the original resignations is highly unusual and can only be explained by the fact that there was communication between the two bishops and the Holy See after their dramatic Christmas Eve announcement. Mr Tornelli argues the decision is all the more difficult to understand given that the resignations of both Bishops Donal Murray and Jim Moriarty, also named in the Murphy Report, were accepted. He suggests that, not for the first time, the Vatican has mismanaged a news issue very badly, by opting to offer no public explanation for the apparent diversity of treatment for the various bishops. Most commentators argue that, while the decision to reject the resignations looks like a snub to Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, the Holy See has partly counterbalanced the pope’s decision by insisting that the role of the two auxiliaries in the Archdiocese be “re-dimensioned”. For the time being, however, no one is quite sure just what this “re-dimensioning” or reviewing of their responsibilities means precisely. The Vatican Press Office has issued no comment on the matter, since it is routine practice to comment, if at all, only on resignations that have been accepted.
Facing the reality when it comes to sex offenders.............. Irish Times Friday, August 13, 2010........... OPINION: Non-life jail terms must end at some point, so treatment programmes should be the norm, writes Ian O'Donnell.............. There are about 300 sex offenders in Irish prisons, with all but 10 of them serving fixed terms of imprisonment. This means that, unless they have time added for breaking prison rules, they must be released after completing three-quarters of their sentence. The remainder are lifers, which means that their release dates are at the discretion of the Minister for Justice. In theory, the members of this small group could remain incarcerated until they die. Without exception these individuals have committed serious offences, many of which involved extreme violence, degradation and callous disregard for their victims’ wellbeing. Some were repeat offenders; others struck just once. Some planned carefully and took care to cover their tracks; others acted on impulse. Some carried weapons and intended lethal violence; others relied on threats alone to subdue their victim. Some were related to the person they abused; others were complete strangers. Some were elated afterwards; others were stricken by remorse. Some are suspected of involvement in crimes for which they were never brought to justice; others are not. What they have in common – in addition to the harm they caused – is the fact that they will be released, usually untreated and poorly prepared, to an unsuspecting public. If the media directed its spotlight on each of these men as their release dates approached, the coverage would be virtually non-stop and public fears would become increasingly difficult to allay. Imagine the frenzy that has accompanied the release of Larry Murphy multiplied by 300 as the current cohort of imprisoned sex offenders is released over the coming years. There is an assumption in much of the current debate that sex offenders are incorrigible predators and that it is a question of when, not if, they will strike again. Their criminal activity is seen to be wrapped up in their personality in a way that sets them apart from the “ordinary decent criminals” whose stealing and fighting we find easier to comprehend. If it is part of who they are, so the argument goes, it is only a matter of time before this tendency reasserts itself and another life is destroyed. From this perspective, there is no such thing as an ex-sex offender. But this bleak outlook does not fit well with the available evidence. A follow-up study of 20,000 prisoner releases carried out by the UCD Institute of Criminology found that sex offenders were significantly less likely to be re-imprisoned than other types of offender. About 18 per cent of those who had served time for a sex offence were back behind bars, on a variety of charges, within three years. This compared with more than 45 per cent of persons who had completed a sentence for a violent or property offence. These results are similar to those reported in other countries. Of course such findings require careful interpretation. It might be that a longer follow-up period would reveal a higher level of reoffending among sex offenders or that they are better at avoiding capture than other criminals. Neither should we underestimate the extent to which victim reporting and effective prosecution are particularly problematic for this type of crime. Nevertheless, the available evidence suggests that the threat to public safety posed by released sex offenders is often exaggerated. The furore around Murphy’s release forces us to think about what, as a society, we wish to achieve by punishing law-breakers. Is it rehabilitation or deterrence or incapacitation? Or is it retribution, plain and simple, striking back at wrongdoers and inflicting pain on them in proportion to the pain they have caused to others? There is a retributive edge to aspects of the recent commentary and it would seem that there is an appetite, in some quarters at least, for harsher and harsher sentences. In this regard it should be borne in mind that a prison sentence of 15 years, such as that imposed on Murphy, is extremely onerous, even if a portion of it is remitted. We have become used to double-digit prison terms in recent times and it is possible that if penalties for more serious offences are further inflated there will be a knock-on effect for less serious crimes. This will have predictable consequences for the growth of the prison population and all of the associated costs. The notion that a convicted sex offender could spend a decade in prison without availing of any treatment gives cause for concern. There is evidence that participation on sex offender treatment programmes can reduce the likelihood of recidivism. These programmes make significant emotional demands on the men who avail of them; they are far from an easy option. The onus must be on the Department of Justice and the Irish Prison Service to design regimes where therapy becomes the norm rather than the exception. This could be linked with the possibility of a period of early release under supervision, allowing an individual’s reintroduction to society to take place on a phased basis before their liberty is fully restored. It goes without saying that any such scheme would have to be based on a thorough risk assessment and have a clear focus on public protection. Regrettably, we must accept that if prisoners are to be released there is always a risk that they will reoffend. Some minor offenders go on to commit murder and some murderers never come into conflict with the law again. Predicting behaviour is a fraught business. Risk prediction tools have a margin of error and human judgment is imperfect so there will always be decisions that have disastrous consequences. The harsh reality of criminal justice is that while we can guard against this eventuality we can never eliminate it.
Sex offenders after release................. Irish Times Friday, August 13, 2010.............. It is to be expected that the sex offenders management unit of the Garda Síochána and the relevant State agencies will treat the release of Larry Murphy from Arbour Hill prison extremely seriously. Having served 10½ years of a 15-year sentence for rape and attempted murder, Murphy is regarded as a “high-risk” individual. Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has acknowledged that his freedom from jail is “understandably a cause of concern”. It is important that the community at large – and vulnerable women in particular – are reassured that all possible precautions are being taken to ensure their safety. The Sex Offenders Act obliges former prisoners to liaise with the Garda and to notify them about where they intend to reside within seven days. Apart from that, the Garda can and do undertake on-going surveillance in particular cases. That is as it should be. Although it is impossible to legislate against future breaches of the law, precautions that minimise such an occurrence are welcome initiatives. Something of a media frenzy has developed in relation to this case. As the release date drew near, speculation about Murphy’s possible involvement in other cases where young women had disappeared, has intensified though the Garda has uncovered no supporting evidence to link him to these events. Growing public concern led to local newspapers in different areas carrying reports he was going to live there. Family members living in Co Wicklow felt harassed by photographers and journalists. His brother, Tommy, spoke of his children being made virtual prisoners in their own home for the past five weeks. That is unacceptable. For the media, there is a thin line between reflecting genuine public concerns in such cases and setting out to inflame them. Crossing that line through the kind of lurid and incendiary reporting that has been evident in recent days causes unnecessary worry to vulnerable women and concerned communities; it can hurt innocent families and increase the likelihood that individuals will reoffend. Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre referred to “an element of hysteria” in media coverage that caused unnecessary panic. She was concerned it might encourage a vigilante reaction. She said the matter should be left to the Garda who were very much on top of this particular case. Genuine concerns exist in relation to sex offenders. Should they receive automatic early prison release for “good behaviour” if they refuse to participate in sex-treatment programmes? Should they undergo a formal risk evaluation before they are let out? And should supervised release orders become the norm? These and other issues about how sex offenders can be regularly checked on and reintegrated into society need to be addressed. But however unpalatable some people may regard it, international experience shows that monitoring, settled housing with official support, and help in finding work offers the best outcome for protecting women and children from known sex offenders. Hounding former prisoners from place to place is likely to drive them underground and increase the risk of reoffending.
Gardai disperse angry crowds on the trail of rapist......By Shane Phelan and Alison Bray....... Friday August 13 2010..... An angry crowd gathered outside a government-run halfway house for ex-convicts last night amid speculation that freed rapist Larry Murphy was staying there. The group of up to 60 protesters gathered outside Priorswood House in Coolock on Dublin's northside chanting "get him out". Gardai last night denied Murphy was staying at the Department of Justice-built facility. The director of Priorswood, Lisa Cuthbert, also insisted Murphy was not staying there. "We understand the fear -- it's perfectly natural -- but this kind of response isn't helpful," she told the Irish Independent. However, one local resident said people's fears were understandable after a number of alleged sightings of Murphy in the area. "I can't understand why he was let out in the first place," Eddie Mitchell said. "Look at the reaction of the people here. I have two daughters aged 24 and 32. People are in fear." Late last night, the crowd had been disperesed cbut not before some tried to jump the fence before being pushed back by gardai. The tense incident, which highlighted public fears over Murphy's release, followed a dramatic day during which scores of officers and a garda helicopter were used to track his every move. A senior garda source said his current location was known to them and that he was under observation. "As is the case with all sex offenders, a plan is put in place to manage them on their release. The plan is working," the source said. Murphy (45) walked free from Arbour Hill prison in Dublin yesterday morning after serving just 10-and-half years of a 15-year sentence for the rape, abduction and attempted murder of a young businesswoman. As he left the prison complex in a taxi, a team of officers was immediately deployed to monitor his movements. But within hours of his release, Murphy made an apparent attempt to shake off their attention. With gardai following him in unmarked cars, the former carpenter alighted from a taxi near Grafton Street around 1pm and hurried through the pedestrian area towards St Stephen's Green where he vanished from view. His whereabouts were quickly re-established by officers. But gardai have admitted they will not be able to monitor his movements 24 hours a day. Murphy's release sparked outrage and a major debate over automatic 25pc remission for inmates for "good behaviour". While in jail, Murphy refused to undergo any sex offender treatment programme or show any remorse. He also remains a suspect in the disappearance of three women from different locations around Leinster during the 1990s. Murphy emerged from Arbour Hill at 10.17am yesterday looking fitter and bulkier than when he was last seen in public 10 years ago. Abuse: Wearing a hooded top, baseball cap and sunglasses, and clutching a holdall, he got into a waiting taxi without making any comment to waiting media. A group of protesters who had gathered shouted abuse at him. Uniformed gardai maintained a large presence outside the prison and a garda helicopter hovered overhead. As the taxi drove off it was quickly followed by a three press photographers on motorcycles and a number of unmarked garda cars. A short time later Murphy went into Coolock garda station where he complained that he was being harassed by members of the media. He did not tell officers where he was planning to live or what his plans were for the future. By law he is not obliged to provide an address to gardai until next Thursday. Garda and prison sources said he paid the taxi fare out of his own money and was not assisted in any way. Inmates are entitled to a €2.35-a-day gratuity while behind bars, which can build up to several thousand euros over the course of a sentence. A public meeting was held in the nearby village of Grangecon last night to discuss his release. Murphy's estranged wife left the area last weekend amid fears he could return. The father-of-two kidnapped a woman in Carlow in February 2000 and repeatedly raped her before trying to kill her. He hit her in the face, breaking her nose, before bundling her into her own car and tying her hands behind her back with her bra. He then drove to an isolated location where he raped her. Murphy then moved to another secluded area where the woman's ordeal continued. He tried to suffocate her to death by placing a shopping bag over her head, but fled after being disturbed by two men out hunting.
'I've had nightmares, I'm living in fear'.............. By Breda Heffernan and Fergus Black.........Irish Independent........ Friday August 13 2010.......... A Community last night spoke of the fear stalking their streets following the release of rapist Larry Murphy from prison yesterday. Up to 100 people, many of them concerned parents, packed a local boxing club hall in west Wicklow to voice their concern and to demand details on Murphy's every single move. "We knew where he was for the last 10 years," said one man last night. "We don't know where he is now and we want to know where he is at all times." Last night's meeting, held in Grangecon boxing club in Wicklow, was organised by local Sinn Fein representatives who said they had taken action because no one else would. Although the hall was packed many of those present were journalists. One woman, who did not want to be named, said that the last few weeks had been a nightmare knowing that Murphy, who was from the Baltinglass area, was due to be released. "I have had nightmares thinking about him and I couldn't sleep last night," she said. "I'm living in fear. I am 31 years of age and I feel I need a chaperone to go out at night. It's really, really frightening." Billy Walsh, a parent of two daughters from Murphy's home town of Baltinglass, said there was a lot of fear that the rapist would come back to the area. Meanwhile, Murphy's brother Tom last night slammed his sibling for failing to have the "decency" to apologise to his victim. He said neither he nor his three sisters will be allowing him into their homes. Despite several visits to Arbour Hill prison over the years to ask his brother why he committed his crimes, Tom said Murphy was never "man enough" to answer his questions. "He hadn't even the manners this morning or the decency when he come outside that prison gate to say sorry to the poor girl," he said. He said the last time he spoke to his brother was in 2005 following the death of their father. Asked if he still loved his brother, he replied: "No. I want nothing to do with him ever again . . . I don't want to see him and I don't want to hear from him." Tom said that his three sisters, two of whom live in Co Kildare and the third who lives in Baltinglass, had contacted him yesterday to say Murphy will not be staying with them. He said that following the intense media coverage of the case and alarm among the locals that Larry Murphy might return, he and his family have been "prisoners in our own homes".
Law to be tightened on rapists........ By Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor....Irish Independent...... Friday August 13 2010........... Convicted sex offenders such as Larry Murphy will have to inform gardai of their location in less than the seven days currently demanded, under new laws being planned. Under the present system, those released after serving time for sex offences do not need to provide gardai with their new address for a week. But Justice Minister Dermot Ahern is seeking to reduce this. "I am currently looking at the possibility of reducing this seven-day period and when my consideration is completed I will be bringing my proposals to Government," he said in response to Dail questions. It has emerged that gardai are set to visit Murphy -- who was freed from Arbour Hill Prison yesterday -- once a month. However, they do not have the resources to watch him on a round-the-clock basis. Murphy will be obliged to notify the gardai if he is leaving the country for more than seven days and to provide an address where he will stay. Although it is not known where Murphy will be staying, the Department of Justice gave €85,000 last year to the 'New Directions' project, which provides accommodation for high-risk sex offenders. It has so far supported six such sex offenders and is run jointly by the gardai and the Probation Service. Tagging: One of those housed was serial rapist Michael Murray, who was given a rented apartment in Dublin. The Department of Justice will not comment on individual cases under the project. Labour Women chair Katherine Dunne called for the amendment of the Sex Offenders Act 2001 to strengthen the monitoring of offenders. "Monitoring released sex offenders lessens hysteria and also gives the offender an opportunity to say, 'I will not reoffend because I cannot do so, so let me get on with my life,'" she said. But there is little prospect of Murphy being electronically tagged because the existing legislation only allows for the potential tagging of sex offenders on temporary release. Fine Gael Wicklow TD Billy Timmins said yesterday that the release of Murphy had highlighted the need for electronic tagging. However, Dr Mary Rogan of the Irish Penal Reform Trust told Newstalk 106 that tagging could never be a substitute for rehabilitation. -
Hunter becomes the prey overnight............ By Nicola Anderson.........Irish Independent....... Friday August 13 2010............... From prison door to car door, it took just 20 rapid steps and then Larry Murphy was a free agent once more. Free to disappear into the morning mill of the city, free to go where he chose. Or, at least, so the theory goes. "Rapist," "dirty scumbag," shouted onlookers, who pressed forward in their eagerness to catch a glimpse of him. "Give that woman back her life and her children," yelled someone else, presumably in a reference to Murphy's estranged wife. But Murphy paid no more heed to the taunts of these ordinary people -- mostly local women, some of whom had gathered from early morning to watch his release -- than he would to the miaow of a kitten. Eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, a navy and white baseball cap pulled firmly down around his ears, he remained unshakeable, his mouth a thin line as he concentrated on his short walk. No family members had driven from Baltinglass to collect him. Only a grey taxi stood waiting at the gate of Arbour Hill, as a garda helicopter hovered high overhead. "He has some money but no friends," is how gardai describe Murphy's current situation. Aside from the unmistakable dimple in his chin, he was barely recognisable as the man jailed more than 10 years ago for the rape and attempted murder of a Carlow woman, who endured a terrifying ordeal that was almost breathtaking in its brutality. "I flipped," was the explanation he gave back then to his wife, who had just given birth to their second child less than a month beforehand. Since that time, Murphy had clearly preoccupied himself with working out. His body appeared toned and sculpted, broader and more bulked out than it was before, the muscles clearly visible with his jawline clenched and square. Anyone might mistake him for a body builder or professional gym instructor. Only his colour -- a yellow pallor -- gave him away as a man who had spent a decade inside. And though he held his head high, even behind the dark glasses it was clear Murphy did not steal even a glance at the cameras fixed firmly upon him, nor did he utter a single word. His attire -- a black hooded sweatshirt with a loud, gold New York Yankees logo emblazoned on the front, baggy jeans, Nike runners and the small rounded sunglasses -- looked slightly bizarre and dated in the cold light of 2010. It had been a long morning. Most photographers had taken position outside Arbour Hill shortly after midnight, with more media following in the early hours of the morning. At 4am, the gardai arrived and at 4.15am, barriers were erected on the road outside the prison gates. They were not taking any chances. Dawn was beginning to break. At 6am, the prison gates were unlocked and at 7.12am, a delivery of fresh milk was dropped off. Spirits began to flag as the waiting game continued until, at 9.17am, a prison van pulled up outside. However, the driver waved her hands in a negative -- she had nothing to do with Murphy's departure. A carload of protesters who had spent some hours waiting in anticipation left just as another delivery, this time of grocery items, was being unloaded. Curious onlookers began to cluster, among them Kathleen Sullivan, Patricia Cronin and Marian Patterson, who work nearby. "It's very frightening," they agreed. And then, finally, came the word. Murphy would walk down the driveway and the media could take their pictures but they could not cross the barrier. He would get into his car and leave. It all happened at 10.17am as planned. Throwing a holdall bag into the back seat of the taxi, Murphy followed and, seeming not to utter a word to the taxi driver, the car roared off down the street towards the the quays with three motorcyclists and various media agencies following in hot pursuit. Everyone wants to know where he intends to go. What came as unexpected was his initial destination -- Coolock garda station. A keen hunter, Murphy stalked his victim for over a month before he swooped. Now it was his turn to be the prey.
Martin didn't tell bishops of Rome's resign rebuff........... By John Cooney and Aine de Paor......Irish Independent....... Friday August 13 2010........ Archbishop Diarmuid Martin did not inform other Irish bishops that he had been told by Rome of Pope Benedict's refusal to accept the resignations of two Dublin auxiliary bishops named in the Murphy Report. The only communication of the Pope's decision to reject the resignations of Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field was directly to Dublin clergy in a private letter which he sent on Tuesday before going on holiday. A spokesperson for the archdiocese said yesterday that Archbishop Martin would not be giving any media interviews on the rebuff to his authority by Pope Benedict. Meanwhile, senior members of the hierarchy confirmed that they were in the dark about the Vatican decision until it was leaked in the 'Irish Catholic' newspaper. "There is some chuckling in episcopal palaces around Ireland that Martin has been put in his box by the Vatican for making a big issue of securing the resignations of bishops who had served in the archdiocese of Dublin," said one senior church source. Isolated: "Diarmuid is now isolated and finds himself a lame-duck leader of a divided diocese," the source added. But other church sources, said that as this was a matter for the Archdiocese of Dublin, Archbishop Martin was under no obligation to tell his fellow bishops of the Pope's refusal. Meanwhile, protests are being organised by a church reform group and abuse survivors. Brendan Butler, a Catholic activist, told the Irish Independent that he is planning a protest tomorrow at 3pm outside the residence of the papal Nuncio, Archbishop Guiseppe Leanza in Cabra, Dublin, where he will deliver a petition calling for the Vatican to reverse its decision to reinstate Bishops Walsh and Field. And an abuse survivors' group has called on the two auxiliary bishops to stand down, even if that would mean their leaving the Catholic Church. Kevin Flanagan, of Religious Abuse Truth, is organising a letter-writing campaign to urge them to reject the Pontiff's wishes and quit. Conscience: The group plans to picket the papal nuncio's residence to protest against the decision not to accept the the bishops' offer to quit after they were named in the Murphy Report into the cover-up of clerical sex abuse. Mr Flanagan's brother, Mickey, was a survivor of the Artane Industrial School and, according to the campaigner, drank himself to death at the age of 59 as a result of the abuse he suffered there. He said: "It's an absolute joke. I am asking everybody to write to the two bishops and ask them to just resign themselves.'' Mr Flanagan admitted that by going against the Pope's wishes, the bishops could fall foul of the church and be forced out. "They have to have a conscience themselves. It's the same as if a priest wants to leave the church then he can leave -- so what's to stop the two bishops from leaving?" he asked. Mr Flanagan said those who feel strongly about the issue should write to the two bishops and urge them to quit. Last Easter his group staged a protest at Dublin's Pro-cathedral when 1,000 children's shoes were tied to the railings and campaigners interrupted Mass to place them on the altar.
Case against bishops lost amid the hysteria....By David Quinn.........Irish Independent.....Friday August 13 2010.......... Why didn't the Pope accept the resignations of Auxiliary Bishops Walsh and Field? The answer is that in the case of Bishop Field it wasn't justified, and in the case of Bishop Walsh it was a 50/50 call. It is true that these two men were named in the Murphy Report, but this fact alone does not justify calls for their resignations. Being named is not the same thing as being denounced and neither man is denounced in the report, whereas other auxiliary bishops from the period under investigation -- 1975 to 2004 -- are, namely Bishops O'Mahony, Kavanagh and Murray. Let's take a slightly closer look at the case of Bishop Raymond Field. The report doesn't criticise him in any significant way and therefore he is not remotely in the same category as say, Kavanagh or O'Mahony, who very much belong to the era of cover-up. The fall-back position of his accusers, namely that he should resign for not properly challenging the culture of cover-up, is also wide of the mark because by the time he assumed a senior role in the Dublin diocesan structure in 1997 the diocese was getting its child protection house in order. This is borne out by the Murphy Report itself. It examined a sample of 46 abuse cases and concluded that about half were adequately dealt with by the diocese. Basically, this covered those cases brought to the attention of the archdiocese from around 1996 or 1997 on. What about Bishop Eamonn Walsh? He is not criticised in the report, let alone denounced. So that's one strike in his favour. However, he was made an auxiliary bishop back in 1990 and had previously served as secretary to Archbishop Kevin McNamara followed by Archbishop Desmond Connell. So he was emphatically part of the diocesan structure that failed abused children. That is a big strike against him. Another auxiliary bishop from that time, Jim Moriarty, later the bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, offered his resignation because, in his own opinion, he did not properly challenge the system. If it was right for him to go, then logically it should have been right for Bishop Walsh to go as well. (Mind you, by this standard, how many HSE personnel should go given the increasingly glaring child protection failings of that organisation?) The Pope accepted Bishop Moriarty's resignation but he didn't accept Bishop Walsh's. Why not? One reason is because Bishop Moriarty was more inclined to go and probably pushed for his resignation to be accepted. Bishop Walsh did not want to go. A second reason is because when he was acting bishop in the Ferns diocese during the time of the Ferns Inquiry, Walsh was widely praised for putting that diocese's house in order. In fact, when the Ferns Report was issued, abuse victim Colm O'Gorman praised Walsh in fulsome manner on 'Prime Time'. He told him: "I think it's important to reflect upon the fact that the changes you put in place in Ferns are very significant. You have moved in ways in Ferns that your fellow bishops have not moved in many other dioceses in Ireland and internationally to ensure that children in that diocese are protected, in ways that up until you came into the post we were told it was impossible for bishops to act, and that needs to be acknowledged, and you need to be credited with that ... I accept your bona fides, I accept your absolute integrity in determining that this won't happen again." O'Gorman supported the resignation of Bishop Walsh. Nonetheless, what Walsh did in Ferns stands to his credit and goes some way towards cancelling out his failure to properly challenge a failed system in Dublin. This brings us to the question of why Bishop Field and Bishop Walsh offered their resignations in the first place. The answer is almost certainly that they believed they had been placed under undue pressure to do so, including by their own archbishop. Bishop Walsh must be especially sore because Archbishop Diarmuid Martin had him at his side at the press conference he organised on the day of the Murphy Report's release. He must wonder why his boss effectively turned on him only a few days later. The bottom line is that hysteria, rather than a fair reading of the facts, has dictated the reaction to Bishops Walsh and Field. Bishop Walsh's position admittedly is a judgement call, but by no stretch of the imagination should Bishop Field have to resign. PS: In last week's column I wrote about the meaning of republicanism. David Adams writing in yesterday's 'Irish Times' seemed to think I was arguing for the special place of the Catholic Church in Irish affairs. I wasn't. I simply think that the churches and those who belong to them should have a place, not a special one, just like anyone else, and that they should not be denied the same right to influence public debate that is granted to a trade union, a business organisation, or indeed to the media. dquinn@independent.ie
Papal letter was just papal bull........By Ray Behan........Friday August 13 2010........ Outraged -- that's the only way to describe how I feel about the Pope's decision. It is quite obvious now that there will be no change from within the Catholic Church itself. The contempt that the Vatican shows for the people of this country is beyond comprehension. His papal letter to Ireland was nothing more than papal bull. It is the people of this island who will have to instigate change. We can start by reducing religion to what it should be, a choice and nothing more than that, it should not be the law. The special place Fianna Fail (The Papal Party) afforded the church in Ireland should be abolished, and all references to religion in our Constitution should also be abolished. The clergy are not elected representatives of this country but appointed by a foreign state and should therefore have absolutely no say in any decision-making in this country The church should be taken out of our schools or religious activity should be extra curricular, that way people would have a real choice as to whether they want their children brought up as Catholics. Given that everything the church owns in this country has been paid for by the people of this country -- through church collections and taxes -- the church should be made to disclose its finances for public scrutiny every year. We do not live by the grace of the church in this country, the church lives by the grace of the people in this country.....
Priest accused of child sex abuse surrenders in US........... By Stephen Rogers, Saturday, August 14, 2010............ A former Irish priest accused of sexually assaulting six boys here between 1973 to 1981 has turned himself into the authorities in the US where he had been living in a plush waterfront suburb. Patrick Joseph McCabe faces 10 counts of allegedly assaulting boys who are understood to have been aged under 14 years at the time of the abuse. According to media reports in the US, McCabe, a priest in the Dublin Archdiocese from 1961 to 1983, was the subject of an extradition request filed by lawyers with the US Attorney’s Office in federal court in San Francisco last month. After voluntarily surrendering himself to authorities on July 30, he was initially placed under house arrest, but was then ordered to be held in custody in US jail. It is understood the 74-year-old was first accused of abuse by police in 1988 and he left the priesthood that year. However, there are allegations that Irish church authorities knew about the abuse years earlier and he was sent to the US to receive treatment in a programme for sexual abusers. While there he served in a number of diocese but then returned to Ireland. In 1986 it is understood he was accused of abusing a nine-year-old boy whose parents went to the police. However, that investigation was dropped. In 1988, it is understood he again left Ireland and effectively disappeared from the radar of authorities here until he was tracked down to the waterfront US suburb of Alameda in 2003. No date has been set for hearings on the extradition request, but McCabe is due to return to court on September 2 for a status conference. His lawyers are appealing his detention in custody on the grounds of ill health, including diabetes and heart problems.
Bishops accused of lobbying Pope on lack of responsibility over abuse........ By Juno McEnroe, Saturday, August 14, 2010........ A leading Vatican correspondent has suggested the two Irish bishops, whose resignations were not accepted by the Pope this week, wrote to the pontiff highlighting they had no responsibility in the handling of abuse cases. As calls continued yesterday for Dublin auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field still to resign their posts, it was suggested the embattled clerics had been in contact with the Holy See after initially offering to step down. Vatican correspondent Andrea Tornelli of Milan’s Il Giornale, suggested the two men wrote to the Vatican distancing themselves from accusations. "After having publicly announced and presented their resignations, they sent to the Vatican briefs in which they explained that they had no responsibility in the handling of abuse cases. "In fact, this defence has appeared as a retraction of the [resignation] decision announced," the Vatican insider wrote on his blog. Both bishops have remained silent since it emerged this week that the pontiff would not be accepting their resignations after the men offered to step down publicly last Christmas Eve. Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin told priests of the Pope’s decision by letter this week, adding that the bishops would "still be available" to administer confirmation in parishes. Mr Tornelli, also a papal biographer, said the alleged lobbying of the Pope by the two bishops was viewed as a withdrawal of their resignations. Mr Tornelli went on to suggest the Pope’s decision and resultant negative publicity did not bode well for his pending visit to Britain in September. Meanwhile, abuse survivor and campaigner Marie Collins has insisted that the two bishops should still resign. Speaking on RTÉ Radio Ms Collins said the Pope’s decision was an insult to the people of Ireland. Ms Collins, who was abused by a senior priest in the Dublin diocese when she was just 12 years old, called on the Church to make a public statement about the two bishops. "The Pope, the Vatican, the hierarchy here, nobody has made a statement to the people saying these resignations have been refused and this is the reason why. We’re just not worthy of an explanation... and that’s the attitude to the laity unfortunately."
Fresh debate over introduction of Megan’s Law here.......... By Noel Baker, Saturday, August 14, 2010....... The release of convicted rapist Larry Murphy has sparked fresh debate over whether the details of sex offenders, such as addresses, should be made known to the wider community. The US has operated ‘Megan’s Law’ since 1994, following the rape and murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka in New Jersey by a sex offender living in her neighbourhood. Each state handles sex offender registration and community notification, but must decide on what information is made available and how it is distributed. The Murphy case has led to calls for a similar system to be instated here, but some experts have said the system can be prone to vigilantism, while occasionally innocent people can come under attack in cases of mistaken identity. Kieran McGrath of the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers (NOTA) Ireland said politically the idea of a Megan’s Law is very popular and "extremely cheap", but it can be "used as a substitute for real supervision and real monitoring places responsibility on community to protect itself". "Sex offenders aren’t stupid – they are much less likely to offend next door and more likely to go to next parish where they don’t know anybody," he said. Research in Britain on the effectiveness of Megan’s Law has also found no subsequent reduction in second-time offences and, just 80% of offenders registered upon release from prison, compared with a 97% of registration in Britain. There, where there has been a campaign for an equivalent to Megan’s Law, a number of cases of mistaken identity have taken place: * Paul Cooper, 40, was beaten to death by a gang of men at his flat in Heywood, Greater Manchester in March 2005. * In 2000 Michael Horgan, a 55-year-old father of two from south London, was targeted by an anti-paedophile group after a newspaper published his name, which he shares with a paedophile who lives in the area. Police had to place a permanent guard on his house. * In 2000 the Portsmouth riots saw four innocent families forced out of their homes by mobs campaigning to rid their community of paedophiles. Police had to plead for calm after revealing the four families had no history of child abuse. * John Brown, a 79-year-old living in Belfast’s New Lodge area, was held down and kicked before being shot in both knees after the IRA wrongly believed he was a paedophile. Another man in a loyalist area was attacked by paramilitaries in July 2000 after it was wrongly asserted a sex offender was living in his house. * A female registrar was harassed in her South Wales home because neighbours confused "paediatrician" (on a nameplate beside her door) with "paedophile". * In recent years a man mistaken for Jon Venables, one of the killers of toddler Jamie Bulger, had been forced with his family to move several times.
"There was some truth in Paisley’s tirades against our priestly republic".......By Ryle Dwyer, Saturday, August 14, 2010......... Over the years the media and politicians exhibited an unhealthy deference towards the Catholic clergy and hierarchy in this country. Last week I quoted Taoiseach John A Costello telling the Dáil that he had actually sought and secured the permission of the Archbishop of Dublin to talk to his Minister for Health, Noel Browne, about pending legislation. Ger Colleran, editor of the Irish Daily Star, used the same quote on the Tonight with Vincent Browne TV3 programme on Tuesday night. He went on to quote Costello saying he obeyed the Catholic Church authorities. There ensued an intriguing discussion with Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe. The church hierarchy had written to the Taoiseach on October 10, 1950, objecting to the Mother and Child Bill, which was introduced by Browne to tackle the country’s appalling infant mortality rate, which was the highest in western Europe. The legislation would provide free medical care for all young mothers and children. Some in the hierarchy thought this amounted to socialised medicine, which they considered akin to godless communism. The hierarchy raised other objections. "Education in regard to motherhood includes instruction in regard to sex relations, chastity and marriage," Bishop James Staunton of Ferns wrote on behalf of the Bishops’ Conference. "The State has no competence to give instruction in such matter." The bishops – all purportedly celibate men – were contending that they were more competent to deal with sexual relations and marriage than political or civil authorities. The level of contemptible arrogance exhibited by the bishops was stultifying. Without a woman in their midst they were claiming more competence to deal with matters relating strictly to women and girls than even the medical profession. "We regard with the greatest apprehension the proposal to give to local medical officers the right to tell Catholic girls and women how they should behave in regard to this sphere of conduct at once so delicate and sacred," Bishop Staunton added. Noel Browne was forced to resign from the cabinet because he would not surrender to the demands of the hierarchy. He promptly sparked a controversy by giving copies of the correspondence with the bishops to the Irish Times, which was then seen as a Protestant newspaper. It may have been the only Irish newspaper that would have published the correspondence at the time. "I am not in the least bit afraid of the Irish Times or any other newspaper," Costello told the Dáil that day. "I, as a Catholic, obey my Church authorities and will continue to do so, in spite of the Irish Times or anything else, in spite of the fact that they may take votes from me or my party, or anything else of that kind. " He was actually contending that – regardless of what any newspaper printed, or what voters might desire – he was going to obey the Catholic authorities. That provides an appalling reflection of his concept of democracy and the will of the people. "Ye were handed the country on a plate, weren’t ye?" Ger Colleran said to Bishop Walsh on Tuesday night. "There was an extraordinary alliance developed between church and state after the foundation of the state," the bishop replied. "Would you accept that Paisley was right all along when he said that this state is Rome-ruled?" Colleran asked. "I would say there was some truth in it, certainly in the earlier part of the last century," Bishop Walsh admitted. In the past 10 or 15 years, however, he said, "the whole situation has changed greatly". The bishop welcomed the changes from when the church was dominant and oppressive. "I’m much happier with the broken church that’s in Ireland today," he said. And so say all of us. Bishop Walsh is obviously not persuaded by the church’s current position in regard to women. "I have always found it particularly difficult to be convinced by the reasons we advance for not allowing women their place in ministry," he explained on Tuesday night. "Certainly our church is diminished by the very small role that women have been allowed to play in decision-making in the church." The church comprises of not just hierarchy and clergy, but all members. An amount of change has already taken place in that people will no longer tolerate the kind of contemptible arrogance that bishops were allowed to get away with for so long. In 1956, Bishop Walsh’s predecessor, Bishop Joseph Rodgers, complained to the Taoiseach that a local curate and 10 other people were prosecuted for assaulting two Jehovah’s Witnesses and burning their religious literature because they had the temerity to try to distribute their material in Clonlara, Co Clare. District Justice Gordon Hurley convicted the priest and his 10 accomplices but let them go without penalty under the Probation Act. He penalised the two Jehovah’s Witnesses instead, even though they had not even been charged with anything. They had appeared merely as witnesses for the state. The judge ruled that they had sought to destroy the Catholic religion by engaging in blasphemy in the eyes of Catholics. He bound them to the peace on their own sureties of £100 each and two independent sureties of £100 each, or three months in jail. "Your worship’s decision is unprecedented and contrary to the law of this country," solicitor Gerald Goldberg protested. "I say that without fear of contradiction." The whole thing was a travesty of justice, but Bishop Rodgers, who was in court that day, protested to the Taoiseach about the conviction of the curate and his gang. "We censor obscene literature, your Attorney General prosecutes one of my priests for doing what I, and all good Catholics here, regard as his bounden duty and right," Bishop Rodgers wrote. "The matter cannot rest." IF they believed the Witnesses were guilty of blasphemy, the Taoiseach replied, they should have complained to the gardaí. "The action they took was prima facie contrary to law," he explained. "The authorities had no choice but to allow the machinery of law to take its course." But he added that he appreciated "the just indignation aroused among the clergy and the people by the activities of the Jehovah’s Witnesses". In an interview last week Clare-born writer Edna O’Brien talked about the banning of her debut novel, The Country Girls, in 1960. She said she felt like she "had committed a crime and I did not know what the crime was". Two years later her second novel, The Lonely Girl, was also banned after Archbishop John Charles McQuaid complained personally to Justice Minister Charles Haughey that the book "was particularly bad". "I did not think such stuff would be printed," McQuaid wrote. "So, I gave it to the Minister for Justice, who came to me next day to express his disgust and revulsion. Like many decent Catholic men with growing families he was just beaten by the outlook and description." If the archbishop really thought that Charlie Haughey was disgusted and repulsed by the level of sex in Edna O’Brien’s book, it shows how out of touch McQuaid was with reality. He was as dim-witted as he was arrogant. Haughey had many failings, but McQuaid must have been the only one in the country who ever thought he was a closet prude.
Refusal of resignations serves to protect church............... ANALYSIS: To spread responsibility for child abuse even to prelates who omitted to act against it would collapse the system, writes Mary Raftery Irish Times - Saturday, August 14, 2010............ The key to understanding the refusal this week of Pope Benedict XVI to accept the resignations of Dublin auxiliary bishops Ray Field and Eamonn Walsh lies in realising the scale of the trauma experienced by the Vatican in recent months. After all, no such problems arose with the resignations of two other former auxiliary bishops Donal Murray and Jim Moriarty. At that stage, however, it was early in the year and it seemed the fallout from the Ryan and Murphy reports on the widespread cover-up of clerical child abuse was merely an Irish problem, a blip on the Vatican’s horizon. But then the appalling vista began to emerge. Undoubtedly prompted by the considerable international media interest in the Irish scandals, further child abuse and cover-up revelations exploded throughout Europe, this time pointing a damning finger deep into the Vatican itself. The German revelations were the most serious. The scandal initially concerned allegations of abuse of boys at a number of elite Jesuit boarding schools. Then the pope’s brother, Msgr Georg Ratzinger, denied knowing about abuse cases during his time as leader of Germany’s most famous boys’ choir, the Regensburger Domspatzen. The focus then shifted to the pope. In 1980, it emerged that a known paedophile priest had been assigned to normal parish duties in the Munich archdiocese, where he continued to have access to children. The archbishop of Munich at the time was one Joseph Ratzinger, now of course the pope. According to the Vatican, however, the then Archbishop Ratzinger knew nothing about this priest ministering in his archdiocese. A monsignor came forward to shoulder the blame. Some weeks later, though, it was reported that the monsignor claimed that pressure had been put on him to exonerate the pontiff. The pope’s own response to the growing scandal was characteristically dismissive. On Palm Sunday at the start of Holy Week, he intoned that faith in God helps to lead one “towards the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion”. This was widely interpreted as referring to the clamour in his native Germany for him to explain himself. Amid all this, we had the visit by the Irish bishops to Rome – that infamous spectacle of men decked up to the nines in purple, queuing up to kiss their master’s ring – followed by the pope’s letter to the Irish church. We also had the damning revelations concerning Seán Brady, Cardinal and Primate of All Ireland, who in 1975 swore to secrecy two children who revealed to him their abuse at the hands of Fr Brendan Smyth. Brady did not inform the civil authorities of these crimes and Smyth went on to abuse countless more children before finally being caught, tried and convicted more than 19 years later. In acting in this furtive manner, Brady was obeying Vatican instructions on how such matters should be investigated. The Murphy commission described these Vatican- mandated procedures as “permeated by a requirement of secrecy. For example, the accuser was required to take an oath of secrecy. The penalty for breach of that oath could extend to excommunication.” Brady engaged in a now well-established Catholic Church practice of delayed response, in the hope that public interest might wane. After several weeks of so-called reflection, he announced that he would not be resigning. He would instead become “a wounded healer”. This then is the background against which the Vatican was assessing whether to accept the resignations of two relatively junior bishops from Ireland, who did not appear to have done anything too terrible themselves, but who were offering (however reluctantly) to resign on the basis that they shared in a collective responsibility for a culture of cover- up during their periods in office. Diarmuid Martin, the current Dublin archbishop, strongly promotes this concept of collective responsibility. However, it is now clear that the notion is being viewed with deep alarm by the Vatican. There is hardly a country in the world not experiencing the scandal of clerical child abuse and its cover-up for decades by bishops. How many of them would have to resign if they accepted the principle of collective responsibility? Where would it all end? The church response has been the creation of the “wounded healer” concept. Coming from an organisation famous for its lack of PR savvy, it is really quite a clever notion. It allows all kinds of senior church figures to glide over a plethora of omissions in their pasts and remain in power to oversee “healing”. Never mind that those omissions invariably meant an abject failure to protect children from appalling crimes. The Catholic Church has joined firmly with the world of disgraced bankers/speculators/financiers in adopting the “we are where we are” approach – leave the past behind us and let’s move on. The events of the past six months have hammered home to the Vatican the vast extent of the international cover-up by bishops of abuse and rape of children by priests. It is simply unthinkable that responsibility be spread to those who turned a blind eye and, through omission, failed to protect children. To do so would require the removal from office of bishops, archbishops, cardinals (and even a pope) on such a scale that the structures of the Catholic Church would collapse. Clean hands are as rare as hen’s teeth among current Catholic prelates. With stakes as high as these, concepts of right and wrong have become irrelevant. Pragmatism rules, dressed up in notions of the greater good being served by survival of the church. This approach mirrors exactly the disastrous attitude adopted by Catholic hierarchies to the issue of clerical child abuse itself – secrecy and cover- up were considered crucial to protect the credibility of priests and bishops in preaching the faith. Damage that credibility and you damage the faith, condemning countless souls to damnation. Weighed in this kind of balance, secular notions of law, justice and the protection of children from sexual predators didn’t register. This is probably the most charitable construction one can put on what has amounted to an international criminal conspiracy on the part of the Catholic Church to pervert the course of justice in order to protect paedophile priests from the law. It is this perversion which defines the culture laid bare with such factual devastation by the Murphy report and its counterparts abroad. In one of the very few genuine expressions of decency connected with this immense scandal, ex-bishop of Kildare Jim Moriarty homed in on this culture and on his own failure to challenge it during his 11 years as auxiliary bishop of Dublin. In taking personal responsibility for his failings and in stating this so clearly as the reason for his resignation in the wake of the Murphy report, he laid bare the hypocrisy (past, present and future) of those clinging to office despite similar derelictions on their part. Another voice of integrity is that of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. Addressing the Knights of Columbanus last May, he spoke of “strong forces” still present in the church “which would prefer that the truth did not emerge”. He referred to “subconscious denial on the part of many about the extent of the abuse . . . and how it was covered up”. He added: “There are other signs of rejection of a sense of responsibility for what had happened”. While the archbishop was referring to the Irish church, his remarks could equally be applied to the Vatican, particularly in the context of the pope’s refusal to accept the resignations of Field and Walsh. Given Martin’s strong advocacy of the principle of collective responsibility, the Vatican decision to leave the two Dublin auxiliaries in situ is more than a slap in the face for him – it is something closer to decapitation. His view that “the Catholic Church in Ireland is coming out of one of the most difficult moments in its history and the light at the end of the tunnel is still a long way off” is perhaps overly sanguine. It might be more accurate to describe the church as having walked itself into a black hole of its own making – and, as everyone knows, there’s no light in a black hole – and no way out.
Pope's refusal to let bishops quit an insult -- abuse victim........ By Breda Heffernan, Saturday August 14 2010....... A Victim of clerical abuse has described the Pope's refusal to accept the resignations of two bishops named in the Murphy report as an "insult to the people of Dublin". Marie Collins said it is time for the pontiff and the Irish hierarchy to explain why Bishops Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field are allowed to remain in office. "They want the faithful in the church to respect the bishops and the Pope, but they are showing no respect toward us. There has to be a proper, official statement because this is just too important to be slipped out the way it has," she added. She said the attitude shown by the church so far has been that the laity are "just not worthy" of an explanation. The Pope's decision was communicated toward the end of a private three-page letter sent by Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, to priests in the city earlier this week. Both the Vatican and Dr Martin have refused to comment. Speaking to the Irish Independent, Ms Collins said the acceptance of Bishop Jim Moriarty's resignation, who was also named in the Murphy report, now stands in stark contrast to the decision to allow Bishops Walsh and Field remain. "The resignation of Bishop Moriarty was accepted and he was in the exact same position as the two auxiliary bishops, that is very strange." She said that while Bishop Moriarty was "very sincere and very honourable" when he said he was stepping down because he had failed to challenge the culture of cover-up within the Archdiocese, it appears that the other two bishops, after offering their resignations, then fought to ensure they weren't accepted. All three bishops tendered their resignations after Archbishop Martin called on those named in the Murphy report to take responsibility. The Pope's decision was seen as a major blow to the authority of Dr Martin and Ms Collins said it was now clear "Rome is not behind him". "The message that is going out to the other bishops is 'don't do as Archbishop Martin did, don't be accountable, open and transparent'. It's just putting us right back to where we were before. Nothing has changed at the top, all the messages from the Pope about taking responsibility were just that -- words." She said the only hope for change in the church now lies with the grassroots as "clericalism is too ingrained". Ms Collins and fellow abuse survivor, Andrew Madden, will be presented with 'Outstanding Courage Awards' at the Humbert Summer School in Castlebar, Co Mayo, next week. Investigate: The four-day summer school will bring together leading progressive Catholics from Ireland and the United States to investigate reforming relations between the churches in both countries and the Vatican. Announcing the programme yesterday, director of the Humbert School and Irish Independent Religion Correspondent, John Cooney, said: "It will discuss ways of liberating the Irish and American churches from the diktat of the papacy and the Roman Curia, as well as initiating new forms of ministry such as married male clergy and women priests." Meanwhile a protest against the Pope's decision will take place outside the Papal Nunciature in Dublin today. -
We now know that this Pope was personally involved in enabling the rape of children rather than confronting criminal priests during his time as an archbishop in Munich. We know that while he had jurisdiction as head of the CDF, child-rapists were often allowed to carry on their crimes, and the most powerful rapist, abuser and cultist, Marcial Maciel, was abetted in his behavior. We know also that Benedict has seemed to try to get a grip on the problem as Pope, while never actually relenting on his own authority or the church's own sense of its own immunity from legal or criminal investigation. And we had, for example, his stirring letter to the Irish bishops about the appalling legacy of child abuse, torture and cruelty perpetrated for decades by men and women abusing the power of their religious office. In this mixed legacy, we now find this. Two bishops in Ireland tendered their resignations to the Vatican in the wake of the ground-breaking and earth-moving Murphy report on church abuse. The Pope has now refused to accept their resignations, setting off a firestorm of outrage in Ireland: Survivor Andrew Madden, who was abused as a child by paedophile priest Ivan Payne, said the announcement came as no surprise. "Today's announcement also shows how utterly meaningless the instruction was that Pope Benedict gave to Irish bishops to identify steps that would bring healing to victims of clerical child sexual abuse. Victims asked for those who were part of the governance of the archdiocese when sexual abuse was being covered up to resign, and this is ignored," he said. John Kelly, of SOCA, said he was "bitterly disappointed" the bishops' resignations had not been accepted by the Vatican. "It will do nothing for the church and it will do nothing to help bring closure for the victims, especially in the Dublin Archdiocese," he said. Kevin Clarke in the Jesuit magazine, America, writes: It is truly becoming difficult to comprehend the thinking going on within the Curia on this issue. Here were two men making, after some episcopal arm-twisting that no doubt cost Archbishop Martin a great deal, who offered themselves up in a small gesture of accountability—so much more is required—but even this meek effort has been rejected in Rome. Could the Curia truly be so oblivious to the anger and frustration of average Catholics worldwide trying to make sense of the church's response to years of sexual abuse by clergy on Catholic children? It doesn't seem possible. And yet, tragically, it does.
Rapist plans exit from country to evade media glare......... By Maeve Sheehan, Sunday Independent, August 15 2010..... The suspected serial killer Larry Murphy is planning his imminent escape from the constant hounding since his release from prison last Thursday, gardai believe. In his three days of freedom, the convicted rapist has sparked huge public anxiety including protests outside a hotel and a hostel for homeless men, where he was wrongly rumoured to have been staying. Garda sources said he has complained twice about media harassment, first in Coolock and later at Kevin Street garda station on Friday evening after he fled a waiting media scrum at Heuston Station after returning from a trip to Cork. Murphy, 45, travelled to Cork by train on Friday morning, having spent his first night of freedom in Dublin. It is believed that he was visiting a former inmate at Arbour Hill who had reportedly visited him during his final days in prison. He was recognised soon after he arrived and returned to Dublin three hours later. The National Surveillance Unit has placed a full-time team to work monitoring Murphy since his release. At least seven plain clothes detectives accompanied him to Heuston Station while at least four travelled with him on the train. Sources said he is now planning to leave the country, funding his exile with a small prison allowance during 10 years in jail. He was also entitled to some of the proceeds of the Baltinglass house that was later sold by his wife. His wife, Margaret, has cut off all contact with him since his conviction for the rape and attempted abduction in 2000. He also has a full driving licence and a passport.
"Is this the beginning of the end for Archbishop Martin? The manner in which Archbishop Diarmuid Martin communicated the Pope's decision not to accept the resignations of two auxiliary bishops in his archdiocese – and his silence since then – speaks volumes about the strain he is under, writes News Investigations Correspondent John Downes............ It could hardly have been a more public reprimand to a man who has openly championed the need for accountability in the Irish Catholic church. But Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's chosen method for delivering the Pope's message last week was notably low key. Far from launching a verbal "hand grenade" during a speech at a high profile gathering of the faithful, for example, he quietly buried the news in a longer three-page letter which concerned itself mainly with the logistics of administering the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. "Following presentation of their resignations to Pope Benedict, it has been decided that Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field will remain as auxiliary bishops and are to be assigned revised responsibilities within the diocese. This means that they will be available to administer confirmation in any part of the diocese in the coming year," he wrote in the letter sent to priests in his archdiocese. Some of his fellow bishops also privately confided last week that the first they heard of the Pope's decision was when they turned on the radio to hear the news headlines. Be that as it may, Martin is nobody's fool. He will have been only too aware that once the contents of the above paragraph from the letter became known, regardless of the context in which it was delivered, its impact would be immediate. Challenge to authority: Pope Benedict's decision not to accept the resignations of two men who report directly to Martin represents arguably the most serious challenge to his authority since he succeeded Cardinal Desmond Connell as archbishop in April 2004. This is in no small part due to the fact that both men only offered their resignations to Rome after Martin repeatedly called on all of those bishops named in the report of the Murphy commission to explain themselves. Ultimately, the pressure he applied led Bishops Walsh and Field to make their dramatic announcement that they were resigning last Christmas Eve. The fact that neither were heavily criticised in Judge Yvonne Murphy's report has prompted some to suggest that the Vatican deemed the report's conclusions insufficient grounds for resignation, amid concerns of a potential "domino effect" which such a precedent would set. This is particularly true if, as seems highly likely, it is to emerge that other Irish bishops have also mishandled allegations of abuse, although it does not explain why the resignation of another bishop who featured in the report, Jim Moriarty, was accepted by the Pope last April. Vatican observers have pointed to the fact that the decision not to accept the original resignations is highly unusual. As a result, others believe it can only be explained by the fact that there was communication between the two bishops and the Holy See since they announced their decision. The Vatican correspondent with the Milan daily newspaper Il Giornale, Andrea Tornelli, even suggested last week that the two auxiliaries had sent a dossier to the Congregation of Bishops prompting the Vatican to reconsider their resignations. Writing in his blog, Tornelli said Bishops Walsh and Field had made it clear to the Holy See that, while they had offered to resign in a spirit of healing and reconciliation, they themselves felt that they had done nothing wrong. Although falling short of a full withdrawal by the two men of their resignations, such actions may well have been seen by the Pope's advisers as a good reason to reject them. In the absence of any sign that Rome will explain the decision publicly – Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi has said it is not "policy" to comment on resignations which had not been accepted – the decision raises a number of troubling questions for Martin. The harsh reality is that he now faces the prospect of working on a daily basis with two men whose removal from office he championed, however indirectly. They meanwhile have the imprimatur of a higher authority – and in the Catholic church there is no greater power than the Pope himself – and could be forgiven if they become emboldened in their dealings with their superior. It remains to be seen how Dublin parents will react when both men start to resume their participation in confirmation ceremonies next year. But in a high stakes game of clerical poker, they have come away with a "trump card". Not surprised: Prominent clerical abuse survivor and campaigner Marie Collins watched last week's events with mixed emotions. In one sense she was "not surprised at all" that the resignations were not accepted, given the length of time the Vatican has taken to make its decision known. Yet she has been left distraught at what it means for the Catholic Church to which she belongs. "It is the final nail in the coffin of any hope I had left that the Catholic Church was going to change, or that it had any intention of listening to the laity. It is still a clerical church," she says. "I think the worst aspect of the whole thing is that Diarmuid Martin's authority has been undermined ... I think he acted correctly in encouraging the resignations of the two auxiliaries not for what they did, but what they did not do. They weren't powerless. "If Bishop Moriarty [whose resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict] knew about abuse as an auxiliary, then they did too. They could have gone public, I know it would have been detrimental to their careers but it would have saved more children from abuse." Among the few options open to Martin now, she believes, is to simply keep his head down, stay quiet and accept the slap on the wrist from the Vatican that he has received. "Or he can simply speak out and express whatever feelings he has. But I don't know whether he would be willing to do this; there is now a huge warning there not to go against the status quo as Diarmuid Martin did," she says. "The ground has been taken out from under him. He can either just take it and carry on, which is what the Vatican would expect, I suppose. Or he can speak out and resign." On a more personal level, last week's events have prompted Collins, who has previously described herself as someone who was clinging onto her faith "by her fingernails", to seriously question for the first time whether she can continue in the Catholic Church. "We had the letter from the Pope in March, and we were disappointed with that. It had a lot of fine words, but the actions are not living up to those words. And yet you still hang on there, hoping it's going to change. And we had the bishops offer their resignations. Only one of them [Moriarty] was apparently sincere and acknowledged it was because he didn't challenge the culture of the church at the time," she explains. "It would appear that these two others were not sincere, and still believe they did nothing wrong. But if those two had stood up, children would have been stopped from being abused. The fact that the Pope doesn't see that is the final straw for me." "I have always said my Christianity is not in doubt. I am not disillusioned with my faith in God or Christ. But I am just at the point where I'm considering that I don't need to call myself a Catholic any more, in a church where clerical power holds sway. My hope of reform coming from within the clerical church is gone." The fact that the Pope now appears to be differentiating between acts of commission and acts of omission is another deeply worrying development for her too. "Children continue to be abused in both cases; it allows the abuse to continue. If you stand by doing nothing it has the same effect," she says. "I would be considering leaving at this point. When I was clinging on to my Catholic faith with my fingertips in the past, I still had hope. And Diarmuid Martin was a symbol of that. I would definitely see this as the end of any hope that things are going to change. So I'm at the point definitely of thinking this is not the Church for me. I'm not just saying that for effect. I just can't see any glimmer of hope, any reason to stay. I'm totally shattered at this point." Falling into line: For all his outspokenness on issues relating to clerical sexual abuse, Diarmuid Martin has pointedly confined himself to criticising his fellow bishops and priests in Ireland. You do not become an archbishop by being a vocal critic of the Vatican or its teachings. Martin is also a career Vatican diplomat, well versed in how to operate within its intricate power structures, rather than openly questioning its decisions. So the fact that he did not respond to queries from this newspaper last week – he is understood to be on annual leave in Italy – indicates that he has little intention of breaking rank. Some also believe that despite how it may appear, it is highly unlikely that the decision to reject the resignations of Walsh and Field would have been made without his agreement. As a result, they say this is no longer a resigning matter, if it ever really was. Michael Kelly, deputy editor of the Irish Catholic, which was first to publish details of the leaked letter from Martin last week, says he would probably have known about the Pope's decision for at least two weeks, as the entire Vatican closes for business during the month of August. Others suggest he may have known since as far back as March. Kelly says the decision confirms the suspicions which some, such as abuse survivors, have that Martin effectively had his "wings clipped" during last February's meeting of the Irish bishops with the Pope in Rome. It might also help to explain what some believe have been his increasingly "tetchy" public statements in the intervening months. "The Archbishop was not neutral in all this. He wanted them to resign, he was very clear on that," Kelly says. "So they've won, if you like. The Vatican has backed the auxiliaries rather than their archbishop. it believes there has been an injustice done against them. "So to some extent they have been rehabilitated, and whether Diarmuid Martin has confidence in them is no longer really relevant. The people above him in the Vatican do." Kelly believes the Vatican is generally happy with the line Martin has taken in confronting clerical sexual abuse in his archdiocese, but is anxious to avoid any public disputes among fellow bishops. "This decision would not have been foisted upon Martin. He may have been reluctantly convinced to accept it, but if he had been dead set against it, I don't think it would have happened. They would have been worried about forcing him to resign, so in some way, he has reluctantly agreed to a compromise," he adds. This raises an¬other intriguing possibility. Martin has long been rumoured to be on the verge of re¬turning to his previous stellar career in the Vatican. If he believes he will not be in his post for much longer, then the "indignity" of having to work on a daily basis with Bishops Walsh and Field may be a relatively temporary inconvenience perhaps secured with the promise of a plum Vatican posting as a reward for obedience in the short to medium term. As the Pope prepares to send a hardline apostolic delegation here to commence his much publicised "visitation" of the Irish Catholic church, this begs the further question: has the search for a potential successor to Diarmuid Martin begun?
Abuse survivor 'shattered' by Pope's decision.............. Refusal to accept two bishops' resignations is 'final nail in the coffin' of hope for real change, John Downes, News Investigations Correspondent...... “No hope: Marie Collins says the Church's actions have left her thinking 'this is not the church for me".............. Well-known clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins, who has doggedly remained a Catholic in the hope that the church will reform, is considering quitting the church following Pope Benedict's decision not to accept the resignations of two Dublin auxiliary archbishops. Describing last week's revelation as the "final nail in the coffin" of her hope that the church would change, Collins said she has "really gone beyond the point I was at before". "When I was clinging on to my Catholic faith with my fingertips in the past, I still had hope. And Diarmuid Martin was a symbol of that. I would definitely see this as the end of any hope that things are going to change," she said. "So I'm at the point definitely of thinking this is not the church for me. I'm not just saying that for effect. I just can't see any glimmer of hope, any reason to stay. I'm totally shattered at this point. "I have always said my Christianity is not in doubt. I am not disillusioned with my faith in God or Christ. But I am just at the point where I'm considering that I don't need to call myself a Catholic anymore, in a church where clerical power holds sway. My hope of reform coming from within the clerical church is gone." In an interview with the Sunday Tribune, Collins – who was abused as a child by a priest identified in the Murphy report – said the Pope's decision not to accept the resignations of Bishops Raymond Field and Eamonn Walsh meant the "ground has been taken out" from under Dublin Archbishop Martin. Dr Martin, who is in Italy on annual leave, has refused to comment on the Pope's decision, which he communicated in a letter to priests in his diocese last week. "I think the worst aspect of the whole thing is that Diarmuid Martin's authority has been undermined," Collins said. "I think he acted correctly in encouraging the resignations of the two auxiliaries not for what they did, but what they did not do." Along with her fellow abuse survivor Andrew Madden, Collins is due be presented with an "outstanding merit" award at the prestigious Humbert Summer School in Castlebar, Co Mayo, this week. "We had the letter from the Pope in March, and we were disappointed with that. It had a lot of fine words, but the actions are not living up to those words. And yet you still hang on there, hoping it's going to change. And we had the bishops offer their resignations," she said. "It would appear that these two others were not sincere, and still believe they did nothing wrong. But if those two had stood up, children would have been stopped from being abused. The fact that the Pope doesn't see that is the final straw for me." There has been some speculation that the decision to assign both auxiliary bishops "revised responsibilities" was taken by Martin, and was not specifically requested by the Vatican. However, neither the Papal nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza nor Martin would comment when contacted.
"Church has moved on, maybe faithful should too"................ Some time next month, the British QC Geoffrey Robertson will deliver what his publishers Penguin are describing as a "devastating indictment" of the way the Vatican has run a secret legal system shielding paedophile priests from criminal trial around the world. Although Robertson acknowledges the deep faith and good works practised by millions of ordinary Catholics throughout the world, he examines whether the pope is responsible, morally or legally, for the combination of negligence and lack of interest which allowed so many paedophile crimes to go unsolved, and so many paedophile priests to thrive within the church. At the end of another depressing week for Irish Catholics, these are not irrelevant questions. The decision by Pope Benedict not to accept the resignations of auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field is the latest indication from the Vatican that it has already left behind the controversies of the last few years – the Ryan report, the Murphy report and all that followed from them – and is again putting the protection of the institution of the church above all else. Initial soundings from the Vatican suggested that Benedict was afraid of creating hostages to fortune; if Field and Walsh had to go, then so too would any bishops discovered in the future to have been lax in the protection of children. As this is a likely prospect – in Ireland and elsewhere – the Vatican faced the prospect of bishops dropping like flies over the coming years as their negligence came back to haunt them. For a pope less interested in the morale of believers than in canon law and in the rigid application of church teaching, that was an appalling vista indeed. Faced with a choice between battening down the hatches and sending out a signal that the Vatican was interested in accountability and justice for the people its priests had damaged, Benedict went for the easy option. For Irish Catholics, for the Irish government which established the Ryan and Murphy inquiries, for Archbishop Martin, who had done so much to place the issue of accountability on the agenda, the message from Rome was clear: it's time for you to move on, because we have. The signs are that many people are moving on, though not into the arena of blissful ignorance in which the pope has chosen to fight this issue. It's hard to see, for example, how Archbishop Martin can stay in his current position when he has been so publicly humiliated by the Vatican and when relations with the two auxiliary bishops whose bacon was saved by Benedict have become so bad. Ordinary, decent Catholics, increasingly frustrated by the intransigence from the top on the issue of paedophile priests and other controversies, will be moving on too. In this newspaper today, Marie Collins, a victim of clerical abuse who has managed, despite everything, to cling on to her Catholicism, announces that she is on the verge of quitting the Church. Last week's refusal to accept the resignations was as much as she could take. "I have always said my Christianity is not in doubt", she says. "I am not disillusioned with my faith in God or Christ," she says. "But I am just at the point where I'm considering that I don't need to call myself a Catholic any more, in a church where clerical power holds sway. My hope of reform coming from within the Church is gone". Even before last week's news from the Vatican came through, 80-year-old Jennifer Sleeman from Clonakilty in Co Cork had announced she was organising a one-day boycott of Sunday mass "by the faithful women of Ireland". Sleeman, the mother of a Glenstal monk, wants "to let the Vatican and the Irish church know that women are tired of being treated as second-class citizens". She looks at her children and grandchildren, she says, and sees no future for the Catholic Church. She is not alone. The à la carte Catholicism that once was ridiculed as the preserve of a feckless middle class is rapidly becoming the only sane option for believers. Many people would prefer for reasons of tradition, or ritual, or companionship to have a place to go to worship every Sunday. But the more they feel they are participating in a charade, as a captive audience for unaccountable leaders, the more likely it is that they will stay away from mass and parish activities, confident that the God they believe in will respect their conscientious objections to the Catholic Church in its current form. They will cut out the middlemen, in other words. It's the rational choice, perhaps the only one left.
Priest steps aside as 'child safeguarding' issue investigated............... James Smyth, Social Affairs Correspondent Irish Times - Monday, August 16, 2010................. A Priest in the archdiocese of Armagh has agreed to step down from his parish to allow for an investigation into a complaint relating to “child safeguarding”. Bishop Gerard Clifford spoke to the priest’s congregation on Saturday after celebrating vigil Mass at the parish. A statement explaining the matter was also read out to parishioners yesterday. “This week the archdiocese has been made aware of a complaint relating to child safeguarding against a priest of the diocese. “The priest has agreed to voluntarily step down to allow the investigation into this matter to be conducted efficiently,” said the statement. “The allegation has been reported to the civil authorities, and the diocese and the priest will fully co-operate with any investigation. Whilst this process is ongoing the priest is entitled to the benefit of a presumption of innocence.” The archdiocese of Armagh also called on any person who has concerns about any safeguarding matters in the church context to report these to the civil authorities or through diocesan officers. Bishop Clifford said he had spoken about the matter to Cardinal Seán Brady, who was away at the moment. The priest at the centre of the allegations is very popular in his parish. In recent weeks he had been told to move parish by Cardinal Seán Brady, prompting complaints from his congregation. A petition calling for the priest to be allowed to remain in the parish had attracted hundreds of signatures in recent weeks. “He is very well liked in the community and has done a lot of good work here,” one parishioner told The Irish Times yesterday. Last March parents of Confirmation children in the parish had asked the priest to tell Cardinal Brady they didn’t want him to perform the ceremony when it emerged he had been involved in an investigation 35 years ago of a case involving Brendan Smyth. A small group of protesters handed in a letter at the papal nuncio’s residence in Dublin at the weekend in protest at the pope’s refusal to accept the resignations of two Irish bishops, writes Joanne Hunt . The letter calls on Pope Benedict to reverse his decision to decline the resignations of auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field. The letter, handed in by Catholic activists, states that the pope’s action had caused “extensive hurt and outrage among survivors of clerical abuse and among the catholic faithful”. Only four people, including protest organiser Brendan Butler, attended the demonstration despite the fact that victims’ groups had been informed of the event. Asked about the turnout, Mr Butler said “people won’t come out to protest . . . because they are not being listened to”. The letter, handed in at Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza’s residence, was received at the gate by a member of his staff. She said the papal nuncio was not at home but assured protesters that the letter would be forwarded to Rome.
Murphy in secret location on orders of minister............ By Paul Melia, Monday August 16 2010 Irish Independent................ Freed rapist Larry Murphy was last night staying in a secret location under the supervision of the Probation Service after the intervention of Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, it was confirmed yesterday. Officials at the Probation Service were told to do "whatever was necessary" to get Murphy into a prisoner programme after two premises where he was thought to be staying were besieged by angry mobs last week. Yesterday, it emerged that the move came about after Mr Ahern became concerned about the level of publicity surrounding his release. Murphy left prison last Thursday after serving 10 years of a 15-year sentence for the rape and attempted murder of a businesswoman in a remote area of the Wicklow mountains. He sought refuge in Kevin Street Garda Station in Dublin on Friday night after being pursued by the media and verbally abused by members of the public as he returned from a day trip to Cork. The Probation Service had had no involvement with him because he had refused to avail of support services prior to his release. It emerged yesterday that the minister instructed his officials to tell the Probation Service to "re-engage" with the sex offender as quickly as possible. It is understood he was encouraged to accept help from probation officers by senior gardai and a prison chaplain whom he called for help. He is now staying at a secret location, and has been offered therapy and other support services. The Department of Justice refused to comment, saying it did not discuss individual cases. But the level of publicity surrounding his release led the minister to intervene. Two Facebook pages have been set up. One, 'Don't let Larry Murphy out', has more than 20,000 followers, and includes a link to an online petition "to have Larry Murphy hung". Options Another Facebook page -- 'Larry Murphy location tracker' -- is followed by 4,300 people; while 'Beware Rapist' posters have been distributed near his former home at Baltinglass, Co Wicklow. He had told gardai he did not intend to leave Ireland, but is said to be reconsidering his options. The 45-year-old was jailed after abducting a woman from a Carlow car park in February 2000. He was sentenced to 15 years, but given remission and released after 10 for good behaviour. He refused to take part in rehabilitation programmes while in prison. The rapist is being monitored by the garda's National Surveillance Unit, with plainclothes officers following him. He carries a mobile phone and reports to gardai daily.
We have right to exclude rapist............ Monday August 16 2010............ The release of Larry Murphy raises the question of what constitutes justice in our society. While many abhor the release of this man among us, there remains the issue of whether there can be a measured penalty for wrongdoing that satisfies society's requirement for justice. Should we rest on the fact that Murphy served the jail term given to him and is entitled now to his freedom as a participant in our society? Is the debt, to the woman he terrorised and violated, paid? Should we now put away our fears of recidivism as a matter of fairness, because he now no longer has anything to answer for? Or are there crimes for which we should say there is no measure of jail time that pays the price and he no longer has the right to be one of us. True justice should mean inclusion of the reformed offender in community, but I believe true justice is about more than years behind bars. I believe the right to deny inclusion should exist in any civilised society when repentance on the part of a perpetrator is absent. Murphy did not co-operate with the investigations into the disappearance of young women. He did not avail of rehabilitation services while in prison. He has shown no remorse for his crime. He has not met the requirements of inclusion in our community. .....Anna Dowling
Murphy case raises serious questions....Sunday Buisness Post....... 15 August 2010........... The release of sex offender Larry Murphy from jail dominated the headlines and radio talkshows last week. Some real issues have emerged, even if a certain amount of the coverage has been gratuitously inflammatory. One mystifying aspect of the case is that Murphy, despite the horrific crime for which he was convicted, served just ten-and-a-half years of a 15-year sentence. Despite refusing treatment in prison, he was still entitled, under current rules, to early release for ‘good behaviour’ on the same terms as other prisoners. Consideration needs to be given in such circumstances to whether a prisoner participated in available treatment programmes. Some requirement should also be introduced to assess the risk of re-offending as a prelude to an early release. There are also real public policy issues relating to how sex offenders - particularly high-risk ones, like Murphy - are monitored following their release, and what information is made available to the wider public about their whereabouts. There are systems requiring such offenders to report their whereabouts on a regular basis and obliging the Garda Siochána to monitor them. Questions remain about whether these monitoring procedures should be tightened, whether the public should be given more information or whether electronic tagging - now being considered on a pilot basis - should become commonplace. No such system can ever be perfect. But in cases where reoffending is thought to be a serious risk, a serious responsibility lies with the state and its officers. There is no doubt that the media coverage of Murphy’s release increased public fear, as well as intruding on the privacy of some of his family members. The public needed to be told about Murphy’s exit from prison, and the issues outlined above are legitimate ones for debate. However, the sight of vigilante-style groups responding to unfounded rumours about his whereabouts is unwelcome. Murphy has served his sentence and is now subject to monitoring procedures designed for a ‘high-risk’ offender. The Garda Siochána has not uncovered any evidence to link him to the string of disappearances of other women, one of the factors which has increased public fear. We must now hope that the monitoring procedures work as they should. Meanwhile, today’s newspaper reveals wider questions about our prison system. Because demand for prison places greatly exceeds supply, some 800 inmates are freed each month on temporary release orders. These orders, intended for use in a restricted way, are now being used as a means of reducing overcrowding in our prisons. It is a trend which, if continued, will cast doubts on the credibility of the whole system of sentencing.
Larry Murphy release - Coverage highlights vital issues........... Tuesday, August 17, 2010............... Since his release from jail last week after serving 10 years for the abduction, rape and attempted murder of a woman from Carlow in February 2000, Larry Murphy has been the centre of what can only be described as a media maelstrom. The rights and wrongs of such coverage is something that has been debated at length. Perhaps more worthy of discussion, however, are other issues that have been highlighted by his release. Among them the serious deficiencies that exist regarding the rehabilitative aspect of our prison system and the equally worrying system that surrounds the monitoring of dangerous offenders after their release from prison. These issues are of vital concern to society. Prison has two main functions – punishing wrongdoing and protecting society from the dangerous people being incarcerated. Rehabilitation, however, is necessary if society is to be safe from these people after they are released. Murphy was given remission for "good behaviour" even though he reportedly refused rehabilitative treatment that was available while he was in prison. Surely availing of such treatment when it is available should be a condition for any remission in a jail sentence. This could then be used as an incentive for prisoners to rehabilitate themselves. When Murphy was sentenced to prison, his crime did not come under the Sex Offenders Act of 2001, so he could not be compelled to undergo the post-release supervision provisions of that legislation. Although others could not be compelled to undergo such supervision either, some have voluntarily requested such supervision for their own protection. Upon his release Murphy attracted so much attention that he sought the protection of the gardaí and the assistance of both the Probation Service and the prison chaplain. His actions could, in themselves, be seen as positive developments that highlight the scandal of his refusal to avail of the assistance and therapy while he was still in prison. Recent developments have spotlighted the valuable work of the Probation Service, but it is under intense pressure over cutbacks. For years it pushed for post-release supervision and for therapy to be made available for sex offenders, but now that it has the authority, it does not have the resources to implement these measures properly. The Probation Service is understaffed with 20% less personnel than it had a couple of years ago. It is now subject to a recruitment cap, even though its workload has been increasing. Its shortages have been highlighted in court cases in which judges have expressed frustration at delays in obtaining probation reports. Our courts are clogged with recidivists. This situation underlines the need for proper rehabilitation. We do not have a society that can fund everything but surely we should at least be striving for the rehabilitation of criminals as well as ensuring that the most dangerous offenders are closely monitored following their release from prison
Church always abused its flock........... Pope Formosus, the 9th-Century Pope who was dug up nine months after his death and put on trial by his successor, Pope Stephen VI, was the recipient of the application of canon law. He was dug up and prosecuted for offending his rival, Stephen, when he was a sitting Pope. The new Pope, Stephen, in fairness, complied with due process and appointed legal counsel to defend Formosus's corpse. I cannot help thinking of the trial of Formosus, surely one of the most absurd episodes in the history of the development of 'canon law', whenever I hear or read about Irish Catholics expressing upset about the decisions of the powers that be in Rome. Can someone please explain to me why so many feel unable to shake themselves free of the self-appointed successors of Stephen, and all the other despots that laid down the medieval set of regulations that continue to dominate the administration of the absurd institution that is the Vatican state? The essential goodness of loyal church followers is matched only by the cynicism of the leaders of a church that cannot in all fairness be accused of losing touch, when in truth its interests never really coincided with the followers in the first place. It seems that history's oldest bad habit is the bizarre relationship that exists between the power brokers of the Vatican City and the flock it herds. This relationship is of course abusive. Commentators on the debate about whether bishops should resign or not make the mistake of forgetting that the organisation to which they choose to submit can do whatever it wishes with its vassals. So, stop thinking democracy, and start thinking like a slave, and you won't be too disappointed. And for those who want to know, Formosus was found guilty under canon law and his corpse was cast into the Tiber, an unconsecrated end for a recipient of the fair and thorough process of church-made law....... Declan Doyle
A complex question steamrolled by hysteria.............. Panic about Larry Murphy masks the reality that rapists walk among us all the time, writesFintan O’Toole, Irish Times - Tuesday, August 17, 2010……………… Recently, At the West Belfast festival, I took part in a Questions and Answers- style public forum. A woman whose daughter had been attacked by a sexual predator asked a question about the right of communities to be told about convicted sex offenders living in their midst. Naomi Long, the very impressive Alliance MP for East Belfast, argued cogently (and in the circumstances quite bravely) that, unless sex offenders are to be locked up for life, they will eventually end up in the community. It is much less dangerous if they are supervised in a calm and dignified way, without the hysteria that follows public disclosure and forces them underground. Ian Paisley jnr argued, equally cogently, that a democracy could not deny parents the right to information that they believe they need in order to protect their children. I agreed entirely with Naomi Long while she was speaking and almost equally with Ian Paisley. As it happened, time ran out before I could respond. This saved me from giving a stupid but honest answer: that I am against disclosure in every case except when the offender is living near me or my family. It so happens that I have teenage nieces living in Baltinglass, where Larry Murphy lived. I can’t convince myself that they or their parents don’t have the right to know where he is. A man who is so incapable of compassion that he can plot the kidnap, humiliation, violation and murder of a fellow human being does not become less damaged or less dangerous after a decade in jail. I know that the evidence suggests that sex offenders are actually less likely to be charged with a repeat offence than other criminals. But I also know that many sex offenders are cunning, manipulative and often very good at not getting caught. And, given the very low rate of convictions for sex offences, how likely is an offender to be caught twice? On the other hand, it is sadly naive to think that people – or at least all people – can be trusted with knowledge. Many will indeed use information about the whereabouts of a man like Murphy as a source of reassurance and calm. But others will use it stupidly, to set themselves up as swaggering avengers. And the stupid people have powerful allies in the tabloid press who warm their hands on the flames of hysterical cant. Many of us may have laughed bitterly a few years ago when, in the midst of one wave of moral panic about paedophiles, an English mob attacked the office of a paediatrician. We’ve now descended into that same idiocy. The worst thing about this hysteria is that it steamrolls the genuine ambiguity of what is, in truth, a fiendishly difficult question. The issue is so difficult because it works a bit like the laws of physics. In physics, one set of laws works very well for the large scale of the universe and one works very well for the tiny scale of sub-atomic particles. But the two sets of laws don’t work together and sometimes they are actually in conflict. So it is with sex offenders. There’s a law for the large scale of things – anonymity helps offenders to reintegrate into society in the safest way. And there’s a law for the small scale – I want to know if a rapist is living next door. Each law is perfectly rational but they don’t work together. As well as doing violence to this genuine complexity, the hysteria also profoundly misleads people about the real threat of sex crimes. The panic about the idea of rapists living among us masks the uncomfortable reality that they already do. By focusing on a figure like Murphy, we give ourselves a strange kind of reassurance. If only, we imagine, we know exactly what he’s up to, we will be safe from harm. The brutal truth is that most sex offenders are sickeningly familiar. Most children who are sexually abused are assaulted by members of their own families. In many of the cases when they are assaulted by someone outside the family, the abuse is known to others. (Read the Murphy report on the Dublin diocese for examples.) In the case of adults, the recent Rape and Justice report shows that 39 per cent of rapes are committed by friends or acquaintances and 18 per cent by current or former partners. In all, two-thirds of victims are raped by someone they know and the most common location is the victim’s own home. And most rapists get away with it: around a third of adult rapes are not reported and just a quarter of reported rapes result in a prosecution. Rapists and child abusers walk among us all the time. We sit beside them on the bus, say hello to them in the shops, share jokes with them at work. Larry Murphy was once one of them. Is he really more dangerous as the infamous “sex beast” than he was as a quiet member of the community?
Irish Industrial School Committal Papers found in old sideboard put up for sale on E: Bay.................. A 1913 document ordering the detention of a young girl in a Co Cork industrial school has been put up for sale on eBay. It details how Fr Gus Ahern of the “North Cathedral, Cork” sought the detention of Mary Bridget McSwiney (sic) at Clonakilty industrial school, at a court hearing in Blarney. The order was granted as she was “a child under the age of 14 years” who had “been found wandering and having a parent who does not exercise proper guardianship”. Described as “Roman Catholic”, the child was to be detained until 1919 at Clonakilty industrial school, “it being a school conducted in accordance with the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church”. It was further ordered that her father, Eugene McSwiney, pay six pence a week to the inspector of reformatory and industrial schools in Ireland for the period of Mary Bridget’s detention. The document has been put on auction with opening bids beginning at $29. It was placed there by Irish Celt, a Co Clare-based company which has been selling items of Irish memorabilia on eBay since 1998. As stated on its website, “our mission is to awaken memories from another era”. The company is run by Davoc and Anne Rynne of Knockliscrane, Miltown Malbay. Last night, Mr Rynne said he had sold a similar detention document recently to a Kildare customer, who was “well happy” with it. The documents had been brought to him by a furniture dealer who had discovered them in what appeared to be “a secret compartment” in a sideboard he had bought. There were two folders of documents in the compartment, only some of which the furniture dealer had sold on. But Mr Rynne described the documents as “a poignant piece of history”. He recalled how Adams auctioneers had to withdraw Famine letters from sale recently due to public reaction. “I can understand that but we live in a capitalist society, so what can we do? I had to buy it.” He added, however, he had been “thinking of taking it down” off eBay, where it was placed last Sunday, as “I wouldn’t like to be upsetting people”.
Priest given leave as child safety issue is investigated....... Patsy McGarry, Irish Times - Wednesday, August 18, 2010....... The Catholic diocese of Derry has announced that a priest there has requested, and been granted, administrative leave while an issue of safeguarding children is being investigated. The priest “has and continues to co-operate fully with the civil authorities, as has the diocese”, a statement on the Derry diocesan website said yesterday. It continued that “the paramount concern of the diocese is, and will continue to be, the safety and welfare of children”. It also said: “The diocese also encourages any person who has a concern about any safeguarding matters in the church context to report these to the civil authorities or to the diocesan designated officer, who will assist with any contact with the civil authorities”. The statement said “it would be inappropriate to comment any further. While this process is ongoing the priest is entitled to the benefit of a presumption of innocence”. Last weekend a priest of Armagh archdiocese agreed to step down from ministry in his parish to allow for an investigation into a complaint relating to “child safeguarding”. Armagh auxiliary bishop Gerard Clifford spoke to the priest’s congregation on Saturday after celebrating vigil Mass at the parish. A statement explaining the matter was also read out to parishioners on Sunday. It said: “This week the archdiocese has been made aware of a complaint relating to child safeguarding against a priest of the diocese. The priest has agreed to voluntarily step down to allow the investigation into this matter to be conducted efficiently. “The allegation has been reported to the civil authorities, and the diocese and the priest will fully co-operate with any investigation.”
Two priests step down following child safety allegations............. By Anita Guidera and Colin Gleeson, Irish Independent, Wednesday August 18 2010............ Two priests have voluntarily stepped down from their duties over allegations relating to child safeguarding. Fr Eugene Boland told tearful parishioners in Killyclogher, Co Tyrone, on Sunday he was taking administrative leave. The priest, who was also in tears, told the shocked congregation he was facing a "personal crisis" but declined to reveal any further details. In a statement, Bishop of Derry, Dr Seamus Hegarty, confirmed a priest had "requested and been granted administrative leave while an issue of safeguarding is being processed". The bishop said children's safety and welfare was of paramount concern to the diocese. "It would be inappropriate to comment any further. While this process is ongoing, the priest is entitled to the benefit of a presumption of innocence," he said. The 63-year-old priest, a native of Moville, Co Donegal, was ordained in St Pius X Church, Moville, in 1973. He previously worked as administrator in Galliagh in Derry, and served in parishes in Creggan and on the Waterside in the city. He is chaplain to two hospitals in Omagh, Co Tyrone, and the Community Hospital in Carndonagh, Co Donegal. He has been in Killyclogher -- just outside Omagh -- since January 2004 and led the drive for the restoration of St Mary's Church, which reopened in March last year in the village. Last night, parishioners were rallying in support of the popular priest. Independent Omagh town councillor Patrick McGowan said while the investigation was at an early stage, he believed the priest would be exonerated. "It is difficult to understand and believe because we had such a fine priest. There is no doubt in my mind that after this is investigated, we will have Fr Boland back in our parish," he added. Meanwhile, the church confirmed another priest has voluntarily stepped down following a complaint relating to child safeguarding. Fr Oliver Brennan, the parish priest in Blackrock, Co Louth, took the decision in order to allow the investigation to proceed efficiently. The priest was summoned to a meeting with Cardinal Brady in Ara Coeli, Armagh, just a few weeks ago in order to discuss a move to a different parish. Instructed: Fr Brennan, who originally comes from Edmondstown, Ardee, Co Louth, has been based in Blackrock for over 10 years and is said to be hugely popular with his parishioners -- 900 of whom recently signed a petition to keep him based there. A statement from the Catholic Church last night said that Bishop Gerard Clifford spoke to the congregation about a decision made concerning their local pastor. Bishop Clifford said Cardinal Sean Brady -- who is away -- had instructed him to make a statement outlining how the archdiocese had been made aware of a complaint relating to child safeguarding. The statement said the priest involved had agreed to step down to allow the investigation to be conducted efficiently. It said the allegation had been referred to the civil authorities, and the diocese and priest were prepared to fully cooperate with any investigation. The statement stressed the priest is entitled to the benefit of the presumption of innocence and it asked for prayers for those involved in the matter.
Women's boycott a wake-up call for church...... Jennifer Sleeman's call for women to boycott Mass on September 26 should give all Catholics food for thought on the subject of how women are treated by, and within, their church. The Vatican has made it clear that anyone who ordains a woman will be guilty of a grave sin, but it failed to elaborate as to whether the offence would be greater or lesser in the eyes of God or the church than the sin of child abuse; or the presumably sinful practice of moving clerical abusers to different parishes instead of standing up for their victims. One thinks also of the grief and trauma inflicted in the past on thousands of women, mothers whose babies were refused the dignity of a church-approved burial because they hadn't been baptised. Their innocent souls, the church had people believing for centuries, were lost in limbo and could never see the light of God. The bones of many of those "limbo babies" lie under stones or in unmarked graves all over Ireland, thanks to that cruel teaching that the church, thankfully, has ditched. The Vatican "decommissioned" limbo only after many years of pleading and petitioning from groups around the world. The involvement of women as Eucharistic ministers in the church might be seen as a step towards equal status, especially as women were long denied the sacrament of communion for up to six weeks after giving birth -- to prevent defilement of the Blessed Host. Women also are allowed to join pastoral councils, but these tend to be mere extensions of clerical power, rubber-stamping the wishes and decisions of the local clergy. I am aware of a case in which a woman in the midlands who had lapsed in her Mass attendance was approached by the parish priest and offered some down-to-earth advice. He informed her that other members of the council found her non-attendance at Mass upsetting and he asked her if she wouldn't mind being seen occasionally in the chapel as this, he assured her, "would keep those auld bags quiet". Ms Sleeman's boycott plea may serve as a much-needed, wake-up to the Catholic Church.
Correct me if I am wrong, was this site not set up for surviviors to communicate with one another but instead all we get is clippings from newspapers but nothing about the ballot, or are you just sitting back and letting the bastards WIN ? i'ts information we want on this for surviviors not clips from newspapers that we can get ourselves, wheres all the talk about the ballot or was it just talk.Anonymous.
Tell bishops to 'get the hell out of our cathedrals', says writer Friday August 20 2010 Irish Catholics should establish a home-grown church by demanding that the bishops "get the hell out of your cathedrals", a leading author said yesterday. Former 'Newsweek' journalist Robert Blair Kaiser also said that a grandmother who is urging women to boycott Mass in protest at the way women are treated in the church has started a revolution He called on Irish Catholics to fix their "broken church" by making it "more Irish, less Roman" at the opening of the Humbert Summer School in Co Mayo. Mr Blair Kaiser, who reported on the second Vatican Council for 'Time' magazine, said that the battle for the Irish Catholic church had already been started by 80-year-old Jennifer Sleeman, who has called on women to boycott Sunday mass on September 26 "to let the Vatican and the Irish church know women are tired of being treated as second-class citizens". The US author said that the Cork grandmother had probably started the revolution. "I have every reason to believe that you can take back your church -- your church, not the Pope's church, your church -- not the bishops' church", said Mr Blair Kaiser who recommended that Irish Catholics create a "autochthonous" or local and from-the-ground-up church. In a keynote address 'Church Reform: No More Thrones', the author said he was not attacking the Catholic faith but the "special and corrosive tyranny that popes have been exercising over Catholics everywhere". He said that in the 1800s, Ireland's first cardinal, Paul Cullen, had built a two-tiered clerical Irish church which marched in total loyalty to Rome and his own over-reaching authority. Later, Dublin Archbishop John Charles McQuaid had "put his own special twists" on Cardinal Cullen's authoritarian model, imposing his iron will on Irish politics and Irish society. "The cardinal and the archbishop established the clerical culture in Ireland that Judge Yvonne Murphy identified as the root cause of the Irish scandals that have sent your nation reeling," said Blair Kaiser. Irish Catholics could establish a home-grown church by demanding bishops "get the hell out of your cathedrals" and elect their own bishops who would serve the people as listeners, not lords," he suggested. Rejected In a response to the US expert, 'Irish Catholic' deputy editor Michael Kelly rejected the comparison between England's occupation and the "colonising power" of the papacy. He said that while he shared the keynote speaker's sadness that the church in Ireland had been unwilling and unable to embrace the teachings of the second Vatican Council, he could not accept that the council intended a rupture of the Catholic tradition of the church. "What I have experienced in Ireland is a Catholicism that has betrayed the best tradition of our church, he added. He said it was more consoling to blame Rome than to search Irish Catholicism for what had gone wrong and he called for an "honest investigation" into the culture of the church here. The dreadful truth about the "cabal of egomaniacal clerics" who failed Irish Catholics so dreadfully, is that these bishops did not come from Rome or Constantinople -- but from Caherciveen, Tullamore, Cavan, Roscommon and Castlebar. The school continues today with an examination of the response by the Pope and the Irish hierarchy to the abuse scandals. - Marese McDonagh Irish Independent
€1.5m land sale funded clerical sex abuse payouts Friday August 20 2010 A CATHOLIC Church diocese sold off a piece of land and invested the money in a trust fund to pay off claims from people who suffered clerical sex abuse. The diocese of Killaloe sold the land in Ennis to the town council for €1.5m, which it used to set up the special fund in 2002. Outgoing Bishop Willie Walsh revealed the money was invested and grew over a number of years. However, the fund was also frequently depleted by payouts and is now almost empty. Bishop Walsh will be succeeded in his position by Fr Kieran O'Reilly at a special ordination ceremony at Ennis Cathedral on August 29. The trust fund was primarily set up to help victims of clerical sex abuse and those hurt by the church. In one case, money from the fund had been paid to a man who claimed he had been taken advantage of by three priests. Motivation Bishop Walsh said some €40,000 was paid out to the man from the fund while he gifted him another €25,000 from his own personal funds. The money from the fund was typically used for people who had suffered clerical abuse while they were children. The man in question was a young adult when the alleged abuse happened. "I would hope that my motivation was one of genuine care for this person who had been so hurt by a priest," Bishop Walsh said. However, this did not make up for what had happened to him, he said. The man has claimed the abuse severely affected him. Bishop Walsh said he had frequently been in debt but did not have any regrets. "I am told by some people I am very naive when it comes to helping some people. I do give away a fair bit of my own money to people in need. I am not a spender," he said. Irish Independent
Parishioners ‘nearly lynch’ bishop in row over priest............ By Claire O’Sullivan, Friday, August 20, 2010.............. The Archdiocese of Armagh has strongly defended its role in asking a Co Louth priest to stand down after parishioners burst into a sacristy to confront the bishop over his decision. The elderly mass-goers were horrified at Bishop Gerard Clifford’s decision to request that Fr Oliver Brennan stand aside over child protection complaints made by a woman recently. A band of his parishioners and friends last night said "holy war broke out" after the bishop read out a statement on behalf of the Archbishop of Armagh, stating that Fr Brennan would no longer remain as parish priest. The mass-goers said feelings were so high the bishop "was nearly lynched". It’s understood that the Blackrock priest was due to officiate at a wedding on the day that he was told to step down and had to pull in a replacement. A close friend of Fr Brennan’s said he was told at 8am that he would have to leave the parish house by 6pm that evening and that he was "a shell of a man leaving the house". The allegations relate to an alleged incident over 30 years ago. Last night, the Catholic Press Office said the complaint was not made anonymously and the "person who made the complaint" is known to them. Yesterday, friends of the priest complained that he hadn’t been given sufficient detail about the complaint. However, the Catholic press office said the complaint was processed "in accordance with best practice". Last night, Bishop Clifford said: "The priest has agreed to voluntarily step down to allow the investigation into this matter to be conducted. The allegation has been reported to the civil authorities."
Father guilty of raping daughters and abusing son........... By Conall Ó Fátharta, Friday, August 20, 2010......... A Dublin father has been found guilty at the Central Criminal Court of raping his two daughters and sexually abusing his son. The jury of eight men and four women yesterday convicted him of 80 sexual offences against the three victims. They returned two verdicts of not guilty of sexual assault against one of daughters and still have to decide on a further 14 counts. The man in question originally faced a total of 113 charges, but Mr Justice George Birmingham ordered not guilty verdicts on 17 of the counts following legal argument. The 73-year-old accused man had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting and raping two daughters between the ages of five and 11 years old and sexually assaulting his son from the age of three to six at various locations between 1997 to 2002. The jury reached their unanimous decisions on the 82 counts after 11 hours of deliberation and a seven-week trial. They will return this morning for a third day of deliberations on the remaining counts. During the trial, the eldest daughter, now 19 years old, described how she was sexually abused from the age of six in the sitting room where she slept on a couch. She said, after she was initially taken into care in 2000, she ran away and was abused by her father when he picked her up in a car. She outlined how she was abused in various locations, including the family home, in two hotels, on the DART and in the toilets of a fast food restaurant and also a shopping centre toilet. The second daughter, now 18-years-old, told the court how she was abused from the age of four by her father while she was in the bath or in a van owned by her father. The accused’s son, now aged 17, gave evidence that his father sexually abused him in his bedroom and in the bathroom from the age of three until he was six when he was taken into care and placed with a foster family. This led to him being afraid to use the bathroom. The boy’s foster mother described how when he arrived at her house he was undernourished, was unable to eat solid food and was not toilet trained. The accused man gave evidence in his own defence. He said the family home could not have been happier and denied either physically or sexually abusing his children. The accused told the court he believed he would lose an appeal of the care order committing his children to care, so he concocted a story that he sexually abused his daughters and wrote a letter to that effect as a ploy to get the children home to their mother. The man was later interviewed by gardaí in May 2002. No charges were brought at that time. He was subsequently interviewed in 2006 in relation to allegations of sexual abuse and later charged
Ex-public dentist’s sex abuse inquiry re-opens......... By Claire O’Sullivan , Friday, August 20, 2010............ The Health Service Executive has re-opened an investigation into alleged sexual abuse by a former public dentist who, it is feared, could have assaulted up to 100 children.The man, who was a health board employee, treated primary school children during the 1970s in the southern half of the country. He is now retired on a state pension. A former work colleague of the dentist was contacted by the childcare division of the HSE in recent months and will be interviewed as part of a review of the case files. The woman formally made a complaint about the dentist more than 30 years ago but believes "that it was never properly followed up by the health board afterwards". The health board did not contact gardaí about this complaint. The Irish Dental Council was also not contacted. More than a dozen women subsequently came forward and made complaints to the health board and gardaí about the dentist in the 1980s, ’90s and early 2000s. Gardaí sent at least four files to the Director of Public Prosecution. However, in 2003, the DPP chose not to proceed with any of the cases. Civil cases were also taken by the women, many of whom are understood still to be in counselling, but were settled in recent years. The dentist is understood to be in his late 70s/early 80s. He took early retirement in the 1980s, working abroad for a period after leaving the public health service here. In the early 2000s, then Health Minister Micheál Martin intervened when a complainant alleged that the health board was "dragging its heels" in cooperating with Garda investigations. The minister then demanded that the health board hand over all files that could be of use to gardaí. It is understood the health board, which submitted a report to the Department of Health in 2003, noted "unusual visiting patterns" in appointments handed out by the dentist to hundreds of primary school girls. Last night, a HSE spokeswoman said the then health board had "dealt with allegations against a former employee in the public dental service, who had ceased employment with the board in the 1980s". "The individual cases were reviewed and dealt with at the time. The HSE is currently reviewing files associated with these allegations to ensure that all appropriate services and supports have been, and continue to be, provided to the people involved, and to determine if any further actions are required," she said. Meanwhile, the HSE’s decision to advise dentists not to perform fillings on children’s teeth unless it is a clinical emergency has been heavily criticised by a leading dental industry legal advice body as "wrong, unjustifiable" and "exposing children to serious harm". In June, the Irish Examiner revealed an internal HSE memo to all dentists in the Sligo-Leitrim area which stated that "deciduous" fillings — the clinical term for children’s baby teeth — could no longer be provided on a routine basis. However, Dental Protection Ireland, which acts as the main legal representatives for specialists in the industry, has warned that evidence from other countries rejects the HSE’s advice
Ithought so. ANOMYMOUS
Abuse victims to demand reform on Vatican visit.............. Saturday, August 21, 2010............... Irish survivors of clerical sex abuse have been invited to travel to the Vatican on October 31 to demand change from the Roman Catholic Church. The event, billed as a Day of Reformation, is being organised by an Irish-American victim of clerical abuse from Boston. Bernie McDaid, the son of Donegal parents who was abused as a 12-year-old altar boy 40 years ago, has said survivors will be offering the Church an opportunity to "open up your doors and say you are sorry". Mr McDaid, who met Pope Benedict XVI in Washington in 2008, admitted that five-minute meeting had achieved nothing. He told the Humbert Summer School in Ballina yesterday that he believed the event "on the eve of All Saints" would be an opportunity for people to change the Church and should mark the beginning of a Year for Survivors. He invited survivors from every parish in Ireland, priests, nuns and anyone who still belonged to the Church, to stand with victims on what he hoped would be a day of healing. Marie Collins, a fellow survivor of clerical abuse, welcomed the idea and told the school that she hoped to attend, although she cautioned that it should not be another opportunity for the Vatican to ignore victims. Ms Collins told the school that while trying to bring her priest abuser to justice she realised how "morally bankrupt" the Irish hierarchy was and how they were willing to ignore civil and natural law to protect clerical colleagues. The Pope’s failure to accept the resignations of two Dublin auxiliary bishops showed how empty his words of "remorse and shame" to the Irish people had been, she claimed. "How can anyone respect a church which sees half of its members as second class citizens – nothing more than a source of sinful temptation to men?" she asked. While the law on women having to be churched or cleansed after childbirth had changed, "the medieval male attitudes have not", she added. Ms Collins also accused the majority of Irish priests of having let many people down "by their abject failure to speak up" in the wake of the Ryan and Murphy reports. Augustinian priest Fr Iggy O’Donovan told the school that the recent refusal of the Pope to accept the resignations of the auxiliary bishops has "everything to do with Church authority and little to do with whether or not these gentleman were vigilant in their duties when it came to protecting innocent children". Drogheda-based Fr O’Donovan said the message from Rome was very clear – "nobody, not even the vast majority of the faithful, tells us what to do". He said past controversial issues such as Humanae Vitae were more about the Church’s authority than about the right of women to contraception. US-based Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests group, accused the Catholic Church of misogyny for its failure to ordain women priests. She said the Vatican was now placing the ordaining of women on the list of grave sins, alongside paedophilia, heresy, apostasy and schism. But she warned that like Rosa Parks, the black woman who refused to sit in the back of the bus in Birmingham, Alabama, "we will not accept second class membership in our Church. No Vatican punishment will stop our movement". Irish women were urged to gather at the Papal Cross in the Phoenix Park on September 26, the day earmarked for a boycott of Sunday Mass by 80-year-old Jennifer Sleeman, to highlight the Church’s attitude to women. Survivor Andrew Madden urged the Government not to "water down" the proposed amendment to the constitution on children’s rights and said mandatory reporting should be put on a statutory basis.......................... "Victims urged to follow the money".......... PEOPLE seeking justice from the Catholic hierarchy for clerical sex abuse were advised yesterday to "follow the money". Lawyer Patrick Wall, who has represented a number of US-based victims of Irish priests Brendan Smith and Sean Fortune, urged people to follow the money "because that is what they care about". He said a lot of information could be gleaned by watching what bishops do with funds for example if they suddenly sell off land or if they redirect monies into a new account or trust fund. Mr Wall said there would be no change in the Catholic Church "until a bishop does jail time". He said the crime of not notifying the authorities about child abuse had to be enforced and people convicted had to be jailed. Maeve Lewis, head of One in Four, said it was her "earnest hope" that criminal prosecutions would be brought against anyone in authority who failed to act. She described the lack of response by Irish priests to recent scandals as "incredible".
Vulnerable children at risk of being placed with unsafe carers............. CarlO’Brien, Irish Times - Saturday, August 21, 2010……………… The extent of the failures in the foster care system has been highlighted in an unpublished report which reveals that vulnerable children in the southeast are at risk of being placed with unsafe carers. This internal audit conducted by the Health Service Executive follows a number of other critical reports which highlighted major problems in childcare in the Dublin and Cork areas. This latest report, completed in December of last year, found: No evidence of formal assessments of foster families or Garda clearance in up to a quarter of cases examined, increasing the risk of unsuitable people working as foster carers. Inadequate state of foster care files and records, which may have legal implications if information is required by the courts. Failure to comply with national minimum standards over reviews for children in care, increasing the risk that foster carers are being paid for sub-standard care. At least 20 per cent of children in foster care without an allocated social worker. Transactions over some payments to foster carers not being conducted in an accurate or transparent manner. The auditors noted that an ongoing theme during their discussions was how a lack of resources was impacting on social workers’ ability to comply with legislation and minimum standards. In addition, foster carers themselves were frustrated at the lack of support available to them. “It was evident from our examination of the case files that foster carers continually voice their concerns over such gaps, with a common theme being children in care who have not been allocated a social worker,” the internal audit states. It also noted a number of control and procedural weaknesses over payments to foster carers. In total, almost €12 million was paid to foster carers in the southeast during 2008. The basic weekly allowance for a foster carer is €325 per child under 12 and €352 for a teenager. In response to the findings, HSE management told auditors that a fundamental review of all its files was under way to address any shortcomings. It said a special group had been established to improve the management of childcare files. In addition, management pledged to ensure all policies and procedures would be brought into line with national foster care standards. A HSE spokeswoman said yesterday that since the audit report was completed, the executive now requires that foster carers undergo preliminary assessments and Garda checks in all cases, including emergency placements.
Call for inquiry into vaccine trials in institutions.............. Fiona Gartland, Irish Times - Saturday, August 21, 2010................. An independent inquiry should be set up to examine vaccine trials carried out on babies and children in orphanages and mother-and-baby homes in the 1960s and 1970s, a former resident has said. Victor Boyhan, former chairman of Past Residents of Smyly Homes and Cottage Homes, said that after almost 20 years of seeking answers from the State, it was time the truth came out about the drugs trials. The call came after it emerged a woman adopted from Ireland in 1961, who was involved in a vaccine trial as a baby without the permission of her mother, is to take legal action against the drugs company involved. Mari Steed (50), who lives in the US, is to take action along with three others against GlaxoSmithKline, which as “The Wellcome Foundation” at the time the trials were conducted. Ms Steed was administered the experimental vaccine while at the Sacred Heart Convent, Bessborough, Co Cork, between December 1960 and October 1961 when aged between nine and 18 months old. She also hopes to bring legal action against the Sacred Heart order in the Irish courts. In the 1960s, clinical trials compared a 3-in-1 vaccine for Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis and separate polio immunisation to a 4-in-1 vaccine for the illnesses. The studies in the 1970s looked at two different types of 3-in-1 vaccines. The trials took place in institutions including the Bessboro home, St Patrick’s Home, Navan Road, Dublin, Cottage Home for Little Children, Dun Laoghaire and the Bird’s Nest Home, Dun Laoghaire. In 1993, then minister for health Labour Party deputy Brendan Howlin, through his private secretary, wrote to a past resident of one of the homes about the trials. He said his department had inquired into them and he was satisfied there was “no added risk whatsoever” to the children who received the vaccines. A report published by the Department of Health in 2000, showed that at least 211 children in homes and orphanages were given test vaccines during three separate drug trials in 1960/1961, 1970 and in 1973. The Laffoy commission on Child Abuse was then asked by the Government to investigate those trials and any others carried out in institutions between January 1940 and December 1987. But the commission’s investigation was dropped following court action taken by the medical practitioners involved. There has been no further progress in establishing the details of the trials or if the drugs had any long-term effects on the individuals involved. Mr Boyhan, who is also a councillor in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, called for an independent inquiry to be set up to establish the facts. He said a lot of information had been received by the Laffoy Commission before its investigation was closed down and the records of many of the institutions involved were still “surprisingly intact”. “Bodily integrity is a fundamental right of every citizen, it is not unreasonable to want to know what happened,” he said.
Files go missing in child vaccine inquiry............By Patricia McDonagh Irish Independent, Saturday August 21 2010............ The deputy chairman of the Dail was last night at the centre of a new controversy over child vaccine trials. As Labour Health Minister in 1993, Brendan Howlin assured victims that an inquiry had found they suffered no ill effects from the experimental medical tests. But last night mystery surrounded the whereabouts of the files relating to the inquiry -- and Mr Howlin admitted he did not remember the probe or its findings. The Department of Health said it was searching department archives in a bid to locate the documents. "Until all the files are retrieved, the department cannot say if the results of the inquiry exist," a spokesman said. The claims follow yesterday's revelations in the Irish Independent that some victims of the trials are preparing a class action against the drugs giant responsible for the trials. New documents reveal Mr Howlin's private secretary told victims the minister was "satisfied" there was no risk to the children subjected to the trials in the 1960s and 1970s. This was based on an inquiry supposedly carried out by the Department of Health.
Readers call to tell their stories....Saturday August 21 2010, Irish Independent.............. Several victims contacted this newspaper yesterday after revelations about child vaccine trials. People from across the country, and abroad, rang the newsroom to tell their own story. It emerged that Mari Steed (50) was effectively used as a guinea pig during the 'four-in-one' vaccine trials carried out on her between December 1960 and October 1961, when she was between nine and 18 months old. Anyone affected by the issues raised can call the Adoption Rights Alliance on 086 2359127
Sex-suspect priest 'dumped' in US......... "Parishioners had no idea abuse complaints were made against Irish cleric".......By Fergus Black, Irish Independent, Saturday August 21 2010......... The late Archbishop of Dublin did a deal with an American bishop to "dump" an Irish priest embroiled in sex abuse complaints, on a US diocese, it was claimed last night. Fr Patrick Joseph McCabe (74) faces extradition to Ireland after he was arrested on a federal warrant in San Francisco two weeks ago. He faces charges he sexually assaulted six boys in Ireland from 1973 to 1981. Fr McCabe is currently in custody without bail in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, just outside San Francisco. A man claiming he was molested as a 10-year-old by Fr McCabe filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa this week. He said the church knew the priest had been accused of abusing boys but had failed to warn the parish where he worked. The man's lawyer Joseph George, claimed the late Archbishop Ryan "made a deal" with the former Bishop of Santa Rosa. The deal was to "dump" Fr McCabe on unsuspecting parishioners when he was assigned as assistant pastor at St Bernard's Church in Eureka, California from 1983 to '85. "This person never disclosed that he had been molested until the last couple of weeks, when he realised what the diocese had done to him," Mr George said of his client. Details of McCabe's case match those of an unidentified priest, described in last year's Murphy Report on child abuse, in the Dublin archdiocese. Treatment It noted the first formal complaints of alleged sexual abuse against the priest surfaced in mid 1970s. Following consultations he was sent for treatment in England in 1981. Two years later, Archbishop Ryan contacted Bishop Mark Hurley in the diocese of Santa Rosa "asking him to, as it were 'rid me of this troublesome priest' and Bishop Hurley agreed", according to the report. Mr George said he was in no doubt the priest referred to in the report was Fr McCabe. In his lawsuit, filed in Sonoma County Superior Court, the US plaintiff, referred to only as John Doe 76, alleges he was sexually molested by Fr McCabe in 1984, in St Bernard's Church. The 10-page document, in which the alleged victim is seeking unspecified damages for physical, mental and emotional suffering, claims that in or around 1983 the Archbishop of Dublin -- then Dermot Ryan -- spoke with Bishop Mark Hurley of Santa Rosa to allow Fr McCabe to run St Bernard's Church in Eureka. "At no time did defendant diocese ever send an official, a member of the clergy, an investigator or an employee or independent contractor to St Bernard's Church in Eureka to advise the parishioners either verbally or through a church bulletin that there were credible allegations against Fr McCabe and to request that anyone who saw, suspected or suffered sexual abuse to come forward and file a report with the police department," according to the lawsuit. Bishop of Santa Rosa, Daniel Walsh, sent a letter this week to St Bernard's parishioners saying he learned a week earlier that Fr McCabe was assigned the parish of St Bernard in the early 1980s. "Past clergy sexual abuse of minors is a great shame for the Church we all love," he said. "But it is something that the Church must face and deal with in compassion and understanding for the innocent victims." .
Church abuse survivors voice dismay over 'deafening silence'.......... By Marese McDonagh, Irish Independent, Saturday August 21 2010......... Sex abuse campaigner Marie Collins said yesterday the priests of Ireland had let many people down "by their abject failure to speak up" about the revelations in the Ryan and Murphy reports. "Their deafening silence has been a huge disappointment," she told the Humbert Summer School in Co Mayo. She stressed that while many good men were willing to express their dissatisfaction with the hierarchy in private, they would not speak out because of fear of their superiors and reaction from Rome. Ms Collins said that while her priest abuser had done great damage to her life, the hierarchy had succeeded in destroying the respect she once had for the institution. "I believe it is time for a second reformation if the Catholic Church is to survive," she said. The Humbert School's 2010 Outstanding Merit Awards were presented by school director John Cooney to Ms Collins and fellow campaigner Andrew Madden yesterday. Mr Madden said it was vital in the context of past failures to protect children, to put mandatory reporting of child abuse on a statutory footing and to ensure the proposed amendment to the Constitution to safeguard children's rights is not allowed to be watered down by the Government. "Garda vetting of people working with children needs to be extended to facilitate the passing on of soft information, as recommended by the Ferns Report five years ago," he said. Former Mayor of Clonmel Michael O'Brien told the gathering that 70 years after his abuse in Ferryhouse industrial school, he still woke up at night "shouting and roaring", but the Catholic Church, religious orders and Government had done nothing to help survivors since the Ryan Report. Meanwhile, survivors of clerical sex abuse in Ireland are being urged to join survivors from all over the world at a Day of Reformation at the Vatican on October 31. The event is being organised by an Irish-American, Bernie McDaid, who was abused as a 12-year-old altar boy in the Boston Archdiocese more than 40 years ago and who met Pope Benedict in Washington in 2008. Mr McDaid believes the event will be an opportunity for people to change the church. "We have had a year for priests. This could mark the start of the year of survivors," he said. Ms Collins said she hoped the event would not be another opportunity for the Vatican to ignore survivors. "I am not criticising it; I think it is a wonderful idea and hope to be there myself," she said.
Victim reveals horror of vaccine trials' secret legacy Sunday August 22 2010 A CLERICAL child abuse victim revealed the full horror yesterday of the 'human guinea pig' drug trials carried out in church-run children's homes. Hundreds of children are feared to have been subjected to the experimental trials while in the care of the Catholic Church. Now the victims' cases could be reopened, as calls for the Government to deal with the scandal intensifies. Legal action is being planned against GlaxoSmithKline and the Sacred Heart Order, which allowed the tests at the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork. Campaigner and abuse survivor John Barrett, who was born at the home outside Cork city, was used as a 'human guinea pig' while in Lota industrial school, also in Cork. "We didn't have a clue what was being done to us at the time," he said. "We only found out years later." John, now 58, wants to know the truth behind the children's ordeal, who conducted the tests and why such experiments were allowed. Hundreds of youngsters in children's homes are believed to have been used in trials in the Sixties and Seventies to improve vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough. John was used in four different experiments when he was aged 12 and 13 at the Lota home. He said: "All of the boys of my age were taken off and given tests, X-rays and general examinations. "Lists were made of those deemed to be 'healthy' and we would sometimes be lined up in one of the dormitories and given massive injections. "We didn't know what we were being given. Later blood tests would be taken and those whose scars from the first injection had disappeared were given a second dose. "Over a couple of years, this happened about four times. I don't think they were the normal injections you would expect. "There is a major inquiry into child abuse so there should be a similar inquiry set up alongside it into medical experiments on children." More than 25,000 youngsters spent time in Irish orphanages between 1960 and 1975, the period when the controversial one-in-four trials are believed to have taken place. Kevin Cooney of the Adopted And Fostered Persons' Association said: "These orphans were society's most innocent and vulnerable people. "The State participated in abusing the rights of children in their care. That is indefensible. There must be a full disclosure." Meanwhile Health Minister Mary Harney has been called on to instruct her officials to make available all relevant information regarding the ongoing vaccine trials. The call comes following Mari Steed, 50, breaking her silence on Friday, in the Irish Independent, into how she was subjected to a controversial vaccine trial as a baby without her mother's consent. She said she the trial were carried out on her between December 1960 and October 1961, when she was between nine and 18 months old. Ms Steed, who now lives in the US, and three others, are preparing to take legal action in US courts against the drugs company, GlaxoSmithKline. Leas Ceann Comhairle Brendan Howlin, who was health minister in 1993, assured victims that an inquiry had found they suffered no ill effects from the experimental medical tests. He admitted he did not remember the probe or its findings. The Department of Health said it was searching department archives in a bid to locate the documents. Mr Reilly said yesterday that all the facts must be put on the table. "It is totally unacceptable for children in the care of the State to be involved in a vaccine trial without proper information being made available, or the full consent of their parents or guardians." - Christian McCashin Sunday Independent
"Church makes rules"....... Pope Formosus, the ninth century Pope who was dug up nine months after his death and put on trial by his successor, Pope Stephen the Sixth, was the recipient of the application of canon law. For those who cannot believe their eyes, yes, he was dug up and prosecuted for offending against his rival Stephen, when he was alive and sitting Pope. The new Pope, Stephen, in fairness, complied with due process and appointed legal counsel to defend Formosus' corpse. I cannot help thinking of the trial of Formosus, surely one of the most absurd episodes in the history of the development of canon law, whenever I hear or read about Irish Catholics expressing upset about the decisions of the powers that be in Rome. Can someone please explain to me why it is that so many feel so unable to shake themselves free of the self-appointed successors of Stephen, and all the other despots that laid down the medieval set of regulations that continue to dominate the administration of the absurd institution that is the Vatican State? The essential goodness of loyal church followers is matched only by the cynicism of the leaders of a church that cannot be accused of losing touch when, in truth, its interests never really coincided with the followers in the first place. It seems that history's oldest bad habit is the bizarre relationship that exists between the power brokers of Vatican City, and the flock it herds. This relationship is, of course, abusive. The violently stupid mistake that commentators and victims on the debate about whether or not bishops should resign always make is to forget that the organisation to which they choose to submit can do whatever it wishes with its vassals. So, stop thinking democracy and start thinking like a slave, and you won't be too disappointed. And for those who want to know, Formosus was found guilty under canon law and his corpse was cast into the Tiber, an unconsecrated end for a recipient of the fair and thorough process of church made law..... Declan Doyle
Top clergy and gardaí among those quizzed in abuse probe............ Ali Bracken...... GARDAÍ have interviewed over 200 people, including senior members of the clergy and former gardaí, in their wide-ranging criminal investigation into clerical sex abuse in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin. Nine months ago, garda commissioner Fachtna Murphy ordered a full garda investigation into the handling by church and state authorities of child sex abuse, detailed in the Murphy report. Assistant commissioner John O'Mahoney, based in Galway, is leading the investigation. A team of gardaí at Harcourt Square have been working full-time on interviewing all the victims and alleged perpetrators detailed in the Murphy report as well as former gardaí accused of not properly investigating allegations against the clergy. A source told the Sunday Tribune the investigation could go on for at least another year and senior garda management was committed to maintaining the necessary garda resources until the inquiry was completed. The Murphy report concluded there was "no doubt" clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the archdiocese and other church authorities. The report was scathing about some former gardaí for failing to properly investigate allegations of clerical abuse. It also found that "the state authorities facilitated the cover-up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes". It is understood gardaí have interviewed victims of clerical sex abuse detailed in the Murphy report, witnesses to this alleged abuse, members of clergy and former gardaí. However, the garda inquiry is not nearly complete as the Murphy report is extensive. When O'Mahoney completes his investigation, he will furnish a report to the garda commissioner. Murphy will then consult with the DPP to determine if criminal liability or prosecutions arise. A source said the investigation was progressing well and would not be rushed. Among the main findings of the Murphy report were that all archbishops and many of the auxiliary bishops in Dublin handled child sexual abuse complaints badly. None of the four archbishops reported their knowledge of abuse to gardaí "throughout the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s". Announcing the garda probe into the matter in November, commissioner Murphy said: "The focus of this examination will be to establish whether those failings amounted to criminal behaviour."
Campaigners welcome sex abuse case against US diocese............ John Downes............. Campaigners representing survivors of clerical abuse have welcomed moves by an alleged victim of an Irish priest, who was moved to the US from Dublin, to sue an individual diocese there for deliberately failing to disclose his previous history in Ireland. The alleged victim, known as "John Doe 76", claims he was molested by Fr Patrick Joseph McCabe in the early 1980s in the Santa Rosa diocese after he was transferred there by the late Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Ryan. He is seeking unspecified damages from the diocese, and has claimed that the church knew the priest had been accused of abusing boys but had failed to warn the parish where he worked. He also claims the Bishop of Santa Rosa committed fraud by not revealing to the congregation that McCabe had been the subject of several allegations of child sex abuse in Ireland before he was moved to the US. McCabe (74) is currently in federal custody in California, where he is awaiting extradition to Ireland to answer charges that he sexually assaulted boys in Ireland from 1973 to 1981. Barbara Blaine, president of the US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests group, said she believed that such actions were the "only hope" for change within the Catholic church. "Church officials don't do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. It's only when pressure from external sources – in particular financial pressure – is applied that they act," she told the Sunday Tribune.
Monday August 23 2010 'The abuse of children by clerics has left a permanent scar upon the soul of Ireland' BISHOPS who failed to report priests accused of sexually abusing children should be prosecuted in the courts, according to a former monk and canon lawyer. US attorney Patrick J Wall said nothing would change within the Catholic Church "until a bishop does jail time". The former Roman Catholic priest and Benedictine monk told the Humbert Summer School in Castlebar, Co Mayo, that the protection of children was the most profound civil rights issue in the 21st Century. "Children are not chattels," he added. He called for an end to clerical immunity and said bishops should be prosecuted under "misprision of felony", a legal term for concealing a crime. "I would seek to have thrown out all church procedures of child investigation, and have them replaced with just three words: call the gardai," he said. Those seeking justice should chase all the relevant documentation produced in these cases as the church was diligent about keeping records, he pointed out. "The past is prologue. If we are to learn from the crimes against children, public access to all church records on predator priests is necessary for us to learn from the past." Mr Wall said those seeking information should also "follow the money" by investigating accounts set up by the church. He said he would be seeking reparation for victims of clerical abuse from the Holy See. "The sexual abuse of children by clerics and religious have left a permanent scar upon the soul of Ireland. The Vatican ought to help foot the cost of making the survivors whole," he added. Mr Wall said after working as a "fixer" in the church, dealing with the aftermath of sexually abusive priests in parishes and schools, he left the priesthood. He felt the only way that abuse survivors would get the help they needed was outside of the church hierarchy. He has been consulted on more than 200 cases of clerical child abuse in the United States and is co-author of 'Sex, Priests and Secret Codes', about the history of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, the Humbert School yesterday heard a junior minister urge fundamental reform of the local government system, saying that, at the moment, power rests with "non-elected officials". Minister of State for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary said this had to be reversed so that councillors were the ones driving local government. Ireland has to decide a role for its politicians -- whether as legislators who run the country, elected representatives who look after roads and schools, or "the mish mash we now have", he told the school. Challenges The Mayo Fianna Fail TD conceded that there were difficult challenges facing his party in the wake of recent opinion polls. But he added that those already celebrating in advance of the next election should not pop the champagne just yet. The role of leadership was also examined by the Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, who said that, in the wake of the Bloody Sunday report, leadership that transcends tribes and parties was needed. Bishop Richard Henderson said what was important was a shared vista and leadership that was willing "to take the risk of extending beyond its historical norms and boundaries". Giving the Bishop Stock Peace Address at the school, Bishop Henderson said it was important to acknowledge the "horrible legacy" from a terrible past and the relief following the report. "Yet as has been said, there are other victims, too, for whom the same release has not been found," he said. He added "almost no one can rely any more on an inherited sense of assumed decency within authority and power". - Marese McDonagh Irish Independent
Pressure for inquiry into trials of vaccines Monday August 23 2010 PRESSURE was last night growing on the Government to hold an independent inquiry into controversial vaccine trials carried out in the 1960s and 1970s. The Adoption Rights Alliance joined the growing chorus of survivors and politicians calling for a new probe into the trials, which were conducted on behalf of a multinational drugs company. The call comes amid continuing questions regarding the whereabouts of a confidential investigation into the issue that was carried out by the Department of Health. In 1993, the private secretary to the then health minister, Brendan Howlin, said the inquiry had been carried out into the nature of the trials. On foot of this probe, he said Mr Howlin was "satisfied" that there was no added risk to the children who were involved. However, the results of this investigation were never published and the department is currently searching for the documents in its archives. Officials said all files relating to the vaccine trials were stored off-site in a secure storage facility and not in the department at Hawkins House. The department said it would examine the files when they are retrieved. The probe was followed up by another investigation, commissioned in 1997 by the then health minister Brian Cowen. It found that at least 211 children took part in three separate vaccine trials in the 1960s and 1970s. The report was referred for further investigation to the Commission Investigating Child Abuse, also known as the Laffoy Commission, that year. However, two court cases taken by doctors involved in the trials curtailed the work of the Commission and it was eventually closed down in 2006 by Health Minister Mary Harney. Since then, the issue has fallen off the public agenda and the victims have never received counselling, medical screening or an apology from the State. Last night, Susan Lohan, co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance, insisted that all documents should be probed by an independent inquiry. "All of the documents should be transferred to an independent body, which will then investigate the reason why these trials were carried out on vulnerable children," she said. "It is terrible to think of the way these children were treated. They were treated as if they were expendable. "They were the children of women who were shunned by society and they were clearly regarded as so worthless that nobody thought anything about subjecting them to experiments." Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said all documentation should be examined firstly by the Oireachtas Health Committee. Experiments "It is totally unacceptable for children in the care of the State to be involved in a vaccine trial without proper information being made available or the full consent of their parents or guardians," he said. Dr Reilly added: "Having examined all the evidence, the committee can then decide the next step." The Irish Independent last week revealed that Mari Steed (50) and three other victims of the trials are to take legal action in the US courts against GlaxoSmithKline, the company which was responsible for the trials. Ms Steed was given the vaccine in the mother and baby home at the Sacred Heart Convent in Bessborough, Co Cork, when she was between nine and 18 months old, without her mother's consent. A government spokesman last night could not comment on the calls and a spokesman from the Department of Health was not available for comment. - Patricia McDonagh Irish Independent
'Families need to know how far up the conspiracy of silence went' Abuse by Catholic clergy Wednesday August 25 2010 IT was on the last day of the worst month of the worst year of the Troubles, when it looked as though the conflict could escalate out of all control, that the bombs exploded in the Co Derry village. The three IRA devices went off in Claudy on July 31, 1972, bringing the overall death toll for that month to almost 100. The carnage was terrible, with eight grown-ups and a little girl killed. An official report published yesterday confirmed how the incident posed a profound moral and political dilemma for the Conservative government of the day in Britain. Within days, there was strong intelligence that one of the IRA bombers was a Catholic priest, Fr James Chesney, who was in fact the local republican quartermaster (in charge of weapons) and "director of operations". William Whitelaw, then Northern Ireland secretary and later deputy prime minister, decided in consultation with the Catholic Church that the priest should not be arrested but instead be discreetly transferred across the Border. The present Northern Ireland Secretary, Owen Paterson, said yesterday that he was profoundly sorry that Fr Chesney "was not properly investigated for his suspected involvement in this hideous crime and that the victims and their families have been denied justice". Mr Paterson spoke of the tensions of the time, saying: "I recognise, of course, that all those involved in combating terrorism at the time were making decisions in exceptionally difficult circumstances and under extreme pressure." The Catholic Bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty, said he was "shocked and ashamed" that a priest would have been associated with the attack, although the church insisted it had not been party to a cover-up. The Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson, reported that he had found no evidence of criminal intent by anyone in the British government or the Catholic Church. However, he added that he had unearthed collusion. The Ombudsman described the decision not to pursue the priest as "wrong and contrary to a fundamental duty of police to investigate those suspected of criminality". Deal The two who arranged the deal were William Whitelaw and the then head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal William Conway. Both are now dead, but the Ombudsman recovered material from their files and diaries. The exact thought processes of the two men remain unknown, but the signs are that they quickly agreed that Fr Chesney should be transferred out of Northern Ireland. In church terms, there were many precedents for moving priests, as has been seen in its reactions to various child-abuse scandals. In addition, in the months before Claudy, extreme loyalists had begun to kill Catholics in large numbers. The emergence of an active IRA priest could quite possibly encouraged the assassins. The cardinal might also have feared that clergymen would be targeted. From the British government's point of view, it was then immersed in attempts to persuade Catholics and Protestants to co-operate in a new partnership government. The idea that a priest was a terrorist involved in multiple murders would have made this far more difficult. Even the arrest of a priest could have caused uproar, since many Catholics would have found it impossible to believe that he could be a bomber. The cardinal seems to have been convinced to move the priest by a file shown to him by Mr Whitelaw, which referred to Fr Chesney's involvement in Claudy and other acts of terrorism. According to an official document, the cardinal said "that he knew the priest was a very bad man". In his diary, the cardinal described the meeting as a "rather disturbing tete-a-tete". He also reported that in interviews with churchmen Fr Chesney had strenuously denied any involvement in the IRA. The documentation shows that some individual police officers pushed for him to be arrested, even at the cost of causing a major stir. One Special Branch detective-inspector wrote in a memo: "We would need to be prepared to face unprecedented pressure. Having regard to what this man has done, I myself would be prepared to meet this challenge head-on." When the Northern Ireland Office wrote to the then Chief Constable, Graham Shillington, saying it was proposed to shift Fr Chesney to Donegal, he went along with the idea, noting: "Seen. I would prefer transfer to Tipperary." The families of those killed were generally unimpressed by the report. Mark Eakin, who was blown off his feet in the blast that killed his eight-year-old sister Kathryn, said he wanted an apology from the British government. "An apology, yes, but more than an apology I would like to see somebody brought to justice for this," he said. "The families need to know how far up the conspiracy went." Mr Eakin, a Protestant, added: "I just feel so sorry for some of the Catholic people that had to sit up there today and listen to that about their own church. I feel they've been let down by their church." The church was also criticised by the outgoing Ulster Unionist party leader Reg Empey, who described its response as "entirely inadequate". He added: "In particular, the absence of an apology to the victims of Claudy falls very far short of what should be expected of church leaders." - David McKittrick Irish Independent
The 'dark secret' Cardinal Conway took to his grave By John Cooney Wednesday August 25 2010 ON Friday January 9, 1973, Cardinal William Conway, Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, unexpectedly cancelled a trip to Australia because of his "anxiety" over the Troubles in the North. The towering pipe-smoking prelate, know as 'Big Bill' on account of his brisk management style often bordering on bullying, confided to one observer that he had decided not to attend a Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne "in view of the political situation in Northern Ireland". This decision was puzzling, because Pope Paul VI, to whom Cardinal Conway enjoyed regular access with updates on developments in Northern Ireland, was heading to Melbourne. It was strange that Cardinal Conway had not opted to travel to Melbourne to unburden his "anxiety" to the Pontiff. The answer is now known, with the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman's report finding that the RUC, Catholic Church and British government colluded to protect Derry priest Fr James Chesney due to his suspected involvement in the 1972 Claudy bombing. In December 1972, Cardinal Conway made a note in his diary about engaging in "a rather disturbing tete-a-tete . . . about C", referring to a meeting with William Whitelaw, Northern Ireland Secretary of State. Cardinal Conway acknowledged that Chesney, his former pupil, was "a very bad man", according to an RUC record of the row. Mindful of the commandment, 'thou shalt not kill', the canon law process for defrocking the Derry priest should have been initiated. Instead, Cardinal Conway colluded in a church-state conspiracy by pledging to "see what could be done". The row centred on the cardinal's preference to transfer the errant cleric to Donegal, as against the RUC chief constable's wish that he be transferred to Tipperary. This was a compromising position for Cardinal Conway, knowledge of which would have embarrassed Pope Paul VI. It was not until 1973 that Chesney was sent to Donegal, to the Raphoe diocese under 'Big Bill's' friend, Bishop Anthony McFeely. This was Cardinal Conway's dark secret when he died in 1977. - John Cooney Irish Independent
Sam Smyth: Playboy priest was able to get away with murder Wednesday August 25 2010 THE story of the playboy priest with the matinee-idol good looks and the murderous secrets has never been fully explored or explained. A lot of people got away with murder in Northern Ireland. Few, however, managed to do so with the knowledge of so many in positions of authority. Fr James Chesney died of cancer in 1980, eight years after his alleged central role in killing nine innocent civilians. According to security sources, he had been the Provisional IRA's quartermaster and director of operations in south Derry. The priest had raced along the country roads of Co Derry in his sports car and cash registers 'kerchinged' all day every Sunday in his parish near Desertmartin. Traffic jams formed after the grannies had left the £1,000 bingo afternoon sessions and as younger folk arrived for the dance in the evening. As curate in Cullion, the smallest parish in the county, the young priest from a wealthy family often played poker all night. SDLP MP and civil rights campaigner Ivan Cooper described Fr Chesney as "dark and strikingly handsome, an extremely magnetic and engaging man". But the apparently untouchable curate helped plan the bombing of Claudy and later provided crucial alibis for the other bombers. Why was the prime suspect for one of the most coldly calculated mass murders in the blood-soaked history of the Provisional IRA never even questioned? The atrocity for which the Provos have never admitted responsibility and in which Fr Chesney vehemently denied any involvement sundered the quiet village seven months after Derry's Bloody Sunday in 1972. It was a shocking crime in the most violent year of the Troubles, when nearly 500 died as Northern Ireland teetered on the brink of sectarian civil war. About a month after the bombing, on July 31, 1972, it was common knowledge around Derry and Belfast that a 'Provo priest' was involved in the Claudy bombings. The governments in London and Dublin, police on both sides of the Border and the Roman Catholic cardinal in Armagh had strong suspicions about the charismatic curate in Cullion. The person who would have known most intimately about Fr Chesney's involvement was the Provisional IRA commander in Derry, Martin McGuinness. After the bombing in Claudy, the RUC had strong intelligence that Fr Chesney was a senior Provo who had helped to plan the atrocity. There was no witness evidence and inconclusive forensic evidence of explosives in Fr Chesney's car would not have been sufficient to successfully prosecute him. In the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday, the nationalist and republican people in Northern Ireland were deeply suspicious of, and hostile to, the security forces. The priest vehemently denied any IRA involvement and the RUC were extremely reluctant to risk the wrath that would follow a failed prosecution of a Catholic priest. The dilemma was presented to the British secretary of state Willie Whitelaw, who met the Catholic primate Cardinal Conway on December 5, 1972. Apparently, Cardinal Conway was aware of the suspicions about Fr Chesney even before the British minister told him about the curate's outrageous behaviour. The then Bishop of Derry, Neil Farren, instructed Fr Chesney to answer the allegations regarding his links to the Provisional IRA. Bishop Edward Daly was also at the meeting and he later said that Fr Chesney "utterly, unequivocally and vehemently" denied any involvement with either the IRA or the bombing of Claudy. However, Fr Chesney did say that he had very strong republican sympathies, according to Bishop Daly. It was decided to appoint him curate in Malin Head. Removed to one of the most northerly peninsulas in Donegal, Fr Chesney still continued to cross the Border back into Northern Ireland. Even after traces of explosives had been found in his car, Fr Chesney was not arrested, although the RUC believed he was "quartermaster and director of operations of the south Derry Provisional IRA". According to a report published by the Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland yesterday, intelligence linked Fr Chesney to the Claudy bombing in which nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed. Why was he never questioned by the RUC? Why was he allowed to move to Donegal? Why was permitted to make frequent cross-border trips without hindrance? The 26-page report by Ombudsman Al Hutchinson explains how Fr Chesney was allowed to ignore justice and operate above the law after secretary of state Whitelaw had met Cardinal Conway. But it doesn't satisfactorily explain why. Maybe the arrest of a priest and the absence of evidence that could convict him would have pushed Northern Ireland even closer to all-out civil war. Loyalist paramilitaries would almost certainly have used public suspicions about Fr Chesney to make Catholic priests "legitimate targets" for murder. But the report concludes that the RUC was guilty of a "collusive act" by acquiescing to a deal between the British government and the Catholic Church to move Fr Chesney to the Republic. It adds that the decision "failed those who were murdered, injured or bereaved" in the bombing The tale of the playboy priest is a gripping but sickening story of vainglorious and perverted patriotism. And everyone involved, from governments to church, to paramilitary bombers, to police is indelibly stained by the shame. ssmyth@independent.ie - Sam Smyth Irish Independent
What we see before us is misinformation on a grand scale and its put there by other survivors …Some website owners who are just parasites’ who never had the balls to publish any thing about the Irish clergy abuse that survivors sent to their websites over the past years and when it came to exposing the perverts they kept very quite and claimed that they were gagged that is utter bullshit and now they are the ones trying to convince us that they think now a ballot against a TRUST fund is the best way to go WHY they had not one word of support for the survivors ballot that was handed to the Irish government on behalf of all survivors quote..on the 15Th April SOCA.UK handed a submission for a survivors ballot to the government on behalf of “All survivors to have a say about what was to happen to any money due to survivors .unquote This was what they were saying not to long ago they were saying survivors were making an incessant cry about money …and why are the survivors who are members of the IRISH WOMEN SURVIVORS SUPPORT NETWORK UK. being asked to fill in a questionnaire in support of the statutory fund and why is “the chairperson of this group giving survivors the impression that her friend who shamefully uses the title of another mans book called “nothing about us without us “that he claims it was he who gave birth to this slogan ! HE DID NOT. But the impression survivors get from this questionnaire is that the nothing about us without us person is supporting a statutory trust fund .and who when asked if they get a mandate from survivors will they ask about our money …they give the answer” I certainly will not be asking about your money “.. ….and who are the people that support this statutory fund ?and you survivors should ask who will gain from this fund ????…………its an interesting questionnaire and what’s more interesting is the list of survivors names that has come into my possession some of the names are of these I know are posting on another website stating that they don’t want this statutory fund and on another saying that they do ..the question is why are they doing this ? are they preparing to sell you trusting survivors down the river once more ? and I know Which of them is the first in line with their his/her application. …think about this little word ..collusion for a moment and wake up before its to late The writing has been on the wall for a long time now as to who was going to get their greedy hands on survivors money and you can bet your life that the ones who are making no comment at the moment are the very people who are now drafting their applications for some very expensive items and I wouldn’t take any bets on who is going to be one of the first applicants to apply for a big lump of survivors cash for one very expensive item …who was it that said” I’ve nothing to hide. There will be no “vote/ballot as far as I understand. It’s a “take it or leave it situation.? “but most of all who is the survivor on this the committee that supports a proposed statutory fund and who also votes against it on another website its just one of many who are taking the piss out of you misinformed survivors who put your trust in them …………………..Patrick
Thursday August 26 2010 THE Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman failed to ask the Vatican or the papal nuncio if they knew of a priest's involvement in the Provisional IRA. Ombudsman Al Hutchinson did not question church leaders on whether the late Fr James Chesney was responsible for the murder of nine persons in the 1972 bombings at Claudy in Co Derry. "This was outside Mr Hutchinson's remit," the spokesman told the Irish Independent last night. "Mr Hutchinson's terms of reference were to ascertain if there was collusion involving the British government, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Catholic Church in not arresting Fr Chesney on suspicion of murder." The spokesman confirmed there had been full co-operation from Cardinal Sean Brady and other members of the hierarchy in regard to the information sought by the police ombudsman. The report found that Cardinal William Conway, the then Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, was involved in a decision to transfer Fr Chesney from a parish in the Derry diocese to Malin Head in Co Donegal. However, the Irish Independent has learnt that the truth as to Fr Chesney's membership of the IRA and involvement in the Claudy bombings lies in the secret vaults of the Vatican archives. This information relates to confidential reports sent to the Holy See's Secretary of State by the late Nuncio, Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi, who was known to be staunchly in support of the republican movement. It has also been learnt that in 1994 Archbishop Alibrandi, then in retirement in his native Sicily after serving 20 years in Ireland, completed a detailed memoir of his time here in Ireland. But diplomatic sources have told the Irish Independent that Archbishop Alibrandi was summoned to Rome where his manuscript was confiscated and lodged in the Vatican archives unpublished. - John Cooney Irish Independent
nt Thursday August 26 2010 Archbishop Diarmuid Martin did not reveal for three months the bombshell news that Pope Benedict XVI decided, last May, not to accept the resignations of two Dublin auxiliary bishops. On his return to Dublin today, Dr Martin will face mounting criticism from priests and laity after a controversial speech in Italy in which he deplored the low level of theological debate in Ireland. The archbishop is also expected to hold what is likely to be a frosty meeting later this week with his two senior auxiliary bishops, whose resignations over their role in the Murphy Report were rejected by the Pope. The Irish Independent has learned from informed sources that the Pope decided last May not to accept the resignations of Bishops Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field, which were offered on Christmas Eve. But Dr Martin delayed the announcement until earlier this month -- making it known in a three-line written communication to Dublin diocesan clergy before heading off on holiday, where he was uncontactable for comment by journalists. Dr Martin made his damning comments about theological illiteracy in an address in Rimini to the conservative right-wing religious movement known as Communion and Liberation (C&L). Snobbery After delivering an address on Cardinal John Henry Newman, who is to be beatified at a ceremony in Birmingham next month by Pope Benedict, Dr Martin was given a standing ovation -- a response that was interpreted as evidence of his high standing in Rome. But the editor of the 'Irish Catholic' newspaper, Garry O'Sullivan, last night accused Dr Martin of showing "intellectual snobbery" for a man who did not earn a doctorate in either theology or philosophy. Mr O'Sullivan also questioned whether support for the archbishop from C&L was evidence of his high standing with Pope Benedict and senior members of the Roman Curia. "The archbishop has had an association going back many years with Communion and Liberation," said Mr O'Sullivan, "It is akin to saying that a Fianna Fail minister got great support at a Fianna Fail Ard Fheis -- hardly surprising." Mr O'Sullivan expressed scepticism of a claim that "church observers" in Rome were emphasising that the reinstatement of the two Dublin bishops by the Pope "in no way represents a vote of no confidence in Dr Martin". "Really?" said Mr O'Sullivan. "Why, then, did Dr Martin not make himself available to the Irish media to say as much and answer legitimate questions arising from the resignations? Rebuke "Instead, he chose to mention the resignations as a three-line afterthought in a three-page letter released only to clergy, in August, when evidence suggests that the decision was made by the Vatican months before? "Having announced the resignations on Christmas Eve last, surely the now reinstated bishops deserved an equally public announcement. Yet the archbishop went on holidays, not even telling his brother bishops about the Vatican decision." Mr O'Sullivan also asked why the Vatican did not announce its decision with a note of support for Dr Martin -- knowing quite well that it would be seen as a rebuke to Dr Martin. "How can we Catholics have a quality debate when our archbishop, who has dismissed the democratic notion of a diocesan synod, regularly engages in megaphone criticisms of his priests, his own youth ministry, the Catholic press, his fellow bishops; refuses to name alleged 'strong forces' at work in the church and leaves the country refusing interviews rather than allow any intelligent questioning of himself or his current policies and strategic direction for the Dublin Diocese," Mr O'Sullivan told the Irish Independent. Dr Martin's media spokesperson, meanwhile, was sceptical of the "informed sources" who claimed Pope Benedict's decision to reject the resignations of Bishops Walsh and Field was communicated to Dr Martin last May. - John Cooney Religion Correspondent
Thursday August 26 2010 'Visionary' gets too much information A SELF-styled visionary yesterday told followers he couldn't give them a message from the Virgin Mary as she had given him "so much information" he couldn't remember everything, writes Eimear Ni Bhraonain. Joe Coleman said he would have to reflect on it all before putting details on his website. The Dubliner also held up his bus pass, telling supporters he was a "poor man" who lived off the invalidity pension. More than 1,000 people turned out at the Melleray Grotto in Cappoquin, Co Waterford yesterday to see Mr Coleman. Mr Coleman, who has attracted scorn for his claims that the Virgin Mary passes him messages, told the crowd that Our Lady had appeared to him with red roses at her feet. He said she had given him a "fantastic" message and had urged everyone to pray. But he was unable to pass on the message as it was too extensive. Speaking after the event, Mr Coleman claimed to be "disgusted" at how the Catholic Church had treated his supporters. He said he would be returning to Knock, Co Mayo shortly, a place where he claims to see the Virgin Mary. "Knock may look out. The people are going to claim Knock back. They cannot close Knock on me and my followers." Mr Coleman claimed his supporters had been "disrespected". "The Catholic Church -- they cannot bar us from the church -- that's Our Lady's church, it's our church." Mr Coleman was referring to how he and his followers were not allowed to pray in the Apparition Chapel in Knock. Irish Independent
Patrick I am a survivior, you are a survivior, Ithought Iwould ever see the day that we would betray each other. But that day is upon us and some have, it makes me feel ashamed to be part of this once proud group who all suffered at the hands of the same Goverment, and Church to betray each other , I dont know about you but Ireally dont want to be part of any of this shameful greed and betrayal it hurts to have to spend our last years knowing that they won and they took what little pride we had left away from us, Shame on you Surviviors who sold out the other surviviors for power, shame I say shame you let the bastards win,I just hope you can all sleep at night but I doubt it.regards to you Patrick you tried well for us.Anonymous.
Hello Anonymous. Nothing is over till the fat lady sings ?naming and shaming is yet to come and it will be done on a grand scale and as the man said keep your powder dry?….Patrick
THE Government was told about secret vaccine trials at least six years ago but has refused to investigate them ever since. The Irish Independent can reveal that the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline -- the firm that was behind controversial vaccine trials on children in state care during the 1960s and 1970s -- handed over records relating to the tests to a child-abuse inquiry in 2004. The revelations have piled pressure on Health Minister Mary Harney to launch an independent probe into the contents of the documents. The Department of Health admitted last night that its officials have been "in discussions" with the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse about what to do with the records. While the documents only show that "other vaccine trials" took place, it is so far not known how many other people were involved, whether children in state care were used for the trials or what medicines were tested. Victims, adoption groups and opposition parties are now demanding a full investigation into all the vaccine trials on children in state care. GlaxoSmithKline declined to comment. Its silence has raised serious concerns about the nature of the medical tests. Those concerns have deepened as the department has so far failed to answer questions on the issue. This newspaper put a series of questions to Ms Harney's officials this week. No answers were forthcoming. The questions included: * How many vaccine trials in total were conducted? ** * Were children in care used in the trials and what consent was given for this? ** * What, if any, are the long-term medical effects of the trials on the victims? ** * Why has the State refused to investigate the contents of the files? ** * Why has the Department of Health still not made a decision on what to do with the documents, despite being aware of them for a number of years? ** As part of its work, the commission requested information on three confirmed trials carried out by The Wellcome Foundation, a company that later merged with other firms to create GlaxoSmithKline. These trials involved 211 infants and babies and were carried out in mother and baby homes and children's residential homes across the country in order to test new vaccines. It remains unclear whether the parents or guardians of the children involved had consented to the trials or whether the company had complied with Irish licensing legislation. As well as these tests, details of further, previously unknown trials, were also handed over to the commission by GlaxoSmithKline. A brief -- and unreported -- paragraph in the commission's Third Interim Report, published in January 2004, confirmed the receipt of the additional documents. "The documentation discovered by GlaxoSmithKline also disclosed a considerable amount of information in relation to other vaccine trials in the State," the report said. It stated that no decision had been taken on whether the extra trials could be investigated. In the end, no such investigation took place. In June 2006, Ms Harney instructed departmental officials to discuss with the commission what should be done with the documents. A spokeswoman for the commission confirmed that no decision was ever made. The commission is not at liberty to release the files publicly without the approval of the department. Adoption agencies last night led calls for an independent inquiry into the vaccine trials. Susan Lohan, co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance, said: "I'm flabbergasted that the State and the adoption authority didn't know the extent to which vaccine trials were being used in this country. "I am calling on the Government to ask the commission to hand over this new evidence to an independent inquiry, where it can be investigated immediately and authoritatively." Fine Gael children's spokesman Charlie Flanagan said: "The Government needs to direct the commission to hand over this new evidence to be examined by the Oireachtas Health Committee. "Then, based on the outcome of this, a national investigation needs to be held in order to gauge the extent of the vaccine scandal." A spokeswoman for the commission said last night that it was prevented from investigating the vaccine trials on foot of two court cases taken by the doctors involved in the tests. The vaccine module of the commission was closed down by Health Minister Mary Harney in 2006 on foot of that legal action. Ms Harney said the issue of the vaccine trials was no longer a matter for the commission, which issued a report last year and is no longer investigating abuse claims. She refused to comment the calls for an independent inquiry or for the referral of the documents to the Oireachtas Health Committee. - Patricia McDonagh Irish Independent - A Fighting Survivor
At a hearing of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) yesterday [June 16 2005] it emerged that a letter written by a brother from the school questioned "experiments" on pupils by a doctor. Br Gibson said he did not know what a letter written by Br DB O'Shea to a supervisor in August 1960 regarding a local doctor meant. It read: Quote: "I can not afford to take any risk where the health of boys is concerned. I fear at times Dr [. . .] is too anxious to experiment on the pupils of this school," .... Why didn't the Commission pursue this ? ... doctors were few and far between in the institutions and this doctor could certainly have been identified and his records seized. A Fighting Survivor
The former head of the Catholic Church in Belgium tried to stop a victim of sex abuse from going public with their story, Belgian Church officials have confirmed. During a meeting in April, Cardinal Godfried Danneels advised the victim to delay a public statement until the bishop who abused him had retired. Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who was also at the meeting, admitted to the abuse in April and resigned.The victim recorded the meeting, and released the tape to Belgian media. Continue reading the main story Catholic Church Abuse Scandal * Church seethes over Belgian raids * Priesthood 'tarnished' * Are priests more prone to abuse? * Vatican ends 'wall of silence' On the tape, the cardinal tells the abuse victim: "It might be better to wait for a date in the next year, when he is due to resign. "I don't know if there will be much to gain from making a lot of noise about this, neither for you nor for him." Church spokesman Jurgen Mettepenningen confirmed that the transcripts were correct. A spokesman for the cardinal, Toon Osaer, said there had been no attempt to cover up the meeting, and that the cardinal had openly discussed it in April. Cardinal Danneels retired in January and has been questioned as a witness in an investigation into sexual abuse by the Church in Belgium. Over the past year, allegations of abuse levelled against Catholic priests have surfaced in many countries. There have also been accusations that Church authorities in Europe and North and South America failed to deal with cases openly or properly.... from the BBC. A Fighting Survivor
Secret tapes reveal cardinal warned victim to stay silent Shock recordings of Belgian primate latest abuse bombshell to hit church Monday August 30 2010 Leaked tapes of Belgium's Cardinal Godfried Danneels urging a victim not to reveal he was sexually abused by a bishop are some of the most damaging documents to emerge in the scandal rocking the Catholic Church worldwide. On the tapes, made secretly by the victim and published in two Belgian newspapers at the weekend, the former primate of Belgium is heard exhorting him to accept a private apology or wait one year until the bishop retired before making his case public. The meeting took place on April 8, at a time when the Vatican was under fire for allegedly covering up similar abuse cases in other countries. A spokesman for Cardinal Danneels (77) denied the once popular archbishop of Brussels wanted to cover up the case -- which led to the sudden resignation of then Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe (73) later that month -- but the tapes show the cardinal arguing for silence. Belgian church spokesman Jurgen Mettepenningen confirmed the transcripts in Flemish dailies 'De Standaard' and 'Het Nieuwsblad' were genuine. The church has been hit over the past year by two detailed government reports on sexual abuse in this country and waves of abuse allegations in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands. Five bishops have quit due to the scandals. The Belgian tapes stand out as a rare verbatim record of how a leading Catholic prelate tried to persuade a victim, in this case a 42-year-old nephew of Vangheluwe, to keep quiet. They emerged as a judicial probe into the scandal teetered on the edge of collapse after reports that a June 24 police raid on church offices and Cardinal Danneels's apartment to seize files and computers was illegal and the documents could not be used. In their one-on-one meeting, the victim asks for help. The cardinal responds by urging him not to go public. "The bishop will resign next year, so actually it would be better for you to wait," the cardinal says. "I don't think you'd do yourself or him a favour by shouting this from the rooftops." Cardinal Danneels warns the victim against trying to blackmail the church and urges him to seek forgiveness, accept a private apology from the bishop and not drag "his name through the mud". "He has dragged my whole life through the mud, from five until 18 years old," says the victim. "Why do you feel so sorry for him and not for me?" In a second tape, Cardinal Danneels and Vangheluwe meet the victim and one of his relatives. The bishop apologises and says he has searched for years for a way to make up for his misdeeds. "This is unsolvable," the relative replies. "You've torn our family completely apart." Vangheluwe resigned on April 23. The newspaper said the victim decided to publish the tapes to counter allegations of blackmail. - Tom Heneghan in Paris Irish Independent
This Turbulent Priest............... Some claim Fr James Chesney was an IRA leader and a mass murderer. His defenders say the charismatic cleric with a taste for the high life is an easy scapegoat, because dead men can't talk. Northern Editor Suzanne Breen speaks to those who remember him........... We have heard all about him over the past week. The playboy priest, the devil's disciple, the country cleric with the matinee-idol good looks who literally got away with murder. Yet Fr James Chesney remains a far more mysterious figure than tabloid headlines suggest. And responsibility for the Claudy bombing, in which nine people were slaughtered, extends far beyond one rogue priest with a penchant for poker and sports cars. Chesney's father John, a Protestant, worked in the loyalist Upperlands in Co Derry but converted to Catholicism after meeting his future wife Mary Ann. Nobody remembers ever seeing Chesney with his parents but he was regularly in the company of his wealthy aunt and uncle, Willie and Betty Noon. Former civil rights leader and SDLP founder Ivan Cooper recalled: "They arrived at my house in a bright red Mercedes. She was dripping with furs and waving a long cigarette holder. The Noons had no children. Fr Chesney was like a son to them." Cooper's account set the tone for most media coverage. He spoke of Chesney "haring along country roads in his sports car". He described him as "sophisticated, strikingly handsome, an extremely magnetic and engaging man... Fr Chesney was Derry's answer to Bonnie and Clyde". Yet Chesney cut a far from dashing figure. A heavily built man, with old-fashioned bushy sideburns and a receding hairline, looks out from faded photographs. "I was not aware his political views were very different from his aunt's and uncle's until some time later," said the ex-civil rights leader whose evidence to the Saville inquiry on Bloody Sunday was rejected as completely unreliable.... "Held in high esteem"....... Contrary to Cooper's understanding, a former Sinn Féin member describes the Noons as "extremely dedicated republicans" who tirelessly raised money for the Green Cross, the IRA prisoners' fund, in south Derry. Solicitor and former civil rights activist Padraigín Drinan remembers attending some of their fundraising dinners: "They were fancy events in a nice hotel, not like the normal prisoners' functions in shebeens. The food would be arranged on the plate so the colours matched the tricolour. "The peas on the left, the potatoes and chicken in the middle, and the carrots on the right. Fr Chesney was always spoken of at these dinners. It was obvious he was held in high esteem." Still, Drinan is concerned at much of what has been reported as fact about Chesney – that he was the IRA's south Derry commander and drove the lead bomb car into Claudy. The police ombudsman's report found that the RUC, Catholic church and the British government conspired to cover up his suspected activities. The explanation circulating has been that arresting a Catholic priest would have worsened the security situation by inflaming nationalists. "That doesn't ring true," says Drinan. "During the 1971 Ballymurphy massacre, British soldiers shot dead Fr Hugh Mullan who had gone to help an injured man. "Another priest was also shot in east Belfast but survived. And two Belfast priests, Fr Peter McCann and Fr Malachy Murphy, were arrested for not completing the 1971 census forms in protest against interment. "The state had shown it was prepared not just to arrest priests but to shoot them, so why not question Fr Chesney if there was evidence against him? I don't know if he was or wasn't involved in Claudy, and I'm no fan of the Catholic church, but something stinks. It's easy to scapegoat Fr Chesney because dead men don't talk back." Drinan's concerns are shared by retired Catholic bishop of Derry Edward Daly, a staunch opponent of republican violence. Daly, who had gone to school with Chesney, expressed "serious doubts" about the Claudy allegations which he said the priest had "utterly, unequivocally and vehemently" denied. However, a former senior IRA figure in Derry told the Sunday Tribune that while he didn't know if Chesney was involved in Claudy, the priest was an IRA member: "Like many others, he joined following that natural wave of anger at how civil rights marchers were treated. He was deeply affected by the introduction of internment." The former IRA man attended a meeting in the parish hall in Bellaghy, Co Derry, at which Chesney was present: "It was arranged by a well-respected Dungiven republican Tommy Toner. The meeting was so the IRA in Derry city and in Co Derry could co-ordinate their activities more. "Meetings were regularly held in parish halls in Dungiven and Bellaghy. The church could be bluffed into thinking it was a civil rights-type meeting, rather than an IRA one, or it could bluff itself into believing that."......... 'He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty'.............. The ex-IRA member was "very impressed" with Chesney: "He was extremely confident and dynamic. He wasn't just a verbal republican. He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Although he didn't swear in IRA volunteers, he was present at meetings where that happened." The ex-Provisional was in jail at the time of the Claudy bombing so he doesn't know if Chesney played any role in it. Three bombs were driven into the village. They were left at the petrol station, the post office, and the Beaufort Hotel. The IRA's aim was to divert British troops away from Derry city. That day thousands of soldiers had entered the Bogside in Operation Motorman, an attempt to take control of no-go areas. The bombers had planned to make phone warnings from Dungiven but the telephone exchanges – blown up in an earlier IRA attack – hadn't been repaired so the bombs exploded without warning. "It was a badly planned operation from start to finish," says one local republican. "It was organised by the Derry brigade. There was something sinister about the whole thing. There were plenty of other ways of drawing the Brits out of Derry. Driving three bombs into a wee place like Claudy made no sense. It wasn't like leaving bombs at a police station, a courthouse, or a commercial town centre. This was a village with 400 residents. Propaganda-wise, it was disastrous for the IRA."........ “Charity proceeds 'handily robbed…………….. Martin McGuinness was the IRA OC in Derry at the time of the bombing. "It's unbelievable that he didn't organise it [Claudy] or, at the very least, authorise it," a former comrade says. A republican source told the Sunday Tribune that RUC Special Branch was given Chesney's name as the Claudy bomber by the then IRA OC in Kilrea, Co Derry. Chesney regularly organised charity dances or £1,000 bingo sessions. "Often, the proceeds would be handily robbed by men in balaclavas," says the ex-IRA man. "Other times, he'd organise these big social gatherings as cover so other meetings could take place without the RUC or Brits knowing." But while the priest's IRA involvement seems indisputable, he is a convenient character on whom to heap all the blame for Claudy. Apart from the leaders who authorised the bombing, eight people took part. The IRA arranged for some to go to America afterwards. A heavy smoker, Chesney had heart by-pass surgery the same year as Claudy. He was moved to Donegal in 1973. Once, he tried to book the Boomtown Rats for a community gig. He was instrumental in fundraising to build a huge community centre in Burnfoot where a plaque honours his memory. He was a keen sailor and member of the Lough Swilly yacht club. Chesney died in 1980 aged 46. His death, like his life, remains a mystery. Some reports say he died of cancer, others of thrombosis. He was buried with his mother and father
While Diarmuid Martin is right to say Catholics are 'theologically illiterate', it is a state of affairs for which the church itself is to blame?.............. Being bilingual can have great advantages in public life. Take the government minister who wants to rush legislation through the Dáil with a minimum of fuss. He introduces the bill as Gaeilge, secure in the knowledge that only a handful of legislators are proficient in the native tongue. Who can object to the national parliament conducting its business in Irish? Similarly, last week in Italy, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin delivered an address in Italian. According to the Irish Times, the script was available only in that language. No problemo, except he had a little dig at the faithful and wider society in his own native land, which was a bit inconsiderate of him. Martin was addressing the large Catholic lay organisation, Communion and Liberation, at its annual conference. Earlier in the week, President Mary McAleese also gave an address. Thankfully, she didn't offer any hugs to the 10,000 strong attendance. The archbishop suggested that many Irish Catholics remain "theologically illiterate" despite going through 15 years of religion teaching in school. He decried the poor standards of Catholic and intellectual debate in Ireland. "There are no forums for reflection on the relationship between faith and life similar, for example, to the Catholic academies in many German dioceses," he said. And he said very few writers presented themselves as Catholic "while we have lots of people ever ready to comment on church affairs, often in a sensationalist manner and with little real knowledge of the nature of the Church". Of course, many if not most Catholics are "theologically illiterate". He is also correct that the standard of debate in Ireland could be found wanting. As for the study of theology, it is practically non-existent outside the confines of academia. But while there are some broader cultural reasons for this state of affairs, there are also historical ones which must be laid at the door of the church itself. For decades, any form of debate was stifled. Anybody within – or without – the church who voiced opinions or ideas conflicting with the world view of the hierarchy was given short shrift. Debate was not encouraged. As for the theological illiteracy of the flock, how else could it be in an institution which placed very little emphasis on debate, theological or otherwise? Whenever somebody within the church did raise their heads, it was chopped off. Ask Kevin Hegarty, formerly the editor of the Catholic magazine Intercom. In 1994, after he raised concerns in print about the manner in which the hierarchy was dealing with child sex abuse, he was removed and banished to the outpost of Belmullet. Issues like sexual morality were always given far greater prominence than theology within the Irish church. Studying the meaning of religion is all very well, but if you want to exercise power over the faithful, beat them with the sexual morality stick. Things are different today, but not all that different. The most recent matter to exercise the hierarchy and Catholic elements within the media was the civil partnership bill. Tellingly, all surveys suggest that the hierarchy was out of step with the vast majority of public opinion on that issue. That a man of Martin's ability wants more intellectual debate within the Irish church is entirely understandable. Except, of course, any such debate would have to exclude many issues that are central to the religion. Pope Benedict has let it be known he wants no more guff about women priests, so that's off the agenda. The basic and human condition of sexual desire and how it might relate to celibacy of priests is not to be discussed either. Even debate on matters of a more theological bent, like transubstantiation, is frowned upon. Asking a seven-year-old to believe without question that bread and wine is turned into the body and blood of Jesus Christ before their very eyes in the course of mass is one thing. Telling grown adults that they must not question the concept – or miracle – is something else. In Martin's defence, he spent the bulk of his career in Rome, where theological and intellectual matters are to the fore. His experience in pastoral care prior to his appointment as archbishop of Dublin in 2004 was minimal, something which turned out to be to his advantage in dealing with the difficulties which have beset the church. He is rightly commended for the job he is doing. And it is entirely understandable that he is seeking to impart a deeper meaning to the religion. He has a point in his reference to the standards of intellectual debate in society as a whole. Standards have fallen right across public life, in everything from business and education through to politics and the media. Addressing the reasons for falling standards might be a good place to start any debate. But as far as the church is concerned, the majority of the remaining faithful in this country are into the second half of life's natural span. They grew up and grew into a church that demanded fidelity without any questioning. To turn around now and lecture these people that they are theologically illiterate and incapable of, or disinterested in, rigorous intellectual debate, is a bit rich. Catholicism still is a major force in the country, particularly through the church's dominance of the education system. For that reason alone, informed debate around the religion is to be welcomed. There is no better person to kick that off than the archbishop of Dublin.
12-year-old girl fell in with group of older teenagers......... "A life full of promise brutally cut short"............ By Breda Heffernan and Edel Kennedy, Irish Independent, Monday August 30 2010............ She was about to embark on the next big adventure in life, starting secondary school and entering her teenage years. Instead, the devastated family and friends of 12-year-old Dubliner Michaela Davis, whose body was discovered at the weekend, are left to grieve the loss of their beloved girl and ponder the future that could -- and should -- have been. Last Thursday was a flurry of excitement as Michaela had her first introductory day at Luttrellstown Community College. The following day, making the most of the last hours of freedom before the start of the school year proper today, she went into the city with friends. Having returned home to the Village in Porterstown, west Dublin, Michaela told her parents, Brendan and Deirdre, at around midnight that she was popping out for a while and would be back shortly. She then pedalled away on her bicycle. By 2am and with no sign of her return, her frantic family called gardai and reported her missing. Despite an extensive search, her lifeless body was not discovered until shortly before 4pm on Saturday by an elderly man out walking along the Royal Canal just a few minutes from her home. It is believed that she had been raped and strangled and her body dumped in thick undergrowth. The path, while popular with walkers and joggers by day, is a lonely place after dark. Hemmed in by the canal on one side and a steep embankment leading to a railway line on the other and surrounded by dense brambles and trees, it is considered a no-go area at night time for many locals. One young mother, who lives close to the Davis family, said the full horror of Michaela's brutal death had still to sink in. "I just live across the road. Nothing like this ever happens around here. "We'd walk down to the canal on a Sunday afternoon," she said, nodding to her two young children, one of whom attends Michaela's old primary school, St Mochta's. "During the day it's safe enough, but at night I wouldn't go. It's very dark and there's no lighting." Gardai yesterday sought to reassure parents that Michaela's death was an isolated incident and that they were making good progress on their investigation. "It's a very difficult time for her friends and family and the community," said Superintendent John Gilligan. "There will be a sense of fear, a sense of tension. But from the point of view of the gardai, the community can be assured that everything is being done." He added: "This is a huge emotive issue for the community and we have received an awful lot of co-operation, as you'd expect." Michaela only made her Confirmation in May and finished primary school a month later. Nevertheless, the 12-year-old is understood to have been hanging around with older teenagers. Gardai have appealed to her friends to come forward with information they might have. One school friend, who visited the scene at the canal bank yesterday, said he was shocked when he heard what had happened to Michaela. "She was sound, so funny," he said. Local councillor, Fine Gael's Kieran Dennison, said the entire area was numbed. "She had started secondary school just last Thursday," he said. "I've spoken to the family and they're all just devastated. "They've been living in the area a long time and are very involved in the local community. "The entire area is trying to take it all in. It's devastating for all involved."
New bishop sets out on the 'road less travelled'........by John Cooney, Irish Independent, Monday August 30 2010............ It was the first time in the hallowed litany of sacred musical pomp which traditionally surrounds the consecration of an Irish bishop that Frank Sinatra set the signature tune for the ceremony. St Patrick would surely have been bemused by the acclaim accorded yesterday at SS Peter & Paul's Cathedral in Ennis, Co Clare, to a lusty rendering of Ol' Blue Eyes's 'New York, New York' by the Ennis Brass Band. The unexpected selection of "Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today" added a carnival touch to the solemn proceedings. It was a fitting musical tribute to the much-loved and popular Bishop Willie Walsh, taking his leave of his flock after a 16-year ministry that made him an outspoken member of the Irish Bishops' Conference. Especially revelling in the razzmatazz was the new spiritual head of a diocese that encompasses most of Clare, large tracts of Tipperary and Offaly as well meandering into parts of Limerick and Laois. Bishop Kieran O'Reilly, a small, bespectacled missionary priest with a goatish beard, nimble feet and impish eyes, told well-wishers that it was "wonderful" to don the purple robes of episcopal office. As a missionary who knew Africa as well, he came to know the corridors of power in the Vatican as world superior of the Society of African Mission. He endeared himself instantly to his new flock through his taste in music and dance. Drawing on a saying that he learned from his period in Liberia, Bishop O'Reilly coined his own signature tune: "All courtesies are covered". A two-and-a-half hour ceremony mixed string quartets, Irish dirges and African animation from locally based women from Nigeria and other parts of the continent, all in native dress. Yet the ceremony also followed the customary pattern of the investiture of a new bishop appointed by Rome, with the announcement of his papal mandate, along with his investiture of his ring, coat of arms, his donning of the mitre and his acquiring of the crozier. But the human side of the occasion broke through the ritual formality of worship when, to sustained applause from the congregation, Bishop O'Reilly paid a warm tribute to the outgoing Bishop Walsh as "a man with a big heart". Holding back the tears as his 16 years as leader of Clare Catholics came to an end, Bishop Walsh took a back seat as his successor took possession of the Bishop of Killaloe's throne. The throne was a reminder that, for all the talk of a "People's Church", the bishop is still the monarch of his diocese -- and the Pontiff's local underling. Other messages were signalled by the new bishop about the frosty road that lies ahead of the Irish church as it struggles to regain the trust and confidence of ordinary Catholics in the wake of the paedophile scandals. In his first address, Bishop O'Reilly cited the work of the American poet, Robert Frost, about choosing the "road less travelled". From the recent past, a reminder of how church leaders have fallen from grace in the recent scandals was the presence of two former bishops whose resignations were accepted by Pope Benedict in the fall-out from the Murphy Report into cover-ups in the Archdiocese of Dublin. Ex-bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Jim Moriarty sat dressed only in white vestments without his episcopal skull-cap, while among the ranks of bishops flanking the side of the altar was the former Bishop of Limerick, Donal Murray, dressed in full episcopal gear. Privately, puzzlement was expressed by bishops at how little information has been given by Rome as to how this autumn's international investigation team will conduct its papal probe of the post-Murphy Irish church. It was noted how promptly Rome accepted the liberal-minded Bishop Walsh's P45, but has not yet moved to fill vacant dioceses such as Limerick and Longford. It emerged that Bishop O'Reilly's appointment was not the bolt-from-the-blue as has appeared to date. His name had been on the list of potential future bishops for some time, narrowly missing being appointed the See on the Lee. Another striking observation was prior to the ceremony, Cardinal Brady attended a luncheon in a private room in The Old Ground Hotel amid fellow bishops and bishops from Africa. The clerical club at table! After the long ceremony, the laity crowded into the local convent hall for tea and buns, but no so Cardinal Brady and the bishops -- they adjourned to their Old Ground club for their private high tea. Some things do not change -- one suite for the Lord Bishops; a crowded hall for the second-class laity. But most curious of all, Archbishop Martin did not join his brother bishops either before or after the installing of Bishop O'Reilly. Diarmuid Martin remains a maverick on the bishops' bench. Like Sinatra, he is doing it his way.
In the recent report into Bloody Sunday Enquiry a priest Fr James Chesney is named and condemned on his alleged action and it begs the question, "As this person is dead and gone how come he can be named in this Enquiry and yet Judge Ryan Report was prevented from naming members of those religious orders who committed the most horrendous abuses on innocent little children?
‘Our worst fear’...........By Noel Baker and Ed Carty, Tuesday, August 31, 2010........ The parents of 12-year-old Michaela Davis, who died violently at the weekend, said it was their worst fear to "lose a child so full of life". Brendan and Deirdre Davis issued a statement after an 18-year-old appeared in court in Dublin charged with her murder. Jonathan Byrne, from Lohunda Downs in Clonsilla, west Dublin – just a few streets from where the dead girl lived – is accused of the killing near the Porterstown Road, a few minutes’ walk from her home. The Davis family said they were desperately trying to get their heads around the killing of their daughter, Michaela. Her body was discovered in undergrowth by a man walking along the Royal Canal in west Dublin on Saturday evening. The grieving couple said their daughter’s death was a needless, awful tragedy and insisted the family was always there for one another. "This is a heart-wrenching situation," the distraught parents said. "A young 12-year-old girl who was full of life has been lost. "She was very close to her mum, dad and [teenage] brother, Brendan. They were always there for one another." Michaela may have been beaten and strangled, sources said. She was last seen after midnight on Saturday when she told her parents she was going out for a few minutes to meet a friend. Michaela was reported missing at about 2.30am and an extensive search was launched. She had enjoyed her first day of secondary school at Luttrellstown Community College the previous Thursday and her family revealed she had been given her first homework, due to be handed in tomorrow. "All Michaela’s friends are heartbroken at the moment and cannot get their heads around this tragedy, no more than the rest of the extended family and friends," Michaela’s family said in a statement. "The needless loss of a young child, the awful tragedy of a girl barely beginning life. This situation is not and never will be about the crime or the perpetrator – it’s about Michaela, and the realisation of a parent’s worst fear to lose a child so full of life." Michaela had started Luttrellstown Community College last week but was said to have been hanging around with older teenagers and some young adults outside of school. She was also said to have a mature appearance and looked several years older than she was. Michaela was reported missing just over two hours after leaving home to meet a friend and a major search operation was launched by gardaí. Large areas around the family home remained sealed off for a third night last night as the family continued to appeal for privacy and Garda forensic officers carried out further searches along the canal. The young girl’s bike was found separately from her body. Byrne is due back in court in Dublin at the end of the week for a remand hearing.
HSE children's unit condemned........Carl OBrien, Irish Times....... The Health Service Executive (HSE) should cease using its main secure unit for troubled teenagers immediately due to concerns over the safety of children in care, according to social services inspectors. In a report published today by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), inspectors said Ballydowd special care unit in west Dublin was unsuitable, inadequate and unsafe. This follows a damning report in November of last year by the authority that strongly criticised care practices at the facility, which it said was “no longer fit for purpose”. The HSE pledged to close the unit last year on foot of these findings. However, it has continued to admit children to the facility and is planning to keep it open at least until next year. Social work sources say authorities have nowhere else to place the children due to a chronic lack of special care places, which are used as a measure of last resort to detain troubled young people. Today’s report by Hiqa re-states many of the concerns it raised last year and says the fabric of the building in Ballydowd has deteriorated further from the poor state identified last year. “This represented an unsafe situation for the children placed in special care units,” the report states. Inspectors also concluded that a second facility used by Ballydowd - known as the Solas special care unit in north Dublin - was also unsuitable for providing a good standard of special care. Overall, inspectors said providing a secure environment appeared to have taken precedence over providing an adequate services for children in crisis. It also found that the need for containment had outweighed the quality of the service, its staff and the safety and quality of the buildings. Among the inspectors' other findings were: * There had been 76 instances of physical restraint involving 10 children since the last inspection a year ago. * The quality of files and documents was poor. Information held on files was scant, and there were some loose documents on some files. * There had been 36 unauthorised absences by eight children. Nineteen of these absences, ranging from one to 53 hours, related to one child. * Inspectors found disused units open at the rear of Ballydowd that contained maintenance equipment, dangerous implements and other objects that posed a safety risk Hiqa inspectors concluded: “Notwithstanding the demand for placements, inspectors were concerned that special care was currently being provided in two unsuitable, inadequate settings which do not meet required standards.” It added: “The inspectorate requires that the HSE cease the use of both Ballydowd and Solas as a special care facility with immediate effect and not place children in either until the buildings and campus are brought up to standard and their safety is assured
Prelate casts doubt over 'Provo priest' claim........By John Cooney,Tuesday August 31 2010................ The retired leader of the Catholic Church in Derry yesterday said he still does not know if Fr James Chesney was a member of the IRA or if the cleric took part in the Claudy bombing 38 years ago. Bishop Edward Daly cast doubt on last week's report of the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, which, he says, "aired suspicions" about the Derry priest that were based solely on intelligence reports. And he criticised the media for presuming that Fr Chesney was guilty of the bombing in which nine people were killed -- and that he was active in the IRA -- without coming up with concrete evidence. "Everyone takes the same unquestioning line and competes to write the most lurid headline," Bishop Daly wrote in an opinion piece in the 'Irish News'. "The once sacrosanct presumption of innocence has been dispensed with and replaced with a presumption of guilt," he added. "I am not at all convinced that Fr Chesney was involved in the Claudy bombings. I may be mistaken, but I do not think so." Bishop Daly also rallied to the defence of the late Cardinal William Conway, then Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, who acceded to a joint approach from the British government and the RUC and moved Fr Chesney to a parish in Co Donegal. In particular, Bishop Daly said it was strange that a Northern Ireland Office note of December 6, 1972, attributed to Cardinal Conway an uncorroborated description of Fr Chesney as being "a very bad man". "This is a very mild commentary on someone alleged to be a mass murderer," Bishop Daly said. "I knew Cardinal Conway quite well during 1974-77. That was not a phrase he would use. "It appears to me it was Northern Ireland Secretary William Whitelaw's version of what the cardinal did or did not say. "I cannot believe they (Cardinal Conway and his predecessor as Bishop of Derry, Neil Farren) would have omitted to tell me when I was appointed as Bishop of Derry in 1974 if they had for a moment believed one of the priests in my future diocese was a mass murderer. "Perhaps Fr Chesney's conduct did spark suspicion that he was involved with the IRA. The pertinent questions must be, however, was he or was he not a member of the IRA? And, if so, was he involved in the Claudy bombing?" he said. "The Ombudsman's report and the subsequent media reporting do not offer any evidence to help answer these questions."
Child unit stays open despite damning report Wednesday September 01 2010 There were 76 instances of physical restraint A SECURE unit for highly vulnerable children cannot be closed despite an inspector's report warning it is unsafe and not fit for purpose. The Ballydowd Special Care unit -- which was supposed to be shut nearly a year ago -- is needed in the short term to cope with the numbers of troubled children who require this level of care, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said yesterday. Earlier, inspectors from the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) found the fabric of the building in west Dublin had deteriorated further by their July visit, compared with October last year, when it first called for its closure. However, one young person remained resident there until June and another 15-year-old boy was admitted the same month and was living there in July. The inspectors also warned about the conditions they found in a second facility used by Ballydowd -- the Solas high support unit in Crannog Nua, north Dublin -- which will no longer be used as a special care unit from next month. Between October 2009 and July 2010, five children were admitted to this unit and two were discharged. Three girls were living there when inspectors called. The report said the HSE's aim to provide a "secure" and "contained environment" had taken priority over giving a good quality of service to children in crisis. The inspectors found that six care staff had no training and four had been put on leave following complaints made by children. The report also found: There were 76 instances of physical restraint involving 10 children and 51 occasions when they were placed in single separation. One child was restrained 24 times. There were 36 absences by eight children -- one child was left alone 19 times for between one to 53 hours. Information recording in care files was poor and graffiti was scrawled outside bedrooms. The HSE said yesterday that the facility had to stay open as an "interim measure". A project team is in place to set up 12 special care beds to replace the Ballydowd service "as soon as possible" but it has yet to go through the stages of design, planning and building. One unit in Ballydowd will be refurbished in two weeks and another will meet standards by the end of October. Aidan Waterstone, National Lead for Alternative Care Services in the HSE, said it was treating the findings as a top priority. Management issues are being addressed and a new arrangement is in place "to ensure high-quality care for children," he added. - Eilish O'Regan Health Correspondent Irish Independent
Child safety programme must be taught, says abuse survivor.......... By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent, Wednesday, September 01, 2010....... A prominent survivor of clerical sex abuse has urged the Government to make it mandatory for schools to teach a programme that helps children protect themselves in danger situations. The Irish Examiner revealed yesterday that dozens of schools are offering no child protection programme at all and as many as 150 were not teaching the Stay Safe programme now in use at most of the country’s 3,300 primary schools. It is used as part of the social, personal and health (SPHE) curriculum and teaches children to recognise unsafe situations and respond by saying "no" if asked to do something wrong or dangerous. Andrew Madden, who has campaigned for child protection and welfare since making public his abuse at the hands of Dublin priest Fr Ivan Payne in 1995, said he was very concerned to hear that Stay Safe is still not mandatory. Former education ministers Mary Hanafin and Batt O’Keeffe have indicated since 2006 that such a step may be taken but Tánaiste Mary Coughlan is awaiting the outcome of a review of child protection guidelines in schools before doing so. "Empowering children with knowledge, confidence and language is an important part of the child protection process. The Stay Safe and SPHE programmes within schools are a significant part of this," Mr Madden said. Calling on the Government to make the teaching of Stay Safe compulsory in schools, Mr Madden added that a module dedicated to child safety, welfare and protection should also be included in the SPHE programme for second level schools. "All teachers should receive a basic SPHE pre-service training as all teachers are involved in social and personal education of young people, and children’s knowledge of SPHE should be assessed regularly," he said. The most recent data collected from schools in a survey last year found that 92% of primary schools are teaching Stay Safe, but a number of those which were not said they offered an alternative child protection programme to pupils. Department of Education figures in 2006 suggested as many as 700 schools were not using the programme but hundreds have sent staff for the relevant training since then. Fergus Finlay, chief executive of children’s charity Barnardos, said this week that there is no excuse for any school not to use the resource to help increase children’s awareness of abuse situations. But, he said, it is up to the department to instruct them to do so immediately.
Report to focus on barriers to education of children in care......By Stephen Rogers, Wednesday, September 01, 2010.......... The Ombudsman for Children is commissioning a report to examine how to address barriers to education for children in care. Tenders to carry out the research are being sought. Emily Logan’s office is researching the area in light of concerns and complaints brought to it by and on behalf of children in care. Factors found to pose a challenge to the education of children in care include: * A family history that includes low priority being given to education. * Inadequate focus on education and/or the school system in the policies of residential homes for children. * Less priority being afforded by professionals to children’s participation in education than to other aspects of their care. * Lack of continuity in care, with placement breakdowns and difficulty in securing school places due to admission procedures or stigmatisation. * Difficulty adjusting to the social culture of mainstream school. "Adverse challenges that children in care may face in relation to attending and participating in formal education frustrate the potential of education to act as a positive counterbalance in their lives," Ms Logan said. "In addition to providing children with qualifications that can improve their future opportunities, participation in education and school life can foster resilience and develop confidence, self-esteem and life-skills." The overall aim of this research project is to identify how the education system can best support attendance, participation and attainment in education by children and young people in care. Once complete, the Ombudsman hopes the research will give an overview of international and national standards and guidelines for the education of children in care. It is to also offer a review of existing facilities here, an overview of attendance, participation and attainment among those children, and recommendations for measures that could be implemented to support their education. The deadline for receipt of tenders is September 17 and the successful person should be able to start work at the beginning of October 2010 and complete the research by March 2011.
Michaela comes home for last time........ Slain schoolgirl's distraught family prepare to say goodbye......... By Edel Kennedy, Irish Independent, Wednesday September 01 2010......... She adored pop music and spent hours with her friends listening to her favourite bands. And yesterday, before the body of slain schoolgirl Michaela Davis returned home for the last time, her family picked out the music to be played at her funeral tomorrow. A huge fan of popband JLS, her parents gave her CD to the Very Reverend John Daly in preparation for her final farewell. The body of the 12-year-old, who had been raped and killed, was released yesterday evening to her distraught family. Earlier in the afternoon, a number of gardai patrolled the small estate in Porterstown, Co Dublin, where she lived all her short life. It was the last place she was seen -- and her body was found just a few hundred metres away on Saturday. Gardai also carried out some further examinations in a nearby field which had earlier been sealed off as part of the murder investigation. But everybody's minds were far from the garda probe. In the afternoon, neighbours brought sandwiches and snacks to the semi-detached house. Others brought flowers. One card read: "Michaela, I met you a few times in our house in the company of your friends. You were a lovely girl. I'm sorry this tragedy came to you and your family. Rest in peace and God bless you, your brother and parents." Comforting At 2.30pm, Rev Daly, who had taken part in Michaela's confirmation just three months ago, arrived to begin the funeral preparations with her parents, Deirdre and Brendan. He spent an hour comforting them, and their only son Brendan (16), before leaving an hour later with the JLS CD. Her body was due to arrive home at 5pm -- but at 6.30pm a garda escort drove into the leafy estate, followed by the hearse. Her body had been encased in a small white coffin and neighbours and friends -- who were standing outside their front gates -- blessed themselves as it passed by. Loving hands took her from the hearse and her parents and grandparents stood by and clutched each other. Several family members and friends broke down in tears as she was carried into her home. Throughout the evening, neighbours, friends and teachers called to the home to offer their sympathies, to say whatever words of comfort they could. Tributes continued to pour into Facebook pages set up in her memory. "Rest in peace Michaela," said Bernadette Bushe. Helen O'Brien Boutabba wrote: "These people have lost a precious child . . . it is a pain that never goes away and the questions are always in your mind what sort of a person would she turn out to be? I pray for you all and hope that you are allowed to celebrate your daughter's life. God bless you all." Earlier this week, Jonathan Byrne (18), of Lohunda Downs, Clonsilla, Co Dublin, was charged with her murder. The family's home in The Village in Porterstown is open to mourners today -- with burial at nearby St Mochta's Church at midday tomorrow.
Claudy bomb: conspiracy allowed priest to go free.... 01 Sep 2010.... By: TCM Editorial..... The RUC, the Catholic Church and the British Government conspired to cover up a priest’s suspected role in one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles, an investigation has found. The rationale behind such an unlikely turn of events is that to have arrested a Catholic priest at that juncture in the Troubles could have been the spark that might have ignited a dreadful worsening of the Troubles. Nine people, including an eight-year-old girl and two teenage boys, were killed and 30 injured in three car bombings in Claudy, Co. Derry on July 31, 1972. Both Protestants and Catholics were killed in the blast. The report by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman said the then head of the Church, Cardinal William Conway, moved the priest, Fr James Chesney, across the border to Donegal following secret talks with the Northern Ireland secretary of state William Whitelaw. Fr Chesney, identified by the RUC as a leading figure in the south Derry Provisional IRA, continued to practise as a priest in the Republic until his death in 1980. Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson said police intelligence suggested that Fr Chesney continued to be involved in the IRA during that period and that he regularly crossed the border. Mr Hutchinson said the RUC had engaged in a “collusive act” in seeking and accepting a deal by the British Government and the Catholic Church to move Fr Chesney out of the North. The NI Police Ombudsman's probe found that highlevel talks led to Fr James Chesney, a suspect in the attack, being moved to the Irish Republic. No action was ever taken against Fr Chesney, who died from cancer. Many sources are now questioning the report
Priest (82) charged with sexual assault on boy over 40 years ago Thursday September 02 2010 AN 82-year old priest has been sent forward for trial on two charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 1968. The cleric appeared before Loughrea District Court in Co Galway yesterday. The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sent forward for trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court on October 5. He had been granted bail at a previous court sitting in July, despite garda objections. He had arrived in Ireland in July on foot of an extradition warrant. Defending solicitor Vincent Shannon said suitable accommodation had been found for the priest in Dublin and he will stay there until his trial. Judge Geoffrey Browne remanded the priest on existing bail on the man's own surety of €2,400 and independent surety of €10,000. He has previously surrendered his passport. - John Fallon Irish Independent
Funeral of murdered schoolgirl today....Irish Times Thursday, September 2, 2010............ The funeral takes place today of Michaela Davis, the twelve year-old schoolgirl who was murdered last weekend. The funeral takes place at midday in St Mochta’s Church, where she was christened, celebrated her First Communion and Confirmation. Her body was found by an elderly man on an embankment beside the Royal Canal on Saturday evening. She had been missing since midnight the night before after telling her parents she was going out to meet a friend for a few minutes. An 18-year-old man has been charged with the girl's murder
New children's hospital on fast track through the planning procedures....... Paul Cullen, Irish Times - Tuesday, August 31, 2010........... The construction of the controversial new national children’s hospital on the Mater site in central Dublin is to be fast-tracked through the planning process, it has emerged. The change in approach means the project will not be scrutinised by Dublin city council planners and a planning application will go directly to Bord Pleanála instead. Minister for Health Mary Harney told the Dáil last April that the development board for the project, formally known as the National Paediatric Hospital, would submit a design application to the council in June 2010. This was later pushed back to August, when a media briefing for the proposals was planned. However, no application was submitted and the development board last week heard that the application would now go directly to Bord Pleanála. The change in approach was attributed to recent amendments to planning legislation which are now Government policy, and board members were told the project team was evaluating the impact of the legislation on the project. A spokesman for the development board yesterday confirmed the new approach. He said certain healthcare projects could now be considered under strategic infrastructure legislation, since the Government enacted a change to the planning laws at the end of July. The children’s hospital project qualified as strategic infrastructure because it was both strategic and of national importance, he said. Engagement with Bord Pleanála on the planning application will not now happen until September 29th. The plan to construct a new national children’s hospital beside the Mater hospital has been widely criticised by groups who claim the site is unsuitable. Most recently, 25 leading medical specialists expressed opposition after leading cardiologist Maurice Neligan said he had changed his mind and now favoured development on a greenfield site. “It would have been prudent if the proposed plan for the development and its access had been made available for public scrutiny,” Mr Neligan said. Meanwhile, Phil Shovlin, a key aide of former HSE boss Brendan Drumm since 2006, has been appointed the next chief executive of Temple Street children’s hospital. Ms Shovlin trained as a nurse and was chief executive of St Vincent’s private hospital in Dublin from 1999 to 2002. She worked as services planner with the North Western Health Board in 2002-2005 before taking up the post of director of the chief executive’s office in the HSE. At Temple Street, which will be subsumed into the National Paediatric Hospital when it is built, she succeeds Paul Cunniffe, who held the post of chief executive for 29 years.
"Girl's funeral told of need to protect childhood".......Fiona Gartland, Irish Times - Friday, September 3, 2010.............. We need to protect our children’s childhood more than ever, mourners at the funeral of 12-year- old murder victim Michaela Davis were told yesterday. Fr John Daly, parish priest of St Mochta’s Church in Porterstown, west Dublin, said the community needed the courage to provide the best society for young people. Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of the schoolgirl from Porterstown, who was killed last Saturday. A man has been charged with her murder. The small church was full and many mourners stood outside in the autumn sunshine and listened to the service through speakers. Two rows of students in the scarlet and black uniform of Luttrellstown Community College, the secondary school Michaela had joined last week, formed a guard of honour as the white coffin passed between them. It was carried from the church gate to its door by her father, Brendan Davis, her 16-year-old brother, also Brendan, and other relatives. Her mother Deirdre followed the coffin and was supported by a relative. Children from St Mochta’s national school, her former primary school, provided music. Friends who had moved on from St Mochta’s to other secondary schools in the area, such as Clonsilla Community College, Castleknock Community College and Mount Sackville, were also present. The young people were tearful and appeared shocked and overwhelmed by the death of their friend. Also there were local TDs Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and Joan Burton (Labour), along with former lord mayor Eibhlín Byrne. Friends and relations brought a series of gifts to the altar to place close to the coffin, including a photo of the girl in school uniform taken last week, a bar of chocolate and a little cat to mark her fondness for animals. Fr Daly remarked, as a cuddly toy and an angel were brought to the altar, that “Michaela was 12, only a little girl”. She had been christened at the church in white, he said, had made her Communion there and earlier this year had worn white for her Confirmation there. “I know her Mum and Dad hoped and longed that the next time that Michaela came to this church dressed in white it would be for another celebration.” He said she was full of chat, fun, energy and eagerness for life. She was not the teacher’s pet, but when she “entered the room she lit it up, such was the strength and energy that came from her”. She was very kind and generous. She was also eager to grow up, “too eager at times”, Fr Daly said. “She pushed the boundaries in many ways; she wanted to grow up so much and so quickly.” He also spoke of forgiveness and said he prayed the family would have courage and find peace in their lives. He said the community needed courage too. “Our children today are pushed and forced to grow up much quicker than we were; they have to contend with things at a much earlier age than we ever did,” he said. “We need to protect their childhood more then ever, we need to provide the right environment to help them flourish and to fulfil their dreams.” At the end of the funeral, Fr Daly passed on a message from the Daly family thanking friends, neighbours, local schools and the wider community for all the support they had been given since their daughter’s death. On behalf of the family, Fr Daly also thanked gardaí for their “great care, courtesy, kindness and professionalism” and “for working tirelessly to bring Michaela home to her Mam and Dad”. The schoolgirl’s coffin was carried out of the church by her uncles to the sound of Heal this Heartache, by her favourite band JLS. She was buried in Clonsilla churchyard nearby.
Priest jailed for indecent assaults on three sisters........Irish Times - Friday, September 3, 2010........ A Catholic priest was jailed in Belfast yesterday for indecently assaulting three sisters at their home in Northern Ireland more than 40 years ago, after he befriended their parents. Fr Eugene Lewis (76) was based at the College of the Society of Missionaries of Africa, also known as the White Fathers, in Blacklion, Co Cavan, when he abused the young girls in Co Fermanagh between 1963 and 1973. He denied 11 charges of indecent assault but a jury at Omagh Crown Court was unanimous in finding him guilty at the end of a six-week trial in May. He was sentenced to four years in prison in Belfast yesterday. Immediately afterwards his solicitor said he would be appealing the conviction. In a brief statement last night the Society of the Missionaries of Africa said that it was “a matter of deep regret that a member of the society has been found guilty of a number of very serious offences by a court in Northern Ireland. “It is understood that the priest is lodging an appeal against his conviction. Pending a resolution of that matter, it would be inappropriate for the society to comment further.” In his judgment, Mr Justice Phillip Babington said the priest was introduced to the family by a fellow cleric who was related to them. Lewis would call at the family farm from time to time, generally in the evening. The court heard the girls’ parents welcomed the visits, not only by Lewis but by the other White Fathers and students. They felt they would be beneficial for the children because of their experiences in life, in travelling the world and their Catholic ethos. The court was told that Lewis in particular would spend time with the girls, telling them stories. The sisters did not tell each other or anyone else of the offences at the time. They told the court they did not feel able to do so as the White Fathers were, to an extent, revered by their parents. The catalyst was when one sister found a photograph which brought back memories. She subsequently made a complaint to the police. Her sisters did likewise. Lewis has consistently denied all the allegations and suggested they were motivated by conspiracy or compensation claims. He claimed in a pre-sentence report that his visits to the family home were “primarily to visit the girls’ father, acknowledge the children, tell a story, have a cup of tea and go”. The judge yesterday referred to statements given about the good character of Lewis. He said there was no doubt the priest was held in high regard by ex-students and colleagues and those he met while working in Africa, Germany and Britain. The judge noted, however, that the type of offending behaviour the priest engaged in usually took place in private and well away from the eyes of colleagues, family and friends. The judge also took account of the fact that Lewis is 76, was of generally good health and had a clear criminal record. Judge Babington said it was clear from impact statements that the girls had all been adversely affected by the abuse and found the trial, which had to take place because Lewis denied the offences, deeply upsetting and stressful. He said the three complainants were “very, very young” when they were abused. There was a “blatant and very serious breach of trust” as the complainants were abused in their home while their parents were in the house by a person seen as a figure of authority. Other factors were that the abuse continued for more than 10 years and some of the offending was of a very serious nature. Mr Justice Babington also disqualified Lewis from working with children indefinitely and ordered him to sign the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life.
Minister studying measures to control sex offenders..........Carol Coulter, Irish Times - Friday, September 3, 2010.......... Measures aimed at reducing the risk of reoffending by sex offenders are under consideration in the Department of Justice, according to the Minister, Dermot Ahern. A pilot project for electronic tagging has been introduced and 10 prisoners have been released with electronic tags and are being monitored, he said. If this is found to work, it will be extended. The programme follows a consultation process and submissions from the public. A document was produced, however, it has not been published as it contained some recommendations he did not agree with, Mr Ahern said, particularly one which recommended the temporary release of sex offenders. Speaking at the publication of the annual report of the Parole Board, Mr Ahern was unwilling to discuss in detail the case of rapist Larry Murphy, released last month, but he said there were legal problems with changing the conditions relating to remission. He pointed out that under a 2001 law the courts could impose post-release conditions on sex offenders, but this only applied to those sentenced after that date. Changing the conditions for remission could lead to different regimes for different prisoners, he said, which would be unworkable. He stressed that to be effective, participation in programmes aimed at changing sex offending behaviour had to be voluntary. If a person was forced to participate it would not only not work for that individual, but would be disruptive to those genuinely attending the programme. Referring to the issue of remission, he said other jurisdictions had more generous remission of sentences than Ireland did, and this could give rise to problems when prisoners were transferred to serve their sentences closer to their homes, as it could lead, in the case of the UK, to them serving a shorter sentence. Chairman of the Parole Board Gordon Holmes said its work increased last year, with more prisoners being referred to it. The board was set up in 2001 to review the cases of prisoners with longer-term sentences and to provide advice in relation to the administration of those sentences. It can recommend the temporary release of those serving long sentences, including life. Only those serving sentences of eight years or more are eligible for consideration by the board. He said the board conducted 58 interviews last year compared to 33 the previous year. The total number of cases before the board in 2009 was 230, and the board made recommendations to the Minister in 88 cases. Pointing to the difference in the remission regime between Ireland and the UK, he said this meant initial sentences appeared longer in the UK, but in practice there was little difference in sentencing practice between the two jurisdictions. Referring to the debate about crimes committed on temporary release, he said that last year only one person on temporary release, following a recommendation by the board, had transgressed again.
Child abuse ruling in Portugal........Friday, 3 September 2010.......... A Portuguese court, giving its first findings in one of the country's longest and highest profile trials, ruled that all seven defendants committed child abuse at a state orphanage. The defendants, included a well-known television presenter, a former diplomat and two doctors. The seven are charged with being members of a network that systematically abused children from the Casa Pia state home for orphans. Judges Lopes Barata and Ester Santos read out 'facts considered proven' in the case. The court said Carlos Silvino, the former driver at Casa Pia, had sexually abused several under-aged boys in the orphanage garage and then given them money. The judges will continue reading out their findings before announcing their verdicts and handing down sentences ending a trial that has lasted six years. Five of the 32 victims, now in their early 20s, were in the courtroom with their lawyers. Another victim, sitting in the public section, cried and shook nervously during the session. Carlos Cruz, a popular TV presenter and producer, Jorge Ritto, a former diplomat, two doctors, a former Casa Pia director and Silvino are accused of around 900 crimes in total. Silvino has confessed to some of the crimes but all the other defendants say they are innocent. If found guilty, they could face prison sentences of up to 10 years. The weekly newspaper Expresso broke the story in late 2002 when it reported that a driver at Casa Pia had been abusing children at the institution for years. Soon more alarming reports appeared, alleging that the driver had taken children from the orphanage to other places where they were abused by a number of wealthy individuals. Many Portuguese believe convictions would send an important signal to abusers, but others feel the case has been blown out of proportion. Many say the trial has shown up the slowness and inefficiency of Portuguese courts, especially in handling a trial on this scale. 920 witnesses were heard in 460 court sessions.
Children in care 'cannot be locked up'.......Fiona Gartland Irish Times - Saturday, September 4, 2010....... State Child care providers cannot lock children up 24 hours a day to ensure they do not go missing, the Minister for Children told a symposium on child well-being yesterday. Reacting to allegations that allowing children in the care of the HSE to go missing was “a dereliction of duty”, Minister Barry Andrews said care providers could not lock up children. The Minister was speaking at the Child Well-Being International Symposium in Dublin Castle. The symposium was organised by UCD in collaboration with the Office for the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. “If society says we do not want any children going missing from care then we are talking about warehousing children,” he said. “One wonders what would be the likely result for a child given this care. What social worker or care staff member is going to volunteer to bring a child out shopping or on any kind of an expedition?” he asked. But he acknowledged that “very sophisticated” services had to be developed to meet the needs of children in care. Three young people who had taken part in consultations with the Minister’s office also spoke. “Craig” told delegates he had 15 foster placements during his life in HSE care, had been in two residential care homes and had 19 social workers. “I thought social workers were there just to make my life harder,” he said. Mr Andrews also said he expected 60,000 parents to avail of the free pre-school year for their children this year. The Minister said pre-school practitioners could be given extra training to help them to identify conditions in children such as early language delay and speech problems
Grandmothers compete for support on Mass boycott......Patsy McGarry, Irish Times - Saturday, September 4, 2010........... A 63-Year-old grandmother has thrown down the gauntlet to the recent call by 80-year-old Jennifer Sleeman for a boycott of Sunday Mass on September 26th next. The non-attendance is in protest at the Catholic Church’s treatment of women and the scandal of clerical child sex abuse. Catherine Wiley, a grandmother of 10 and founder of the Catholic Grandparents’ Association, has said that boycotting Mass “is exactly what Catholics shouldn’t do, because to turn your back on Mass it to turn your back on God.” Instead she has called for people to turn out in their tens of thousands at the Catholic grandparents pilgrimage to Knock on Sunday, September 12th next. “I am calling on grandparents and their families to rally around the church right now. The faith is being tested in Ireland today, but Catholics who value their faith should now make public statements supporting it, not calling for an abandonment of the church,” she said. She hopes as many as 12,000 pilgrims will attend Sunday Mass at Knock on the day. Referring to Mrs Sleeman’s “well-publicised call to boycott Mass” Mrs Wiley said “reform is needed in so many areas of the church, but we must lead this reform from within, not without.” She said that “Mass is central to our faith, and at this most difficult time in our country, Catholics should turn to prayer and to Mass to find the strength to get through.” She respected “Mrs Sleeman’s right to protest, and appreciate her deeply-held views”. She was adamant however that “now is not the time for people of faith to abandon the Church”. Tyrone’s Chloe Coyle, winner of this year’s RTÉ television’s Ireland’s Got Talent programme, will sing at the Knock pilgrimage, while her mentor on the programme, former Eurovision winner Dana, will also perform. Chief celebrant of Mass on the day will be the Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey while Irish Times columnist Breda O’Brien will be keynote speaker.
Does childhood really end at seven?.............. One expert thinks so. In the week when 12-year-old Michaela Davis was buried, Áilín Quinlan asks if Ireland is failing its children The shock death of schoolgirl Michaela Davis and the tragic car crash that took the life of Kerry teenager Áine O'Riordan and three other teenagers have left us reeling -- and raised questions about the kind of society in which we're raising our children. Over the space of a generation, Irish society has undergone seismic change and today's teenagers have more freedom, money and possessions than ever before. They're independent, cyber-savvy and, above all, highly mobile. Many own their own cars or have friends who do. But the liberty enjoyed by modern teens has been thrown into stark relief by the death of 12-year-old Michaela -- who left home in the early hours of last Saturday and whose body was later found in undergrowth near the Royal Canal -- and by the loss of 15-year-old Aine. This relaxation of traditional curfews has not been the only societal change to take place in recent years. These days, many girls as young as 13 or 14 are obsessed by social networking, wear make-up and dress in skimpy clothes and high heels. As Junior Cert results night looms and the emergency services gear up to deal with the annual avalanche of out-of-control and often inebriated children, the usual round of questions will be asked. Do parents know how late their child plans to stay out? Do they know where they are, who they're with and, in many cases, what they're wearing? "The uniform of youth seems to be overtly sexual. It is about exhibitionism," says psychologist Patricia Murray. The manifold reasons include the commercialisation of childhood; the decline of traditional taboos; the impact of global media, which publicises the exploits of so-called 'wild children' like Peaches Geldof; and a massive explosion in communication technology. One of the biggest factors is the earlier onset of puberty for girls, says Dr Patrick Ryan, director of the doctoral programme in clinical psychology at the University of Limerick. "Puberty is coming on a year or two earlier than a generation ago and we're responding to that physical development," he says. "There's a commercialisation of adolescence that wasn't there 30 years ago and part of it is the sexualising of youngsters." According to Patricia Murray, "This is a world where to be happy you have to be sexy. We let our society sexualise young children, especially girls. "We've opened the floodgates and gone from a society where there was a complete denial of adolescent sexuality to one where we've started sexualising children from as early as the age of seven. "And everyone is standing back and letting it happen. There seems to be a fear of getting in there and tackling it because adults feel insecure about the topic of sexualisation." "You look at a 12-year-old now, she could often pass for 15," says Dr Ryan, author of You Can't Make Me: How to Get The Best Out Of Your Teenager. "One of the difficulties is that young girls are maturing faster and parents are responding to that by giving them more freedom and more responsibility for themselves than they would have done 20 years ago." But, Dr Ryan believes, in some cases they may be getting more than they're really able for. A girl's outward maturity can mask the fact that she is still a child and not yet able to make the best decisions about what is safe. "Just because your young daughter might look 16 doesn't mean she knows how to keep herself safe." Our highly competitive consumer culture is also working against parents, according to Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World Is Damaging Our Children And What We Can Do About It. Marketing strategies, she warns, deliberately aim to confuse indulgence with parental love. "The peer pressure to own things that demonstrate a parent's love is incredibly strong -- so if children don't have the right possession, they feel they are excluded. "Peer pressure in the playground translates into pester power in the home," which, she says, leads to a push outwards for more freedom. So what can parents do? "It's important to remember that parenting has to be a balance of warmth and firmness. The warmth is the love which is not the same as indulgence. The firmness is setting boundaries for behaviour," says Palmer. She warns, however, that this has to be established in childhood. "It's totally normal for a teenager to push boundaries, but the principle of parenting is that the parent has to try to hold firm. "We're back to parents' responsibility to monitor and know who their kids are hanging around with and what their influences are."
Dr Martin tight-lipped over papal controversy Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin celebrated Mass and the dedication of a new altar at the Poor Clare Convent in Ballsbridge, Dublin, yesterday....By By Patricia McDonagh, Saturday September 04 2010.......... Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin yesterday refused to be drawn on the Pope's decision to reject the resignations of two bishops named in a report on cover-ups of paedophile clerics. Dr Martin refused to comment on the controversial move when asked about it after a ceremony at the Poor Clare Convent in Ballsbridge, Dublin. His silence comes as anger mounts at the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to allow bishops Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field to keep their jobs. The two auxiliary bishops had offered to step down on Christmas Eve 2009, in the wake of the Murphy Report into clerical child abuse in the Dublin Diocese. The Pope's decision to let the bishops remain in their posts means that they will be available to administer confirmation in any part of the Dublin Diocese in the coming year
Michaela murder accused remanded in custody...... By Edel Kennedy, Saturday September 04 2010 Irish Independent..... A Teenager charged with the murder of 12-year-old schoolgirl Michaela Davis has been remanded in custody for a further three weeks. Jonathan Byrne (18), above, of Lohunda Downs in Clonsilla, Dublin, was brought before Dublin District Court on Monday morning charged with killing the young girl in the early hours of last Saturday on the Porterstown Road. Det Sgt Daniel Callaghan, from Blanchardstown garda station, said the accused made no reply when he was charged. Mr Byrne was then remanded in custody until yesterday when he appeared at Cloverhill District Court before Judge John Lindsay. Mr Byrne did not speak during the short hearing. His father did not attend the hearing. School: Det Sgt Callaghan applied for a further remand until September 24 and this was consented to by Mr Byrne's barrister. Michaela, below, who was buried on Thursday at Clonsilla Cemetery, had just started secondary school at Luttrellstown Community College. The schoolgirl left her home in the Village development in Blanchardstown, Dublin, just after midnight last Friday week and had told family members she would return shortly. She was reported missing two hours later. Her strangled body was found shortly before 4pm on Saturday in undergrowth on a bank of the Royal Canal. Her body had been spotted by a man out walking his dog. Hundreds attended her funeral Mass at St Mochta's Church on Thursday, with schoolfriends forming a guard of honour.
Paedophilia cases which shocked the world Here are some of the most shocking cases of paedophilia over the past few years. Ireland has been shaken in recent years by allegations of sexual and physical abuse committed in institutions for children which went on for decades. The schools, orphanages, approved schools and hospitals involved were financed by the state, but mostly managed by Roman Catholic religious orders. In Britain, on the island of Jersey, a probe was launched in early 2006, after complaints of violence and sexual abuse over four decades on children in an orphanage. Around one hundred alleged victims said they had been abused between the 1950s and the late 1980s. the Roman Catholic Church has over the past decade been tainted by numerous revelations of paedophilia scandals within its ranks. In the US a study made public in 2004 by the church said 4,400 priests had been accused of having abused 11,000 children over the last 50 years. Millions of dollars of compensation have been claimed during several court cases. One of the most shocking cases concerned the Archdiocese of Boston which in September 2003 agreed to pay $85mn in damages to victims of paedophile priests to bring to an end 542 court cases. In 2010 the Catholic church has again been rocked by an avalanche of allegations of sexual abuse, across north and south America and Europe. Pope Benedict XVI has condemned the acts, apologised and accepted the resignation of several bishops. n In Belgium, the case of the child killer Marc Dutroux, which came to light in mid-1996, made waves well beyond Belgium. In June 2004, after eight years of investigation and a three-and-a-half-year trial, Dutroux was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of the abduction and rape of six young girls and adolescents, of whom four died, and for the murder of an accomplice.
"Priest forced siblings to abuse each other"....... Brother and sister receive $2m compensation for sexual assault by paedophile Oliver O'Grady.......Ali Bracken, September 5, 2010.......... Defrocked Irish paedophile priest Oliver O'Grady forced a brother and a sister to perform sex acts on each other after he raped and sexually assaulted them in California over a number of years, the Sunday Tribune can reveal. The brother and sister, who were aged seven and eight respectively when O'Grady began to abuse them in Presentation parish in California in the mid '80s, were awarded $2m (€1.5m) in compensation in recent weeks. The diocese of Stockton in California settled the case after a number of pre-trial hearings. In total, it is estimated that the diocese of Stockton has paid out over $30m (€23.3m) to victims of the convicted sex abuser. Attorney Anthony De Marco, at the law firm Kiesel Boucher Larson in LA, took the civil action on behalf of the siblings. "The abuse was as awful as you can imagine. O'Grady used to go into their classroom and take them out of class; they attended a Catholic elementary school. It was attached to a church and he would take them into the church to abuse them. He would abuse them in front of each other. He forced one child to watch while he abused the other. He even made them do things to each other. He coerced them to abuse each other," De Marco told the Sunday Tribune. "The abuse went on for a few years. He also abused them in their family home. It was rape and sexual assault in both cases. The abuse was horrific. They are coping as best they can, they have obviously had a lot of therapy. I think coming forward helped them and getting resolution is helping towards their healing. But nothing will take away the images in their minds. I have dealt with over 400 victims of sexual abuse in southern California and come across some truly horrific offenders. But when I read the Oliver O'Grady file, the level of callousness and disregard for children appalled me." O'Grady was deported to Ireland in 2000 after spending seven years in prison in the US for sexually abusing two boys. He still lives here. He has admitted to sexually abusing many children in depositions, but has only been convicted for abuse against two boys. Dozens of victims of the former cleric have since come forward. The former priest obtained notoriety when he agreed to feature in a documentary discussing his sexual abuse of children. Deliver Us From Evil, which was nominated for an Oscar, was released in 2006 and many of O'Grady's victims also featured in it, discussing the impact his abuse has had on their lives. The documentary also explored how high-ranking clergy in California moved O'Grady from one parish to another over several years when allegations of sexual abuse began to emerge.
Vital dataon children in care unavailable...........By Noel Baker, Monday, September 06, 2010......... The HSE has told an Oireachtas Committee that it cannot provide figures for the number of children in care who go missing; have a drug problem; have been assaulted or have harmed themselves. The HSE’s former chief executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, and other senior HSE figures appeared before the PAC on June 10 and were asked for follow-up information on a number of areas. A detailed response has now been provided to the committee, but not all the figures are present as the HSE has admitted they have not been collated. "We note the request for specific information in relation to children in care who may from time to time be absent without authority (missing), have a drug problem, been the victim of an assault or have attempted suicide," it said. "The HSE does not collect this data on a routine basis, however that is not to say that such issues do not occur or are not attended to. In response to the request from the committee, the HSE will consider further the possibility of collecting these and other variables. "As explained to the committee the nature of the paper-based systems and the retrospective period being examined would make it almost impossible to identify a variable such as parasuicide in the children in care population over a 10-year period." The response provided to the PAC also states that each HSE area operates its own system in relation to how it gathers such information, but that the HSE "recognises that there is a need to have a standardised system". "The HSE is advancing the progress of the National Child Care Information System, which will address this and other information deficits," it said. The HSE has stressed that urgent cases are prioritised, even in instances where cases are awaiting the allocation of a social worker. "In the current year the HSE is endeavouring to develop a measurement for unallocated cases through the monthly performance review meetings with the national director integrated services directorate: performance and financial management, and the regional directors of operations," it said. Last October the HSE carried out a national foster care audit and in its response to the PAC it said that an action plan 2010 has been formulated to address the deficits uncovered by the audit. "The targets on this action plan are ambitious but are commensurate with the importance and urgency which the HSE places on providing fostering services that meet the regulations and standards in every respect," it said. "Achievement of some of the targets will depend on the successful filling of the additional social work posts approved by the minister for 2010 and on the retention of social workers up to the approved employment ceiling levels
Surge in children referred to HSE crisis unit........By Noel Baker, Monday, September 06, 2010.......... A record number of children required crisis intervention from the HSE last year, with the executive admitting that there is a "significant under-resourcing" of social work departments to meet the challenge.Statistics show that 820 children were referred to the HSE’s Crisis Intervention Service last year, up from 764 in 2008. In the first five months of this year another 372 children were referred. The numbers have risen consistently, as has the rate of crisis referrals overall each year. A child may be referred multiple times. Last year there were 3,564 referrals overall, the highest number since 2004 when 453 children were referred, indicating that while more children are being referred, they are being referred less often. The HSE runs the Crisis Intervention Service (CIS) – including out-of-hours social work service, a day support service and a range of emergency/residential services that cover areas of Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow – and also pays for a service run by Five Rivers, a private foster care service which provides a number of families to the HSE to give an out-of-hours response to children requiring emergency placement by An Garda Síochána. Figures show that from January to June 23 this year, there were 67 placements to Five Rivers Ireland. Last year, 673 referrals came from north Dublin alone, involving 86 children. By contrast, there were just 147 referrals from outside the eastern region in 2009. The figures are included in a response to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee. Using a comparison of staff to children ratios in five council areas of the North versus HSE areas here, the HSE response to the committee states: "The Western Health and Social Care Trust [in the North] employs about 200 social workers, including area managers and social work managers for a child population of 77,108. "If you compare this to Galway with a child population of 55,306 and staffing of 34.85 WTE [whole time equivalents] or Dublin North with a child population of 55,018 and a staffing of 45.48 WTE or Kildare/West Wicklow with a child population of 54,930 and a staffing of 52.5 WTE, the results are stark." A HSE survey shows five local health offices recorded total caseloads in excess of 1,000 cases: Wexford, 1,142; Cork North Lee, 1,115; Dublin North Central, 1,083; Louth, 1,078; and Waterford, 1,050. Seventeen local health offices recorded total caseloads between 500 and 1,000. Eight recorded caseloads of between 246 and 500. The answers to the HSE are as a result of questions asked at a meeting earlier this year when former HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm and others appeared before the committee. However, some of the data provided to the committee is based on figures dating from 2005, such as the ratio of social work posts to regional population. It states that there is no recommendation regarding the ratio of social work posts to population here and that it would be difficult to enumerate an ideal ratio of social work posts to population as requirements vary across the country.
Children in jeopardy - Budget can’t match crisis......... Monday, September 06, 2010......... We already know of the epidemic of suicide sweeping the country – more than 10 a week – but figures just published reveal another manifestation of the terrible challenges facing individuals, families and communities. Last year more children that ever before – 820, up from 764 – found themselves in situations that demanded crisis intervention from the HSE. It is hard not to worry that at least some of these children will not get the attention they so badly need because our system is so utterly stretched and under-resourced. And that was before Mary Harney announced that health budgets will be cut in December’s budget. The consequences of economic collapse are indeed harrowing.
Childhood is a forgotten beauty.........Monday September 06 2010........ When is a child just a child? Such is our culture that children are growing up before their time -- Barbies and teddies are being forsaken for mobiles and iPads. Children grow up so quick now -- a blink of an eye and what was once a baby is off to attend college or see the world. Childhood is a forgotten beauty -- the innocence and the tenderness of it all -- and once gone it's lost forever. Why the rush to grow up? Child-protection laws can only go so far. The day is gone where children were safe to wander off and play on their own, or stop and talk to a stranger on the street, or even walk home from school. The regularly debated topic of over-sexualisation of children comes to mind -- when, in fact, does a child become an adult? Are we doing our children a disservice by allowing them to wear make-up or provocative clothing before their age? Free expression and fashion is one thing, but what if it made your child an attractive target? Paedophiles have layers beyond the usual cloak; they hide in our communities and perhaps are someone we know. Why do we all take it for granted that those we love will be here tomorrow? Reading through my newspaper, Lise Hand's article (Irish Independent, September 3) touched a nerve I hadn't felt in a while. The death of Michaela Davis is beyond heartbreaking. But who is to blame? We speak of NAMA, unemployment and other such matters as though they mean life and death -- but in comparison, money is a frivolous thing; it's here today and gone tomorrow, but people are not. Ireland is not safe. The rolling green hills and smiling folk are merely propaganda or pretence to hide the grim reality and the blood spilt in our country. Measures must be taken, at least to safeguard innocence, before that, too, is lost in transit....... Julie Bennett
Former head teacher jailed for sexually abusing pupils Derek Slade abused boys between 1978 and 1983 at schools in Norfolk and Suffolk A former boarding school head teacher who sexually abused and hit pupils has been jailed for 21 years. Derek Slade, 61, of Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was convicted of the offences against 12 boys aged between eight and 13. Ipswich Crown Court heard the abuse took place between 1978 and 1983 at private schools in Wicklewood, Norfolk, and Great Finborough in Suffolk. Slade hit boys with a slipper, a table tennis bat and his hand, jurors heard. Police were first contacted in June 2000 with allegations of assault by a former pupil but detectives could not trace Slade. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote Slade must never leave prison as long as he lives” End Quote Simon Wilshire, former pupil In 2008 and 2009 more former pupils came forward to police in Norfolk and Suffolk claiming Slade had abused them. Oxford-educated Slade, who had no teaching qualifications, was arrested in Derbyshire earlier this year. He had admitted assault, indecent assault and child pornography offences. He denied other allegations of assault and indecent assault but was found guilty after a month-long trial. Former pupil Simon Wilshire was not sexually abused by Slade but described the former head teacher as "experienced in the art of beating". Mr Wilshire, now 45, recalled the first time Slade hit him on his second day of school when he was 13 after being caught smoking. He said: "We were called into his bedroom one at a time to be whacked on the bare backside. "He always let us wait - he was a master at letting the fear kick in." The court heard Oxford-educated Slade had no teaching qualifications Mr Wilshire added: "We would be beaten at least every week, pretty much at Slade's whim, it was relentless. "The school was an incarceration facility where boys were beaten - and now it turns out they were molested there as well. "Slade must never leave prison as long as he lives." Det Ch Insp Adrian Randall said: "Whilst Slade may have committed these offences 30 years ago, for the victims their pain remains very real. "I cannot begin to imagine how difficult it must have been for these men to come forward and try to make sense of what happened to them decades ago as defenceless young boys." He said more information had come to light as a result of publicity about Slade's trial and police inquiries were continuing.