Sir, – There is little to disagree with in Una Mullally’s powerful commentary on the scandal of the Tuam babies, interred without ceremony or dignity in underground burial chambers, destined to be forgotten in perpetuity.
Except, the discovery in 2010 of 220 children’s remains from Dublin’s Protestant evangelical Bethany Home in unmarked paupers’ graves did not generate an equivalent opening Irish Times paragraph on the depravity of Protestant, as distinct from Catholic, Ireland.
It is often forgotten that social control mechanisms in the Irish State were provided by a churches (plural) and state alliance. More than one Christian community treated unmarried pregnant women and their marginalised children appallingly, on both sides of the Border. Indeed, for the evangelical Protestants who ran the Westbank home in Greystones, the Border was a convenient line over which “poor Protestant orphans”, which were deliberately denied adoption, could be paraded for fund-raising purposes. Small children were used as farm labourers in return for funding as well.
The Church of Ireland Magdalen Home and its associated Nursery Rescue Society also literally farmed out supposedly fostered children as free labour, from the age of five. A survivor who entrusted me with assisting him in drawing up his life story, referred to as “John” in an Irish Times article (July 8th, 2014), was the only one of a group of seven he knew while growing up not to succumb to drink and drugs, as a means of escape. The fact that he was sent to a prestigious boarding school as a teenager masks the treatment. He and fellow “foster” children were not permitted to play school games and were sent instead to work on the school farm. They were thrashed regularly for failing lessons, unsurprisingly as their primary schooling was interrupted with unrelenting farm work. Other boarders went to their families at the weekend, while the abandoned “foster” children were left behind on their own.
It is a great pity that the terms of reference of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Inquiry are too narrow to enable examination of what happened to children when they left their respective mother and baby homes. Some of the latter are not even on the list to be examined by the commission. The terms should be expanded. – Yours, etc,
Dr NIALL MEEHAN
Head of Journalism
& Media Faculty,
Griffith College Dublin,
Dublin 8.
From a people who provided a template for liberation struggles around the world to a carnival of reaction when republicans were defeated by the most conservative forces in our country
Nail on the head paddy,the centenary of the civil war will be interesting.
I see that THE IRISH TIMES had no space for Niall Meehan’s letter today.
It pursues an anti-Catholic agenda relentlessly. Just as it pursues an anti-Irish one.
I remember the lack of concern over the mass unmarked grave of unreported deaths in the Whitehall convent there in Dublin 15 years ago. Couple of hundred bodies there, never reported to the state. It seems we have one of those graves around almost every single Catholic convent and school. They just keep popping up.
Both Catholic and Protestant religions behaved with barbarity, evil and inhumanity towards the most vulnerable in our society for centuries. Raping them, torturing them, beating them to death. The Christian Brother reformatory school graveyards are filled with boys raped and battered to death and never investigated as a recent cursory examination of exhumed bodies exposed.
And people come on and defend the Catholic church. No better than those apologising for the holocaust.
Poppycock, gendjinn.Yes, the Catholic clergy did some appalling things ( I was educated by them, I know). But they also did and do selfless things that have made a positive difference to many irish people. IMO we’re far too ready to jump onto the bash-the-priests-and-brothers band wagon. Too simplistic. The state, the church, society itself – all contributed to the many bad things – and to a lot of good things. Black and white – or rather all black – depictions of the Catholic clergy are simplistic.
Jude,
Not just in Ireland, the Catholic church covered up for paedophiles in the US, Canada, Australia and more going back more than 50 years. All over the world Catholic dioceses fought the cases of their victims every step of the way, for decades.
Your response reminds me of the hooligan up in front of the judge for murdering some for four pounds fifty “But he takes really good care of his sick mum!”
And I’m left scratching my head what great deeds could ever come close to expunging the rape and murder of children. In the hundreds. All over the world. For decades. Covering it up the whole time. Fighting their victims ever step of the way.
So no, it is not poppycock Jude and you are smart enough to know better. Should you choose to.
Priests are no more likely to pray on children than anyone else in society, however the great crime in all this is that even the Catholic hierarchy who didn’t have the sexual perversions were more than willing to cover up and move priests on from dioceses to dioceses which allowed abuse to continue.
The hierarchy was a accessory to the abuse through their unwillingness to turn priests over to the police because of fear of damage to the institutions reputation. This was not just in Ireland but across the world.
Literally thousands of abuses have been claimed but I’ve yet to hear of senior cardinals being jailed for their part in the cover up.
thats why there needs to be nuremberg style trials set up,and them dragged before them,assets seized to pay victims,and to show the world what they are.
I don’t deny any of what you say re crimes of Catholic clergy worldwide. However, have you checked the level of abuse in the enterntainment world? Political world? Other ‘Christian’ churches? If you do you’ll find that Catholic clergy are just as vile, no more no less, as other sectors. I know ‘paedophile priest’ has a nice alliteration and is true; but it’s far from the whole story.
I agree Jude and I believe studies have also shown that the rate of child abuse among Catholic priests is no higher or lower than any other section of society.
The point though is that Cardinals and other members of the church hierarchy willingly covered up abuse in order to protect their, and the churches reputation. They provided the platform for abuse and facilitated the continuing of the abuse.
Again I ask how many of these senior members of the church who didn’t report abuse to the police went to Jail? Were they not accessories to abuse also?
Of course its not the only organisation that carried this kind of cover up, but I imagine its certainly the largest scale one and most prominent.
I think its sad that you and this article feels that you cant condemn child abuse unless you qualify with some kind of whataboutery like “Its of course terrible, but them’uns done it to you know”,
Seems going by this blog entry saying so is seen as being anti catholic in some how. Its bizarre because you would think that child abuse is one thing we could all condemn, without need for qualification
Scott
Unfortunately when the issue of abuse in the Catholic church comes up we are guaranteed this standard response..
It is basically, as you say, whataboutery no different from someone saying
‘yes the UVF killed people but don’t forget about the IRA’.
The way to address an issue is to address it directly.
If other scandals are being overlooked then do a revealing blog on them directly.
Hi Scott – thanks for thoughts – I almost always like if don’t always agree with your input. I am not qualifying condemnation of child abuse and cover-up by ANYONE. The Catholic clergy/any clergy should be giving a lead, not engage in foul practices. My point is that while the media are happy to expose the evil done by the Catholic Church, they rarely add that other Churches have the same problem (in fact I’ve been told with emphasis that this is a problem for the Catholic Church only). As to cover-up, that should never have happened – but it’s what organisations all do when under pressure. Talk the BBC and Jimmy Saville/Rolf Harris/et al – do you think that producers, production assistants, management didn’t know what was going on for years? Or politics – don’t you think that MPs and others at Westminster knew there was something rotten going on? It’s like saying ‘This corner of my garden really stinks!’, while omitting the interesting fact that the entire garden stinks…
DON’T FORGET YOUR SHOVELS, LADIES
The Galiphate are so awfully pally
With the Uman herself, Una Mullally
One whack of her crozier
Will smartly bring closure
Her shoulder ‘s more chips than Silicon Valley.