tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35247027579417912472024-03-27T07:08:57.332+00:00Irish SalemWEBSITE LINK : <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com">www.IRISHSALEM.COM</a>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-91889303229054168342023-07-03T12:09:00.007+01:002023-08-25T20:13:00.004+01:00Brother Maurice Kirk and I [Part 3] - The Novitiate Years<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitkruqQIrJA9kQRjqq8eXSdNfci5biI5RYc5RoSGSo6xxE8Z1r_YVaBnsj-DqNWHTnRcZaxSeGDwHyL8ofqwDK4ktBVIW4XdX7ajZwQJjHgPgqFs_WyVaf8kfWKS3ay85mObkmJrIbYM6SbKsq87eW4TJISlRh8Og4ZALOkKWpWrVInJt3kFevEwtWf-uo/s2048/Brother-Maurice-Kirk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1495" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitkruqQIrJA9kQRjqq8eXSdNfci5biI5RYc5RoSGSo6xxE8Z1r_YVaBnsj-DqNWHTnRcZaxSeGDwHyL8ofqwDK4ktBVIW4XdX7ajZwQJjHgPgqFs_WyVaf8kfWKS3ay85mObkmJrIbYM6SbKsq87eW4TJISlRh8Og4ZALOkKWpWrVInJt3kFevEwtWf-uo/w469-h640/Brother-Maurice-Kirk.jpg" width="469" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">WORK IN PROGRESS - TO BE COMPLETED!</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The following extracts are taken from the booklet </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i><b>Brother Maurice Kirk F.S.C. (1928-1974)</b></i><b><i> </i></b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">written by </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Brother Lawrence O'Toole F.S.C., the then world-wide head of the De La Salle Brothers, shortly after the death of Brother Maurice in 1974</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 230.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 230.6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 230.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 230.6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 230.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 14.75pt; margin: 14.75pt 0cm 0cm 230.6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>FOREWORD</b></span><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.05pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 69.55pt; margin-right: 70.45pt; margin-top: 18.45pt; margin: 18.45pt 70.45pt 0cm 69.55pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16.3pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">Among the many tributes which were paid to
Brother </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">Maurice after his death, one in particular, it
seems to me, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">fi</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">tted
him very aptly: "<i>He was a man in a hurry. I do not </i></span><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">know if he had any premonition that his
allotted time was </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">short, but he packed
into a few years what many of us </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">would
regard as the work of a lifetime. He never seemed </span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;"><i>to cease and lived at a frenetic pace</i>". The service
which </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">Brother Maurice rendered the Province will
continue to </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">bear fruit for years to come. One thing alone
mattered for </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">him - the promotion of God's kingdom. This was
his driving </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">force in his direction of the Province, in his
work for </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">education and in his dealings with others.
Everything else </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">took second place. And how he worked for that end! </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">Innumerable hours of discussion and consultation,
long </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">tiring journeys for meetings and late hours at
his desk </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">were all accepted with a cheerful smile. He
was a most </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">selfless man.
But while his great service to Christian </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">education will long be remembered, those who knew him
really well will remember him especially as a religious of </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">deep Christian faith. Whether as confreres or
friends we thank God for the example of his life. This booklet will </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;">serve to keep his memory fresh.</span><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 243.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 243.6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 243.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .05pt; margin: 0.05pt 0cm 0cm 243.6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>- Brother Columba, f.s.c., Provincial.</b></span><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 243.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .05pt; margin: 0.05pt 0cm 0cm 243.6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 243.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .05pt; margin: 0.05pt 0cm 0cm 243.6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">DIRECTOR
OF NOVICES:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">On
his return from the Second Novitiate Br. Maurice found himself appointed
sub-Director of the novitiate in Castletown. Two years later [in 1965] he assumed the
succession on the retirement of Brother Oswin and was Director of Novices for
three years. As was to be expected he took his onerous position very seriously.
The old Rule of Government was still in force and its twenty-five pages of
minute instructions on the role, the importance and the duties of the master of
novices left nothing to caprice or whim. When St. de La Salle decided that, if
the apostolate of the Christian education of the children of the poor and the
working-class was to have any permanence, the schoolmasters should become a
religious congregation, he would have no half-measures, but planked down his
new foundation in the full mid--stream of monastic tradition, with all the
customary trappings<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of religious life.
The Common Rules and the Meditations for Sundays and Festivals leave no doubt
as to the seriousness with which the Founder treated the religious character of
his Brothers. Thus, in his meditation for the feast of St.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter Celestine he says “<i>Though you are
required by Almighty God to devote your attention to exterior things, and you
can find therein the means of sanctifying yourself, you must be careful not to
lose the desire and love of retirement. So arrange things, therefore, that when
you are no longer required outside, you may retire at once to your community,
as to your chosen dwelling, and find your consolation in the assiduous performance
of your spiritual exercises</i>." And for the feast of St. Paulinus he
tells the Brothers "<i>You, too have renounced exteriorly the world and
all that men most prize. Make sure that this renunciation is also interior and
leads you to complete detachment</i>." And for the Feast of St. Benedict
"<i>By the Holy Rule and his own well-regulated and saintly life he drew a
great many souls to God by separating them from the world and from conversation
with seculars in order that they might converse with God alone. This, indeed,
is one of the greatest benefits we can enjoy in this world and the most
effectual means by which we can give ourselves to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>greater your<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>regularity, the
closer you will approach the perfection of your state and the less you converse
with men, the more will . <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>communicate
Himself to you</i>."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">Some
ten years ago it became the fashion to blame St. John Baptist de La Salle [1651 - 1719] for
imposing the monastic pattern on his Institute of schoolteachers; good Catholic
schoolmasters is what they were intended to be, not monks. It was even hinted
that the imposition of the religious character on the first Brothers was little
more than a trick on the part of the founder, to ensure that they would stay on
the job and work without pay! But for three hundred years the Brothers have
always thought of themselves as primarily religious, "<i>monks</i>"
even. The whole framework of their life was monastic and the main purpose of
the novitiate was to train the young aspirants in all the traditional
disciplines of the religious life: prayer, asceticism, silence, recollection,
the following of Christ. Into this pattern the apostolate of the schoolroom was
incorporated and indeed so impregnated was the activity in the classroom with
prayer, pauses to recall the presence of God, reflections and instructions on
the Christian life, that it reinforced rather than hindered the distinctly
religious life of the Brothers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">It
was against this traditional background that Br. Maurice saw his function as
Director of Novices. "<i>The ideal he set before us</i>" says one of
his novices "<i>was based very much on the old Rule. He expected us to
live up to the spirit and letter of that Rule. In his conferences he outlined,
explained and discussed the vocation of the De La Salle Brother. His own
standards were high and he showed the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was always available,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>always<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>conscious of his
responsibilities,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>always<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>there to help. He treated us as individuals,
knew each one of us, our weaknesses and our good points. He never demanded
confessions or manifestations of conscience; one was always free to express or
withhold one's private thoughts and feelings, but he always listened when one
confided in him.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">"<i>He
was hard to make out at times. There seemed to be two sides to him. To some he
seemed severe, demanding, annoying. Yet he swam with us in the Nore, played
soccer with us on the 'new pitch' and hurling and Gaelic football in the High
Field. He could laugh, joke, enjoy music or a good book. He brought the novices
to Dublin to see the film ‘The Sound of Music', something unheard of in those
days! For my part I liked him and felt close to him</i>".<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">Others
of his novices concur with the views expressed above. He was, they say, very
serious and gave the impression of an austere and perfect religious, a model in
every way. His habitual attitude inspired respect but not everybody was
attracted by it. He insisted on an exact observance of the Rule, even in
minutiae, - not crossing one's feet, custody of the eyes, silence, proper
decorum, and in his conferences he frequently castigated and carelessness or
laissez-aller in these matters. It was while he was in charge of the novitiate
that the momentous Chapter of 1966 scrapped the Holy Founder's Rule and substituted
one that was considered more relevant to actual conditions today. Brother
Maurice accepted loyally the decisions of the General Chapter, but pointed out
that in the interpretation of the new Rule the centuries old traditions of the
Institute had to be taken into account and that there had to be some continuity
between the old and the new.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">He
was strong on '<i>professionalism</i>', insisting that both as religious and
Christian educators, the Brothers had to be at the top of their profession and
that fourth of fifth-rate performance was not good enough. One felt this
professional conscience in his own dedicated approach to his work. He was never
slovenly, never gave the impression of making up as he went along or playing
merely <i>'by ear</i>; all instructions were carefully prepared. He insisted on
clear elocution and intelligent reading. Manual labour had to be done
thoroughly and intelligently. The novitiate grounds and flower-garden were
'kept in such a way that the novices could always be proud to show them off.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">After
Brother Oswin, phlegmatic in character, unflappable and unexcitable, Br.
Maurice sometimes gave the impression of tenseness. He was definitely a
perfectionist and suffered accordingly from any form of slipshodness or
slovenliness. This did not make life easy for the easy-going and inevitably
there was some grumbling.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">In
his conferences Br. Maurice was uncompromising but in reddition he was prepared
to make the necessary allowances in the application of general principles to
individual cases. He was very kind and understanding in these intimate talks
with his novices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">When
the Director perceived that a novice was not responding to the opportunities
and graces of the novitiate, he prayed, considered and studied the situation
and then came to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>firm<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He declared that he
never regretted the dismissal of a novice since it was never something
precipitate but the fruit of prayer and reflection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">Br.
Maurice attached great importance to a thorough grounding in Christian
Doctrine, not to say '<i>theology</i>'. Every morning, both as Sub-Director and
as Director, he gave a lesson on the subjects a lesson that was always
thoroughly prepared. Then he would divide the novices into groups to discuss a
particular aspect of the subject being treated and very now and again the
fruits of these discussions were edited, polycopied and sent round to the
communities. When the Council documents began to appear, each novice was given
copies of them and was asked to make a particular study of one or other of them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">On
free days and holidays no one could be more cheerful than the Director of Novices. At
Christmas time the novices were given two weeks ‘vacation’, during which duties
were reduced to a minimum and there was plenty of time for recreation and
healthy relaxation. Picnic days were really enjoyable and on these occasions
the novices were permitted to wander where they pleased. He particularly loved
the traditional outing to Glandine, <i>'the mountains'</i>, and never failed to
climb Arderin. On one such outing, when, like the novices he was in his
shirt-sleeves, a novice, mistaking him for one of his chums, playfully tweaked
his braces, only to find that it was no novice, but the Director himself, who
turned round with a look that said very clearly "<i>We are not amused</i>!"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">For
the postulants Br. Maurice showed special consideration. He eased them
gradually into the full novitiate programme. Every afternoon they were allowed
to play a game and they were given extra time for recreation. A special series
of instructions prepared them for the reception of the habit and novitiate
proper.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">The
testimony of Br. Maurice's sub-Director during those years can fittingly close
these considerations on him as Master of Novices. "<i>When Br. Maurice
became Director of the Novitiate in 1965</i>”, he writes "<i>I took his
place as sub-Director. He took his work very seriously and tolerated no
nonsense. Like so many people from North of the Boyne he was</i> <i>straight in
his dealings with people and expected them to Act in like manner. His view was
that a good, solid formation during the novitiate was essential for a novice's
future life. He spent any free time he could dispose of preparing his
conferences or reading up-to-date spiritual books and magazines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He purchased for the novitiate libraries
quite a number of modern spiritual books.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">"<i>He
was very kind and considerate towards the Brothers of the novitiate staff as
indeed also towards the novices. If a novice seemed to be off colour, he would
be told to go to the refectory at eleven o'clock where he would find a jug of
milk from which to drink. He believed a lot in games as a means of keeping
young people fit</i>."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">PROVINCIAL
VISITOR: [Head of Irish Province]<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">In
1968 Brother Maurice found himself suddenly lifted from the pleasant if arduous
environment of the novitiate in Castletown and faced with a formidable responsibility
through his election by the District Chapter as Provincial Visitor, to succeed
Br.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aloysius, the Brother who had
brought him to Castletown in 1942. It was the first time the District was
allowed, following the decisions of the General Chapter of 1966, to choose its
Visitor. Br. Maurice's election was an extraordinary sign of confidence. At the
age of forty he represented, it is true, the younger element of the Province,
but considering how comparatively short a time he had spent in communities in Ireland,
and the fact that he had never been a Director in an ordinary community, his
election came as a surprise to many. His predecessor as Provincial had filled
that office for a record twenty-one years and had built up a District that was
amongst the most prosperous in the Institute, with over five hundred Brothers
and forty-seven communities. The succession was made all the more difficult by
reason of the particular circumstances of the moment of time in which Br.
Maurice assumed office.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 150%;">Br.
Maurice took the government of the District in hand at a time of profound
change and even disarray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For multiple
reasons the period since the end of the Second Vatican Council has been one of
almost catastrophic decline in religious congregations all over the world. In
the heady euphoria of liberation that followed the Council and the General
Chapters of the various religious orders subsequent to it, there was a general
tendency to throw out the baby with the bath-water and the ‘<i>Fais-ce que
veux’</i> of Rabelais’s abbey of Theleme became the general slogan. The results
were disastrous: massive defections, the drying up of vocations and a loss of a
sense of direction.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Ireland,
it is true, reacted more slowly to the Conciliar emancipation than most other
countries and the Irish District of the De La Salle Brothers escaped in the
Main the polarisations that occurred in so many other provinces of the
Institute. Nevertheless, the uncertainty of the whole situation, the universal
questioning of so many traditionally accepted truths and practices, the
disarray of the Church at large and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>permissiveness
and moral latitudinarianism characteristic of our time, led to numerous
defections and to an alarming falling off in the numbers of vocations to the
Brotherhood. The relevance of the Brother's vocation was increasingly called
into question; even Brothers long in the Institute suffered an ‘<i>identity
crisis'</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All this presented the new
Visitor with a formidable challenge. For the first year of his 'reign' he had
at least the experience and wisdom of the Auxiliary Visitor, Br. Oliver, to
fall back on, but with the sudden death of the latter on October 4, 1969, he
was left entirely on his own, at least until a successor to Br. Oliver was
eventually chosen. Moreover, in addition to the problems concerning religious
life he had to cope with new trends in education and startling new initiatives
on the part of the Department of Education, out to rationalise and modernise a
rather chaotic school situation. Quite quickly he got caught up in a battle
with the Department, not only in defence of his own De La Salle schools, but
all the schools run by religious congregations. In 1971 he was chosen as
spokesman on educational matters by the educational sub-committee of the
Commission of Major Religious Superiors of Ireland. <b><i>He spoke particularly for
the many convent schools, not all well qualified to deal with new demands and
novel situations</i></b>. In his last couple of years as Provincial the constant
vigilance called for by the situation and the frequent confrontations with the
Department, took up so much of his time that his specific duties as Visitor of
his own congregation, in the opinion of many Brothers, suffered somewhat.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>BROTHER MAURICE IN HIS OWN WORDS</b></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In the retreat of 1972 he begins by noting that our District, like all the other Provinces of the Institute and indeed all the Religious Orders in the church, is in the throes of an agonising reappraisal of what the religious life means to-day and in a crisis of faith in the Church in general and the Institute in particular. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"<i>In a world of vast change and upheaval" he says "there must be in religious life also change, experimentation, mistakes, anxiety, fear and doubt, misunderstanding, speculation, as we strive to adapt our life and our apostolate to the times, we live in. "But", he adds "We must understand and accept the basic principles of our religious life. Amidst all the flux and change are some unalterables which we disregard to our own cost and that of religion. We need to ask ourselves not so much 'What is the religious life?' but 'Where is the religious life?'. Religious life is a gift of God to His Church, calling individuals to a state of life which witnesses to the Church, and so to the world, the powers of the Kingdom of Christ that are already at work in the world and that challenge every Christian from the moment of baptism". For religious orders and the Church, he says <span style="color: red;">"The great problem of the present time is perhaps less one of relevance as of a closely related problem: identity. To survive, the Church must make itself relevant to the world without losing its identity and without abandoning its stance of prophecy. Christians who begin by seeing secular involvement as the true meaning of their Christianity often end by finding their religion irrelevant. If the Church does not represent something unique it has no justification for existing."</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> He then goes on to consider what makes the religious life a special or particular way of living the Christian life and sees it as <i>(1) The special public setting apart or consecration of the person with a view to seeking God (St. Benedict) (2) a special following of Christ and a special share in the sacrificial life of Christ; (3) the power, the freedom of action that results from celibacy; (4) a special insertion into the Christian community, into the Church, in and for the Church (here he stresses the importance of community, especially of the praying community). (5) A special kind of service to be a sign of the reality of God and the credibility of the Church (6) An eschatological sign: the future life projected into the present time.</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
From here he goes on to consider the basic constituents of the religious life as encapsulated <i>in three vows; Celibacy (non-sensual, non-exclusive love) Poverty (non-possessive sharing of goods) Obedience (God's will all in all).</i> <span style="color: red;">It is faith that gives meaning to the religious life for it would be inexplicable if God did not exist.</span> In this connection consecrated chastity is the most striking witness to God in a world of sensual permissiveness. Poverty is also a witness to the Kingdom of Christ but in order to be this there must be a reality about it. "<i>Our District" he says "has yet to take this truth to heart. God does not abandon us; we desert Him, alienate ourselves, shut Him out. We profess poverty, then we must live poverty, live poor lives, consciously and deliberately, make personal and community decisions in favour of a poor life. This means sacrifice and death and our District has to die, now, by free choice, before it can take on new life (of parable of the grain of wheat). Such personal, community and District poverty will be the surest sign of faith and vitality. Decisions must therefore be generous, willing and radical and extended to every corner of our lives"</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Brothers' specialised apostolate, the Christian education of youth, naturally- comes up for consideration in the course of the retreat. In this connection he asks a series of questions '<i>What is it that made and makes our schools distinctive, unique? How does that fit in with present mood and educational planning? What are we fighting for? Are we still living in the past, with its security, its predictability and its assurance? What kind of service Midst we provide?</i>' He then points out that as. a District we have to face the present actuality and think, plan and work together so as to make the necessary readjustments. He lays down the principles that must govern our thinking and planning in the field of education <i><span style="color: red;">(a) the primacy of the spiritual over the secular. - First things first - the eternal truths which we live and which we preach for the sake of the Kingdom (b) The primacy of the sacrificial over the aggressive, the rebellious; (c) the primacy of the apostolate over social involvement or the promotion of humanitarian reform.</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">A subject that preoccupied Br. Maurice considerably was that of prayer. He read widely on this topic. He mentions a number of authors: Father Basset, Archbishop Bloom, Fr. John Sheet, Fr. Six, Von Balthasar, J.B. Metz. <i>Prayer, he says, must be based on and spring from faith. He castigates those who “measure their service, have a parsimonious and niggardly approach, whose only ambition is to get by and never come to realise what life and prayer are all about". On the other hand, he praises those "who open themselves up to God, realise their true position, their need, and go to God for help, in season and out, at the times prescribed by the Rule and in between, when reading and walking and travelling". We speak" he says "of witness, of relevance, of service, but it is impossible for us religious to begin to realise the meaning of these words, to begin to plumb their depths, to come to understand the world and the needs and expectations and hopes of people, unless we steep ourselves daily in prayer."</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">Referring to the phenomenal success of Michel Quoist's "<i>Prayer of Life</i>" he insists that "<i>real prayer arises and grows from real living; otherwise we merely go through the gestures. Prayer is for and about life and will involve us in events, in people and their emotions, doubts and anxieties. Prayer should become spontaneous, appropriate, sincere, humble, constructive, direct, simple." "T<span style="color: red;">he type of religious I want to become" he continues "is the one that is deeply religious, wise, experienced, prudent and patient, and this is impossible without prayer, regular, sincere and open-minded".</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">In this connection of prayer he laments also that "<i>in our communities there is too much evidence that change and renewal have not resulted in greater intimacy and friend</i></span><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>ship with Christ, if we are to judge from appearances: Gone in many cases, are visits to the Blessed Sacrament, Stations of the Cross, Rosary, Monthly Retreats.</i>"</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Brothers have to live in community, and it is as a community, primarily, that they exercise an influence in a school. The importance of the "<i>community"</i> as a cell of the Mystical Body, as the Mystical Body in microcosm, as providing the individual with the opportunity of seeing Christ in others and being Christ to others, is a topic that is' greatly stressed in our time, and Br. Maurice deals at length with it. Community, he says, has always been important. So much depended for us as young Brothers on the particular community we were assigned to, on the people we met there, on the attitude that obtained in it, on how we were treated. He defines a community as "<i>a group of people, living together in charity, in response to an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in faith, for a specific goal.</i>" A community, he says, is not a static thing, formed once for all "<i>it must be created and worked for, and for a multitude of reasons it is not easily achieved or easily maintained. A person becomes a real member of the Order through deep inter-personal relationships in community. Each member communicates the special sacrament of Christ's presence, which is in himself, and shares in the sacrament of the others"</i>.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;">He appeals then for maturity, corporate responsibility, mutual support and understanding, self-sacrificing decisions, availability, in the Brothers' community relations. He points out that the post-Conciliar and post-Chapter gener</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span class="EOP SCXW35266697 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559685":840,"335559737":982,"335559738":5,"335559739":0,"335559740":353}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; line-height: 23.5333px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Looming large in the preoccupations of the members of the convention was the “<i>crisis of identity</i>". Had the Brothers' vocation become irrelevant? Was there any real need any longer for the Institute? <span style="color: red;">What was a Brother doing, anyhow, that a good Catholic lay-master could not do equally well, if not better?</span> The different language groups attempted to grapple with this problem, and we find the echoes of the debates in the pages of Br. Maurice's diary. "<i>Why be a Brother"</i>? he asks on one page and replies summarily:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>(a) Ours is a unique way of living the Christian life;</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>(b) The world needs God and dedicated persons to show t</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">hem God</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>(c) The Brothers' community forms community in the </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">school,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>(d) He has a special mission to the poor.</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>The debates at the convention ranged over many topics - </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">community, authority, prayer, recruitment, formation, missions, finance. There was even a discussion as to whether the Brothers Assistants should travel round the Institute in teams. This proposition was rejected on various scores, among others that they would be regarded as a "</span><i style="font-family: arial;">travelling circus</i><span style="font-family: arial;">".!</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A number of Br. Maurice's "<i>personal"</i> applications are interesting as showing his desire to improve his own performance as Visitor and raise the standards of his District. Thus on community prayers "<i>Perhaps we could make an attempt to vary our community prayers, to introduce more meaning into them, to make them living prayers for the Brothers. Dialogue together is necessary to get us to think better on the subject. The effect this would have on the community. Perhaps some samples carefully prepared and distributed would help introduce the idea</i>."</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>On the canonical visits “<i>Visiting the communities, especially on the official visit, to be prepared to open up any and every question for discussion with the Brothers. To call as often as possible and to have the subjects prepared - </i></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>read them up, have notes taken, to be familiar with them.. .</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>THE END:</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 21.85pt 60.5pt 0cm 72pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 22.75pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The funeral in Castletown on Holy Saturday
[1974] was a mass</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">ive
demonstration of the
high place Br. Maurice
had </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">attained in
public opinion and of the deep sympathy for the </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Order that his tragic end
inspired.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 15.8pt 58.85pt 0cm 72pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 24.45pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">"Brother Maurice" writes a Brother
"was taken from us </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">just when he was coming to the summit of his powers, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">when he was, perhaps, beginning to see a
glimmer of light </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">from the
end of the tunnel, when he was beginning to </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">apprehend the shape of things to come and to
be able to offer us the vision and the inspiration that would enable </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">us to emerge from our present impasse and
discover what </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">God wants from
us in the future. His sudden and tragic </span></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">death at this critical juncture
was indeed a heavy loss to the
Irish District and we hope that from a better world he is still concerned for us, still
helping us along the road."</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span lang="EN-CA" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 22.75pt;"><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-10511839674332656372022-09-04T22:30:00.004+01:002022-09-05T15:43:04.432+01:00The Future Will Condemn Us For Pandering to Trans Agenda<h3 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu0-DTPwOuHm5uetq8W48WSLbOchW9xskVSc3rw_0-s2nHTzDvRPY69ht-d_kg6Hu6Xg700amcnPeqMg8xJsk5eWxUZYnEi5xNgCEfrXUU6Aa1r4EmEUpjBVkvppKpryvm3l9IYvOqC9AWT_9kZntnngbPqqCfSTJR8OK5gFPkPOF45RR-CQHLe3dfaQ/s1600/Cass-Review-header-1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu0-DTPwOuHm5uetq8W48WSLbOchW9xskVSc3rw_0-s2nHTzDvRPY69ht-d_kg6Hu6Xg700amcnPeqMg8xJsk5eWxUZYnEi5xNgCEfrXUU6Aa1r4EmEUpjBVkvppKpryvm3l9IYvOqC9AWT_9kZntnngbPqqCfSTJR8OK5gFPkPOF45RR-CQHLe3dfaQ/w640-h361/Cass-Review-header-1.png" width="640" /></a></div></h3><h4 style="text-align: center;">The Cass Report on Gender Identity Services for Children</h4><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(1) The Trans Agenda and Anti-Catholic Bigotry</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The title of this article reflects the headline to an article by Eilis O'Hanlon in the Sunday Independent on 7 August 2022. The Trans Agenda is not a subject I have dwelt on (or even mentioned) on this Blog over the years. One reason I write about it <b>now</b> is that the year 2022 is the 25th anniversary of the first occurrence of a topic that has<b> </b>frequently hit the headlines since 1997 and constitutes my central concern i.e. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>false claims of child abuse against the Catholic Church - especially false allegations of child murder</i></b></span>. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I summarised my quarter century Crusade in Part E '<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>My Conclusion - Blood Libel Forever?</i></span>' of article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/02/deaths-of-children-in-mother-and-baby.html">Deaths of Children in Mother and Baby Care Homes</a>". The following is an extract from that Summary where I recall an optimistic piece I wrote years ago: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>"[the hysteria] began in 1997 with an allegation that related to the death of a REAL baby - because Blood Libel was new in Ireland and needed the appearance of credibility</i></li><li><i>it came to an end in 2010 with reference to the unsolved murder of a REAL child - because several claims had been refuted and credibility was again a factor BUT</i></li><li><i>between these two dates, anti-clerical Hysteria reigned supreme and journalists thought they could get away with anything including "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html">Murder of the Undead"</a> allegations!</i></li></ul></div><div><i>Even THAT cynical analysis now looks too hopeful with allegations that nuns starved babies in the Mother and Baby Homes. The fact that the <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/d4b3d-final-report-of-the-commission-of-investigation-into-mother-and-baby-homes/">Report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes</a> refuted those claims, won't put a stop to our anti-clerical hysteria, if the history of the last quarter-century is anything to go by."</i></div><div><br /></div><div>On a few occasions over the decades, I thought that our Blood Libel hysteria was at an end (and even that I had contributed to its demise!) <b>[NOTE (i)] </b>but it <b><i>always</i></b> re-ignited, albeit in slightly different form on each occasion. Today I note that Eilis O'Hanlon, Brenda Power and Gender Critical Feminists (and others) in Ireland and the UK are on the offensive against the Trans Lobby - and doing well <i><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">for now!</span></b></i> <i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">My own experience has taught me to be deeply pessimistic and never to anticipate victory in the struggle against fanaticism and fantasy in our society!</span></i></div><div><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></i></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(2) Ireland: Gender Recognition Act, Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) and the HSE</span></h3><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(2.1)</span> In an article in the Sunday Times (Irish edition) on 12 June 2022 "<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-women-are-right-to-defend-their-terf-08r92cklc">Why Women are Right to Defend Their Terf</a>", Brenda Power wrote:</h4><blockquote><div>Under the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Recognition_Act_2015">Gender Recognition Act (2015)</a> all a man needs to do is to make a statutory declaration in front of a solicitor and he's a woman! He can participate in women's sport including boxing. He can use women's toilets and changing rooms. He can be admitted to a woman's prison and and indeed there are two violent biological men in Limerick prison at present, one convicted of rape threats and who must be addressed as she. <b>[(ii)]</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The employers' representative group IBEC recently circulated guidance that trans employees must be allowed to use the toilets of their gender identity, not their biological sex, and any objectors should receive "<i>training</i>". It has become "<i>standard practice</i>", IBEC says for staff to include their preferred pronouns - he/him, she/her - in email signatures. ...</div><div><br /></div><div>The extent to which the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_Equality_Network_of_Ireland">Transgender Equality Network Ireland</a> (TENI) is now directing public policy is alarming. It collaborated on IBEC's document, and Niall Muldoon, the <a href="https://www.oco.ie/about-us/our-vision-and-values/">Ombudsman for Children,</a> <b>[(iii)]</b> has admitted that his article demanding more access to medical treatment for transgender children was also composed with TENI's guidance. </div><div><br /></div><div>According to the <a href="https://www.hse.ie/eng/">HSE</a>, meanwhile, it's "<i>people with cervixes</i>" who get cervical cancer but men get prostate cancer. The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 amends maternity legislation by replacing "<i>woman</i>" with "<i>person</i>". Sara Phillips who chairs TENI, fathered three children before transitioning and sits on the board of the National Women's Council, has admitted to resuming her male identity for a job interview as "<i>I don't believe I'd get a fair shake if I presented myself as female</i>".!</div></blockquote><p> </p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(2.2) The Tavistock Clinic - "Unquestioned, Unproven, Unsafe"</span></h4><div><div>The Tavistock Clinic, in London named the Gender and Identity Development Service, was launched in the UK in 1989 to help people aged 17 and under struggling with their gender identity. But in 2020, questions about the service were raised after it was rated "<i>inadequate</i>" by inspectors, following concerns raised by whistleblowers. The number of people seeking the clinic's help is 20 times higher than it was a decade ago, jumping from 250 to 5,000 referrals in 2021. <b>[(iv)]</b> </div><div><br /></div><div>In 2009 the HSE began referring Irish children to the clinic. The numbers were small but growing and in the decade up to 2021, 234 Irish children, two as young as five, were referred to the clinic for treatment. From 2014, Tavistock began holding satellite clinics in Crumlin Children's Hospital, Dublin. However, the standard of care given to patients by Tavistock was soon called into question by doctors working in the National Gender Service (NGS) in Loughlinstown in south Dublin where adults and teenagers over 16 are treated.</div><div><br /></div><div>In early 2019, senior clinicians in the NGS warned the HSE and Crumlin that Tavistock’s Irish operation was “<i>unsafe</i>” and should be immediately shut down. Despite this, the HSE continued to use Tavistock even as alarm about its practices grew in the UK.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>The Cass Report</b></div><div>According to an<b> </b>article by Mark Tighe in the Sunday Independent on 7 August 2022 "<a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/unquestioned-unproven-unsafe-hse-must-learn-from-britains-tavistock-gender-clinic-debacle-says-expert-41894871.html">Unquestioned, Unproven, Unsafe</a>"</div><div></div><blockquote><div>An interim report in March 2022 by Dr Hillary Cass, a consultant paediatrician commissioned by the UK government to examine Tavistock, found serious failings in how it assessed children and decided which were placed on puberty blockers.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Cass Report found children attending Tavistock faced a “<i>clinician lottery</i>”. They either would be assessed for a range of psychological and social issues or instead would get a doctor who would see gender incongruence as “<i>immutable</i>”, with the prescription of puberty blockers and hormones the only solution.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Staff felt pressurised to adopt an “<i>unquestioning affirmative approach</i>”</span> to gender — at odds with standard clinical assessment requirements. A lack of documented assessments meant there was missing evidence justifying transition regimes that children were placed on.</div><div><br /></div><div>This was all flagged in writing in 2019 by Dr Paul Moran, a consultant psychiatrist with the NGS in St Colmcille’s hospital, who along with Donal O’Shea, a consultant endocrinologist, tried to shout “<i>stop</i>”. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Dr Moran fears there is an ideological desire in the HSE to continue the Tavistock-type model of care. ..</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Having treated former child patients of the Tavistock Irish satellite in the NGS, Dr Moran is predicting significant numbers of patients will regret transitioning or have other adverse outcomes because they were “<i>rushed</i>” onto puberty blockers and hormones.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>We have good evidence from the patients we have seen that it is the wrong approach for most likely the majority,</i>” Dr Moran said. “<i>There are some children who seem to do well, but at the moment there is no way of predicting at the start of treatment who will do well or badly. In cases where we’ve seen them and they’ve been left in a heap we’ve put resources in to try and fix their mental health, their social problems, try and get them back into college, et cetera.</i>”...</div><div><br /></div><div>Dr Moran and Dr O’Shea attended a meeting with Crumlin hospital management on March 20, 2019, to discuss how patients would graduate from the Tavistock service to the NGS. “<i>We asked basic questions about the service, such as ‘how many patients attended’ and ‘how many letters of referral there were’</i>,” Moran said. “<i>Crumlin management said they had no knowledge about the service. ‘Who approved it?’ They had no idea</i>.”</div><div><br /></div><div>As more patients aged out of Tavistock’s care and into the NGS age cohort, Dr Moran and his colleagues became aware of the “<i>very poor clinical service for children”</i>. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>We were coming across children who were clearly unwell and who had none of their underlying mental health problems addressed,</i>” Dr Moran said. “</span><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Many of them were not suitable or ready yet to be on hormone treatment.</span> The endocrinologists working in Crumlin recognised that, too</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>They had basically gone over to Tavistock in distress, dropped out of school and started self-harming. They were rushed on to hormones but left sitting at home, not being schooled. Mental health issues were not addressed.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>“<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">There was this total focus on blockers and hormones, but the bigger problems that were pressing in their lives were ignored.</span> By the time they got to us they were often a couple of years sitting in their rooms self-harming</i>...</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>Tavistock had a very narrow approach, because they didn’t have the clinical skill or the mix of professions, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">they become a very ideologically driven service. If you ignore the other problems and proceed with medical treatment, it doesn’t just leave problems unaddressed, it generally worsens.</span> A person who’s really having difficulty engaging with life now, when they’re on hormones, unprepared, that can worsen</i>.”...</div></blockquote><p></p></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">Dr Moran believes that the Cass Report is a watershed moment. "<i>The international consensus is rolling back against specialist hormone treatment for children before puberty</i>", he said. While puberty blockers were previously described as '<i>reversable</i>', he said the emerging evidence is that administering them to children hitting puberty can have detrimental effects on bone growth and brain development..... ALSO</div><p style="text-align: left;">Dr. Moran said it is ""<i>really hard for a kid to say 'stop' when there has been such massive investment in what they want, by their family, by their doctor, by their school, by their peers</i>." <span style="color: #2b00fe;">He said the idea of regret or people changing their minds is seen as "<i>taboo</i>" by some transgender activist groups.</span> Patients tell him they are made feel unwelcome if they bring it up. "<i>There's such cultural taboo about regret that people feel shame if they say there're not happy because they're left out of the community</i>," he said.</p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">He also voices concern that some HSE-funded groups have coached patients to "<i>get their stories straight</i>" before being assessed so they have the best chance lof being prescribed hormones. "T<i>hey are being told to deny mental health problems and particularly any history of suicide attempts when they come for assessments</i>," Dr Moran said. .....</span></div></blockquote><p></p><blockquote>Much of the surge [in patient numbers on a waiting list] has been caused by a huge increase in autistic people presenting. Dr Moran said that while roughly 20pc of their cases involved autistic people five years ago, it is now approaching 90pc .... Dr Moran is now concerned the HSE will repeat the mistakes of its Tavistock alliance. ..."<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>The HSE seems wedded to to this idea of specialist, hormone-based care for children, which is unsafe. It may be developed safely in the future but right now, as we don't have evidence for the safety of these treatments</i>."</span> </blockquote><p> </p><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> (2.3) "The Future Will Condemn Us"</span></h4><div>Eilis O Hanlon's article "<a href="https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/the-future-will-condemn-us-for-pandering-to-the-trans-agenda-41894667.html">The Future Will Condemn Us for Pandering to the Trans Agenda</a>" is also in Sunday Independent on 7 August 2022. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">She asks why Government Ministers and the media are silent on the questions over children sent to a dangerous medical clinic abroad.</span> After all when people look back at scandals from the past involving the abuse of children by church and state, they always ask How was this allowed to happen? And reassure themselves it could never happen today, because the citizens of our caring and compassionate society, having learned from the mistakes of the past, would now speak out against it! Nothing of the kind!</div><div><div></div><blockquote><div>Critics had warned for years that the treatments the [Tavistock] clinic performed on children who expressed doubts or unease about their gender were driven by ideological fervour rather than medical ethics and good practice, but they were either ignored or condemned as “t<i>ransphobic</i>”.</div><div><br /></div><div>The recent Cass Report vindicated every one of their misgivings. Despite that, there has been virtual silence in Ireland about what happened to Irish children sent to this hellish place. <i><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">TDs aren’t raising the issue. The media is largely silent.</span></b></i></div><div><br /></div><div>In marked contrast, an inspection report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) that showed dozens of children in foster care in north Dublin were overdue a visit by child and family agency Tusla was given the full interrogative treatment on RTÉ’s News At One last week, despite the fact that, thankfully, “<i>there was no child at immediate risk in any of the cases discussed</i>”.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Why has there not been similar concern about children who were actively put in harm’s way by being referred to the Tavistock clinic? Why are no questions being asked of Irish authorities who approved this egregious trade? ....</span></div></blockquote><div></div></div><div></div><blockquote><div>Trans activist groups funded by the taxpayer have been given free rein to go into schools to proselytise, weaponising spurious statistics about the risk of suicide among gender-confused young people, the upshot of which is to poison children’s minds against their own bodies. Teachers and parents say more and more children are presenting as trans after being exposed to such propaganda online, where activists proliferate. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Professionals who bravely resist this pressure by reassuring children that there is nothing wrong with their bodies are mendaciously accused of advocating “<i>conversion therapy</i>” when it is the activists themselves who are urging children to reject their bodies.....</span></div></blockquote><p></p><blockquote>The publicly funded <b>Transgender Equality Network Ireland</b> (TENI) even offers what it calls “gender identity skills training” for health workers, using self-styled “<i>national and international experts</i>”, paid for by the <b>HSE’s Social Inclusion Division</b>, meaning <span style="color: #2b00fe;">the State is pushing models of care known to be widely discredited.</span> TENI makes no bones about what it wants to see. It explicitly urges the “<i>abolishment of the medical/diagnostic model</i>” of treatment, to be replaced by “t<i>he right to our own bodies</i>”. The problem is that <span style="color: #2b00fe;">it wants the right to influence how children think about their bodies, too, while continuing to state as if it was a fact that puberty blockers are reversible — a highly irresponsible assertion two years after Irish doctors officially stopped making any such claims.</span> </blockquote><p></p><div><b></b></div><blockquote><div><b>Children’s Ombudsman Niall Muldoon</b> was even forced to acknowledge last year that a piece he wrote for [the Sunday Independent] about the issue was “<i>done in collaboration</i>” with TENI, as well as the LGBTQ+ youth charity <b>BeLongTo</b>. BeLongTo also states that meetings of “<i>trans, non-binary and questioning young people</i>” are held weekly in the Children’s Ombudsman’s Office.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Ministers urgently need to address these concerns. A trawl of the <b>Government’</b>s own website fails to find a single press release published on the closure of the Tavistock clinic, despite the fact hundreds of vulnerable Irish children went through the system.....<span style="color: #2b00fe;">Everyone who looks at this honestly knows full well that, if this involved any other failure of care by the State, it would be everywhere on the news in Ireland, as the cervical cancer scandal was. <b>Instead, because it’s about patients who identify as trans, there is an awkward and fearful silence from politicians and the media alike.</b></span></div></div></blockquote><p> </p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(3) WHY are Politicians, the HSE and RTÉ so Fearful of ideologically Driven Trans Organisations?</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;">In <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/why-are-politicians-the-hse-and-rte-so-fearful-of-ideologically-driven-trans-organisations-41910071.html">a follow-up article on 14 August</a> Eilis O'Hanlon attempts to answer that question. </div><div><br /></div><div>Regarding <b>RTE and the HSE</b>: RTE initially chose to ignore the Sunday Independent story about clinical psychiatrist Paul Moran’s warnings to the HSE over Tavistock. Then, when shamed into covering the story a day late, the national broadcaster put out a report on Morning Ireland which did not even feature Moran’s voice, despite having interviewed him. Dr Siobhán Ní Bhriain, the HSE’s national lead for integrated care, was asked if the HSE had listened to Moran’s concerns.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>We did of course take them on board... but we satisfied ourselves that the evidence wasn’t there to support what we were hearing,</i>” she said. This assertion was not scrutinised by Morning Ireland. Neither was Ní Bhriain’s statement that, as the HSE continues to send children to a discredited clinic, “<i>we will monitor it extremely closely</i>”. As per Eilis O'Hanlon <i>"It goes beyond belief that RTÉ would allow such statements in relation to any other reported scandal to go unchallenged.</i>"</div><div><br /></div><div>The RTE reporter even declared at one point that puberty blockers “<i>work by putting a pause on puberty while a young person thinks about their gender identity</i>” BUT according to Dr Hilary Cass, author of the report which led to Tavistock’s closure, “<i>there has been very little research</i>” on the effect of puberty blockers on “<i>neurocognitive development</i>”.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>It was left to [national independent radio] <b>Newstalk Breakfast</b> to allow Dr Paul Moran to speak at length. He made it clear that representations by him to the HSE went unanswered.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>We went as far as sending them an audit of children outlining the problems, and this was never addressed or discussed with us,</i>” he said. “<i>Further, when we did meet Crumlin, the concerns we raised were omitted from the minutes — so the idea that they’ve been taking on board concerns and found no evidence is shocking</i>.”</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Regarding current Tanaiste [Deputy PM] <b>Leo Varadkar:</b> When the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) recently updated its policy to say that female contact rugby was only for those born female, he waded in within hours to urge the IRFU to consider “<i>the voice of those most affected</i>” — by which it’s clear he meant those born male.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2015, Varadkar’s first full year as Minister for Health, 15 children were referred to Tavistock. After he became Taoiseach [Prime Minister] in 2017, with <b>Simon Harris</b> as Minister for Health, referrals rose to 36. The following year they went up again, to 49. As per Eilis O'Hanlon: "<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Even if neither man knew every detail about what went on while they were in office, they must now be concerned — yet neither has felt the need to comment. No politician has</span></i>." </div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI),</b> which goes into schools and teaches children controversial gender theories, remains a source for government and media.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Ollie Bell is a self-described “<i>non-binary socialist feminist activist</i>” from Dublin. As per Eilis O'Hanlon "<i>On Bell’s public profile on Twitter there is a link to a page on the internet giving advice on where to buy and administer DIY hormone treatment. Bell sits on the board of TENI. </i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Even though it’s been reported that the HSE is concerned about TENI’s online activities, nothing has yet been done to rein them in</i>."</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>BUT the dangers of placing children on puberty blockers and other hormonal treatment are becoming increasingly clear. Sweden has outlawed their use completely for under 18s, citing a “<i>lack of quality evidence</i>”. They believe the risks of the treatment “<i>outweigh the benefits at present</i>”. According to Paul Moran, these gender-affirming clinics are also being closed in France and Finland. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i><b>Yet Crumlin remains ideologically committed to this form of care. “They’re very influenced by activist groups,” he says.</b></i></span></div></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(4) CONCLUSION: Will Fight-Back against Trans Agenda be Successful?</span></h3><div>I stated in the Introduction that on a number of occasions over the past 25 years, I thought my own Crusade against the fanatics who accused Catholic clergy and religious of killing children was successful. Not only was I incorrect but the insanity - once largely confined to Ireland - has spread to other countries - <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/07/blood-libel-in-canada-church-burning.html">most recently Canada.</a> <b>[(v)]</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I am encouraged that, in the aftermath of the Cass Report, some heavy hitters in the Media and among Doctors and Feminists have spoken out against what Dr Paul Moran believes is <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>an ideological desire in the HSE to continue the Tavistock-type model of care</i></span>. They have certainly been more successful than I or other activists have been in bringing <b><i>their</i></b> issue to the attention of the public and putting <b><i>their</i></b> opponents on the back foot.<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> I am still dubious that this is going to end well!</span></div><div><br /></div><div>I note that our national broadcaster <b>RTE</b> is doing its best to ignore the Trans issue - as is our "<i>newspaper of record</i>" the <b>Irish Times</b>. The vast majority of our politicians have remained silent - apparently too scared to criticise the Trans Lobby - while our Tanaiste [Deputy PM soon to be PM] Leo Varadkar spoke out <b><i>against</i></b> the Irish Rugby Football Union when it declared that female rugby is solely for those born female. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i><b>How long will the Sunday Independent et al continue to publish critical articles about Tavistock and TENI if everyone else is either silent about their follies or actively supporting them and denouncing the critics?</b></i></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Returning to my own subject (<i>False Allegations of Child Abuse and Child Killing</i>), I note that Irish Catholic nuns were major targets of this hysteria. <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/accusers/christine-buckley/hotpoker-wasused-11oct97.php">The original Blood Libel</a> was directed against the Sisters of Mercy 25 years ago and recent ones targeted the nuns who ran Mother and Baby Homes - especially <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/10/seminar-on-tuam-childrens-home-online.html">the Bon Secours Sisters of Tuam</a>. All such claims were discredited (not least by the Final Report of the Committee of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes)<b> [(vi)]</b> but the media, politicians and "Victims" just shifted gear and attacked the nuns on a different front. I suspect something similar will happen here.<b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> Also NO feminists - including the current gender-critical ones - spoke up for the women who were defamed over the past quarter century!</span></i></b></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><h3 style="text-align: left;">NOTES:</h3><div><b>(i)</b> I <b><i>may</i></b> have contributed to the demise of the "<i>Murder of the Undead"</i> allegations i.e. claims that the Christian Brothers killed boys - during periods when no boy died of ANY cause. On the other hand, our anti-clerics may have figured out - by themselves - that it's unwise to make idiot accusations that can be easily refuted!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>(ii) </b>See article in Irish Examiner dated 4th August 2021 "<a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40352726.html">Transgender Women in Limerick jail Locked in Cells for up to 23 hours</a>" . It begins: </div><div><i>Two transgender women in Limerick Prison are locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day, with one of the inmates describing her isolation as “mental torture” and the other saying it was “worse than hell”. </i></div><div><i>Their plight is highlighted in a report by the Inspector of Prisons, who said the two prisoners live an “extremely isolated existence”. In a report, the inspector said the women are largely confined to their cells under a prison rule which allows inmates to be put on a restricted regime either for their own safety or that of other prisoners...</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>(iii)</b> The website of our Ombudsman for Children indicates that its values include: </div><div><i><b>"Independent</b> — our independence is important so we can say the things that need to be said and hold public organisations to account."</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Are there any circumstances that would cause our Ombudsman to criticise TENI ? </div><div><br /></div><div><b>(iv)</b> See <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62335665">NHS to Close Tavistock Child Gender Identity Clinic</a> - BBC News, 28 July 2022</div><div><br /></div><div><b>(v)</b> See in particular Part A of Blog article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/07/blood-libel-in-canada-church-burning.html">Blood Libel in Canada - Church Burning and Graves of Indigenous Children at former Residential Schools</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>(vi)</b> See Part A of Blog article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/02/deaths-of-children-in-mother-and-baby.html">Deaths of Children in Mother and Baby Care Homes (did they die of starvation?)</a> and the extract concerning 'Marasmus' from Chapter 33 of the Final Report of the Commission </div></span></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-54040222810152107952022-05-22T23:14:00.018+01:002022-05-29T18:18:15.629+01:00'We've Been Treated Like Monsters' - Sisters of Charity in fear of media and bewildered by negative coverage<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik6hwSwob8lYiyhQcevyL8TL5TMoefdq2mmcuHRc4NpkwyuOeCmDKxsEtowg4ZlgrxILIRujiZcuvkLIe393aORCcQ5veGZOn5T4AeHA04kWrDePk7WNFGVpj3ofRPRPSUlHgrOWMWLn_a-Bp-GHRLyRr7j-aAL36cioS4w_fM2JqLcwcsJ6sSekQhmg/s620/NationalMaternityHospital_Hysteria2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="620" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik6hwSwob8lYiyhQcevyL8TL5TMoefdq2mmcuHRc4NpkwyuOeCmDKxsEtowg4ZlgrxILIRujiZcuvkLIe393aORCcQ5veGZOn5T4AeHA04kWrDePk7WNFGVpj3ofRPRPSUlHgrOWMWLn_a-Bp-GHRLyRr7j-aAL36cioS4w_fM2JqLcwcsJ6sSekQhmg/w640-h360/NationalMaternityHospital_Hysteria2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>NUNS OUT OR ELSE GOVERNMENT'S OUT!</b></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(A) INTRODUCTION</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Michael Kelly, editor of The Irish Catholic writes on 19 May 2022: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Religious Sisters of Charity, who agreed to hand over their hospital and the site of the new National maternity Hospital, are fearful of the media and feel bewildered that they have been so badly portrayed in the public eye since deciding to transfer ownership of St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin. The Government this week signed off on the deal.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>You would think we were evil"</b></span></i>, a source close to the Sisters told the The Irish Catholic this week on on condition of anonymity. "<i>We've been treated like monsters. In no way do they want the Church involved in any way [in the running of healthcare]. Yet many, many people experienced the care and work that the Sisters had done - many in the Irish population experienced care and concern and compassion. Yes there were some exceptions but for the most part the good that was done was amazing,</i>" the source said</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Religious Sisters of Charity began caring for cholera victims in Ireland in 1832 and in 1834 set up St Vincent's Hospital and since then have been "<i>dedicated to providing the best possible healthcare in hospitals, hospices, nursing homes and in the homes of the sick. The nuns are also known for their work among prisoners and the homeless as well as in education, counselling and emigration. It is distressing that people would think so badly of us. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">I'm more concerned for the people who are saying these things than for us</span></i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">,</span>" <b>[!] </b>continued the source.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>The Sisters are absolutely terrified of the media and the way they have been portrayed. The notion that a young person listening to this, what idea of Christianity do they go away with?</b></span></i>" she said.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><b>My Own Suggested Answer:</b></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Is this "source" Sister Stanislaus Kennedy by any chance? I have posted previous articles about the Sisters of Charity and Sister Stan - the latest being <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-folly-of-sisters-of-charity-and.html">"The Folly of the Sisters of Charity (and other Nuns)"</a> However the most relevant response to </span><b><i>this</i></b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> question is contained in the Introduction and in part D ("</span><b><i>Eloi and Morlocks</i></b><span style="font-weight: normal;">") of my article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-decadence-of-sisters-of-mercy.html">The Decadence of the Sisters of Mercy</a>" </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">What idea of Christianity do young people go away with</span></i></b><span style="font-weight: normal;">? the Sister asks. One of two things: </span></span><b style="font-family: arial;">(i)</b><span style="font-family: arial;"> either they </span><b style="font-family: arial;"><i>believe</i></b><span style="font-family: arial;"> the atrocity stories published by the media about the Sisters OR </span><b style="font-family: arial;">(ii)</b><span style="font-family: arial;"> they regard you as </span><i style="font-family: arial;"><b>cowardly fools</b></i><span style="font-family: arial;"> who practise a decadent kind of religion that prevents you from defending yourselves!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(B) Why are Sisters of Charity "Treated like Monsters" by Media and Politicians?</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The leaders of the Religious Sisters of Charity (<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-decadence-of-sisters-of-mercy.html">like their Sister of Mercy colleagues</a> and other nuns' leaders) have spent many years trying to ingratiate themselves with our new secular overlords - and made themselves ridiculous in the process. They now find themselves spurned by Traditionalists and Liberals alike! Consider the following:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">"<span style="color: #2b00fe;">The nuns are annoyed and they consider some of the comments that have been made as being defamatory. I think their attitude now is ‘<i>let the State go off and build their hospital on their own land</i>’.</span>" (Valerie Hanley, Mail on Sunday, 23 April 2017) <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The leaders of the Sisters of Charity</span> <b style="font-family: arial;"><i>should</i></b><span style="font-family: arial;"> have done this and allowed the the anti-clerical mob of politicians and media to experience the fruits of their own bigotry. Instead they caved in to the mob, handed over property worth hundreds of millions of euro for the <i>new</i> National Maternity Hospital and announced they were withdrawing from <i>their own</i> St. Vincent's Hospital!</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Also in 2017, the Sisters were libelled by journalists and politicians who claimed that they owed €3 million to the State - when the State actually owed the nuns €2 million! As per the same article in The Mail on Sunday: <i>"<span style="color: #2b00fe;">the claim that the Sisters owed €3 million, had been repeatedly cited by politicians from Fianna Fail, The Greens, Labour and the Social Democrats and the media as justification for outraged comments about the agreement brokered by Kieran Mulvey</span>.</i>" <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Did the Sisters complain or sue for libel? No they told the State it could keep the €2 million it owed them -<b> that </b>will teach the liars about the joys of Christian Charity!</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">I have no inside information about the Sisters of Charity but I was told there was a conflict within the </span><b style="font-family: arial;"><i>Sisters of Mercy</i></b><span style="font-family: arial;"> about how to treat false accusations. I was told that the dispute pitted older Traditionalist Sisters against "Liberal" colleagues - and the Liberal ones won! I suspect that the same applies to the Religious Sisters of Charity'.</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2015 the Sisters' most prominent representative <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/sr-stan-to-vote-in-favour-of-same-sex-marriage-1.2207761">Sr Stanislaus Kennedy announced that was going to vote in favour of same-sex marriage in the forthcoming referendum.</a> She was, of course, "<i>bravely"</i> repudiating Catholic moral teaching and defying the Hierarchy in favour of a group whose cause was supported by <i>every </i>main political party and by the mass media. </span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2017 the same Sr Stan reacted to the storm of anti-clerical hatred and lies directed at the nuns by describing it as "<i>Elder Abuse</i>"! [See <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/depiction-of-sisters-of-charity-like-elder-abuse-says-sr-stan-1.3105759">Depiction of Sisters of Charity like ‘Elder Abuse’, says Sr Stan</a> ] In my article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-folly-of-sisters-of-charity-and.html">The Folly of the Sisters of Charity</a>" I wrote that "<b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">No Jewish woman face to face with anti-Semites would make that kind of "<i>mistake</i>" and the VERY Charitable Sisters thereby demonstrated their unfitness to survive in the modern world!"</span></b> </span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: arial;">However- see <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>APPENDIX </b></span>at end of this article!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(C) Civil War within the Pro-Choice Lobby - an Opportunity for Church??</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I think it was Iona Institute Director David Quinn who described the Maternity Hospital debacle as a "<i>civil war within the abortion lobby</i>". Public figures who are strong supporters of abortion rights (plus those who normally take no part in the debate) have found themselves obliged to state that the allegations against the Sisters of Charity and claims of a Catholic Plot to influence the ethos of the NMH are rubbish. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Is it too much to hope that this gives an opportunity to the Sisters of Charity (and other female Religious) to restore their reputation in the eyes of the public?</i></span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Well yes I think it <b>is</b> too much to hope! Irish nuns have gutted their morale and their self-respect by decades of grovelling before the Secular Power. Now that the <i>latest</i> outbreak of anti-clerical hysteria is disappearing from the front pages, the Sisters will likely retire into their shells - until the next wave of media hysteria forces them out again! However it may be possible for other parts of the Catholic Church to take advantage of the current opportunity to make the truth known!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Some Unusual "Supporters" of the Catholic Church</span></h4><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(i)</b> In an article in Irish Independent on 5 May 2022 <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Health Minister Stephen Donnelly</span></b> (Fianna Fail) said some people had been making "<i>false claims</i>" about the National Maternity Hospital project. "<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">There are people who are making really serious claims that are really worrying people. These claims are false and in many cases they have been told repeatedly that these claims are false</span></i>." Mr Donnelly said that the Catholic Church was not involved in the project and there would be no religious interference at the hospital....."<i>The Vatican has nothing to do with this. What the Vatican thinks about our national maternity hospital is irrelevant</i>." <b>[NOTE 1]</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><u><b>(ii)</b></u> In Irish Independent article "<a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/five-year-row-over-maternity-hospital-now-looks-like-time-wasted-on-someones-culture-war-41616056.html">Five-year row over maternity hospital now looks like time wasted on someone’s culture war"</a> Ellen Coyne writes: "Many people are asking why the land the hospital is being built on can’t just be given to the State. Wouldn’t that make things much easier? <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">[Prime Minister] </span></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Micheál Martin</span></b> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">argued in the Dáil that the hospital land is in public ownership in all but name, as it is being leased for the negligible rate of €10 a year for 299 years</span>. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">It is worth explaining that what many regard as the best maternity hospitals in Ireland are built on land that the State doesn’t own. These hospitals – like the Coombe, the Rotunda and the existing NMH – are voluntary hospitals. This means that while they get most of their funding from the State, they are run by private bodies....</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Health Minister Stephen Donnelly</span></b> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">said nobody is trying to use a compulsory purchase order on the Rotunda or the Coombe, which operate on land the State doesn’t own."</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(iii) </b>However <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Ivana Bacik, leader of the Labour Party</b> </span>claims </span><span style="font-family: arial;">“<i>There are concerns about the lingering ethos of the Sisters of Charity</i>". But according to Ellen Coyne: </span><span style="font-family: arial;">This is a common claim, but one that is described as a “<i>red rag</i>” to those at St Vincent’s who are “<i>seething</i>” over the way the hospital is being portrayed. </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>A senior source at Holles Street [the current National Maternity Hospital] said </b>they believed that claims of religious interference at the new hospital were part of “<i>the biggest misinformation campaign in Irish medicine</i>”</span>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(iv)<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> Mary Brosnan, director of midwifery and nursing</span></b>, says. “<i>Because we don’t have strong politicians, we have weak, fearful politicians who are afraid of losing their seats and of women’s opprobrium</i>.” <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Staff at Holles Street are dismayed,</span></b> feeling they are fighting a tide of misinformation about the new hospital. Campaigners tweeted pictures from a protest outside an NMH board meeting this week, holding posters declaring that “<i>nuns who sold babies</i>” are to be “<i>gifted</i>” a hospital. This is false not only because the Sisters of Charity will have zero involvement in the new hospital, but also because the hospital will not be “<i>gifted”</i> to anybody. The State will own the hospital building. [ ‘<a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/we-have-a-fortnight-to-get-the-truth-out-there-as-holles-street-creaks-at-the-seams-staff-battle-myths-41623846.html">We have a fortnight to get the truth out there’: As Holles Street creaks at the seams, staff battle ‘myths’</a> by Ellen Coyne]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(v)</b> </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Younger female staff [at the existing National Maternity Hospital, Holles St</span></b>] are horrified by the rhetoric in their WhatsApp groups, where friends ask if the nuns are trying to “<i>steal”</i> a hospital. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Walking this reporter [Ellen Coyne] through the hospital <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Brosnan </span></b>will sometimes pull a midwife aside at random and ask her if she has “a<i>ny concerns about religious interference at St Vincent’s?</i>” Some look askance. A few cast an incredulous look at the Irish Independent, as though to confirm such a question is genuinely being asked. Emma, a midwife working on the infamous Unit 3, laughs with derision. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">“<i>No</i>,” she says, “<i>I’m not worried about nuns</i>.” </span><span style="font-family: arial;">[Above article by Ellen Coyne]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(vi)</b> <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Professor Shane Higgins, Master of National Maternity Hospital</span></b>: </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Higgins is dismayed by politicians who he says are “<i>not doing due diligence</i>” before making claims about the hospital. “<i>They’re willing to just repeat whatever has been said to them by the loudest voice, which is typically and usually Peter Boylan’s,</i>” Dr Higgins says. </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>“<span style="color: #2b00fe;">I don’t understand why Peter Boylan is continuing to peddle the narrative that he’s been peddling for years about ‘the nuns’, knowing that they’re gone, knowing that they won’t have any influence on anything</span> … he’s out there, he has a very large soapbox upon which to stand...</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-style: italic;">I assure you, if this is derailed every single member of staff in this hospital and I’d say the vast majority of St Vincent’s will hold him wholly responsible for damaging women’s health for the next 20 years,” </span>Prof Higgins said<i>. </i>[Above article by Ellen Coyne] [</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>NOTE 2</b>]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <b>(vii)</b> <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Fifty-two doctors, including Higgins and three other former masters</span></b> as well as many staff who currently work at Holles Street, signed a letter pleading for the project to go ahead. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">[Above article by Ellen Coyne] An article in Irish Independent on 6 May 2022 "<b><i>What the Row is All About - and Who Says What</i></b>" gives further details. It listed the more than 50 doctors who signed a letter in support of the new Hospital stating that it was "<i>manifestly false</i>" to claim that full State ownership was the only way to avoid religious interference in the new National Maternity Hospital. They included "<b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Professor Shane Higgins,</span></b> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">current Master of the NMH</span>; <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Dr Michael Robson</b></span> and <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Prof Declan Keane</span></b> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">former Masters of the NMH</span>". The article also quotes <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Dr Rhona Mahony,</b></span> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">former Master of the NMH</span> "<i>Let it be said absolutely today, every procedure that is permissible under Irish law will be performed at the new maternity hospital on St Vincent's campus</i>." </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>My Comment</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Many people who have no allegiance to the Catholic Church (or would <b>not</b> normally involve themselves in a public dispute concerning religion) <i>now</i> feel compelled to speak out against anti-clerical fanatics whose antics are delaying the establishment of the new hospital. This is something that our Church should build on!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(D) Against the Hospital </span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">(according to Irish Independent article, 6 May 2022 "<b>What the Row Is All About</b>" </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: red;">Dr Peter Boylan</span></b> - former Master of the National Maternity Hospital</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i>If it's to be independent, it should not be owned by another entity</i>." According to </span><span style="font-family: arial;">David Quinn (in "<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/no-reason-to-fear-nuns-under-the-hospital-bed-00rmwjjxj">No Reason to fear Nuns Under the Hospital Bed</a>" 15 May 2022): </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Boylan told the [Oireachtas Health] Committee last Thursday: "<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">It's about time we stood up for ourselves as a people, faced down the church, and said "We need that land thank you</span></i>". In this case, however there is no church to stand up to; it has already gone. [See also <b>NOTE 3</b>]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: red;">Roisin Shortall</span><span style="color: #04ff00;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: arial;">- Leader of the <b><span style="color: red;">Social Democrats</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i>What is known about the new company, St Vincent's Holdings, to which the Government is handing over control of a €1 billion publicly funded hospital</i>?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red; font-family: arial;"><b>"Our Maternity Hospital"</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A grassroots campaign group that says it is "<i>against Church ownership of women's healthcare.</i>"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">PLUS: All other opposition parties including <b><span style="color: red;">Labour</span></b> and <b><span style="color: red;">Sinn Fein</span>. </b>HOWEVER the Irish Independent article also points out that while the coalition Government of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party support the project, this is "<i>with the exception of a number of government TDs who are still raising concerns about the project</i>." This is a reference to the <span style="color: red;"><b>Green Party</b> </span>and indeed <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/green-tds-learned-of-six-month-suspension-via-text-messages-just-minutes-before-media-was-told-41668838.html">two Green Party TDs Neasa Hourigan and Patrick Costello were suspended from the Green Party for six months</a> because they supported a Sinn Fein motion calling for the new NMH to be built on land owned by the State. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(E) CONCLUSION - Sinn Fein and Opponents of Hospital and Church</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A few comments about these opponents. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">David Quinn's abovementioned article "<b><i>No Need to Fear Nuns Under the Hospital Bed</i></b>" is subtitled "<i>Concerns about a caring, religious ethos at the new national maternity campus resemble the furore of McCarthyite America</i>". He writes: "<i>Like Senator Joseph McCarthy seeing Communist plots everywhere in the 1950s, we are now being led to believe that sinister nuns will one day succeed in dragging Ireland back to the past, all because the naive refused to heed the warnings</i>." </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Political Parties opposing the project are almost identical to those who in 2017 accused the Sisters of Charity of owing €3 million to the State - at a time the State owed €2 million to <b>them</b>! See Part B above - "<i>the claim that the Sisters owed €3 million, had been repeatedly cited by politicians from <b><span style="color: red;">Fianna Fail,</span></b> <span style="color: red;"><b>The Greens</b></span>, <span style="color: red;"><b>Labour</b></span> and the <span style="color: red;"><b>Social Democrats</b></span> and the media as justification for outraged comments about the agreement.</i>." We are talking about people who utterly reckless as to the truth of their allegations - and who made no apologies once their lie was exposed. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: red;">These are the parties that are most likely to form a coalition with Sinn Fein if and when that party wins our next General Election</span>. OK Fianna Fail is an exception BUT Sinn Fein is well on its way to replacing FF as THE "Republican Party" in the State. Moreover Fianna Fail's willingness to participate in a reckless anti-clerical lie, is a potent symbol of its decline. [<b>NOTE 4</b>]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Regarding my reference to "<i>lie</i>": I suppose that an <i>Honest</i> Bigot - a left-wing or 'liberal' equivalent of Rev Ian Paisley - could believe in a Catholic Plot to control the ethos of the New National Maternity Hospital. But how is it possible to believe that the nuns owed millions to the State when the <b><i>reverse</i></b> was true?? Anti-clerical hatred is similar to the anti-Semitic variety. I doubt if an anti-Semite says to himself: "I<i> know this story about Jews is false, but I'll publish it anyway.</i>" Self-deceit and believing what one wants to believe, are more complicated than that. <span style="color: red;">But the description "<i>liar</i>" is still valid and I apply it to the afore-mentioned politicians from Fianna Fail, The Greens, Labour and the Social Democrats.</span></span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">NOTES</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[1]</b> But perhaps Stephen Donnelly is a secret admirer of the Catholic Church? He has neither thanked the nuns for their gift of hugely valuable land for the new NMH nor for their two centuries of service to Irish women. <b><i>However </i></b>- as noted in the article by Ellen Coyne, Philip Ryan and Eilish O'Regan - "<i>more than €50 million </i></span><i><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">has already been spent</span></i><span style="font-family: arial;"><i> in preparing the site of the new hospital building</i>." In the eyes of the State, our anti-clerical fanatics have become a serious nuisance who must now be discredited!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[2]</b> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The current master of the NMH at Holles Street, Dr Shane Higgins, told the [Oireachtas Health] committee: <i>“<span style="color: #2b00fe;">It has been difficult to hear claims both in the media and in this room that my fervent support for the proposed move to Elm Park is some kind surrender to the church.</span> </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Legitimate concerns are welcome and deserve every consideration, but we must also deal in facts, and I am alarmed by the combination of emotive misinformation and misunderstanding that prevails</i>.” From article by Eilish O'Regan: </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/release-vatican-papers-on-new-nmh-former-master-demands-41645027.html">Release ‘Vatican papers’ on New NMH, Former Master Demands</a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[3] </b>In her article <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/kathy-sheridan-maternity-hospital-debate-hijacked-by-fear-and-loathing-1.4881177">Maternity Hospital Debate Hijacked by Fear and Loathing</a>, Irish Times journalist Kathy Sheridan wrote on 18 May 2022: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"On Monday, while the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group was declaring itself “<i>a secular organisation</i>”, Dr Peter Boylan tweeted pictures of Catholic paraphernalia – a wooden crucifix, a Zambian mission hospital collection box, a notice about the streaming of Sunday Mass, apparently in a corridor – which he said were taken an hour before in the “<i>fully secular</i>” (his quotes) St Vincent’s Hospital.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Among the inevitable angry responses calling for a shutdown of all religious iconography and chaplains etc, a staff member calmly noted that the picture selection was from the private hospital where she often uses the oratory for some peace and quiet. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Meanwhile the SVHG chair was assuring people that all religious iconography at St Vincent’s public hospital will be removed in the coming months."</span></div></blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><i>Something other than "misunderstanding" lor even "normal" bias is on display here!</i></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[4]</b> In Part D</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> ("<i>Bethany Mother and Baby Home - a PROTESTANT Institution</i>") of article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/02/deaths-of-children-in-mother-and-baby.html">Deaths of Children in Mother and Baby Care Homes (did they die of starvation?)</a> I wrote: </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote>I was slightly surprised to see that the Protestant Bethany Home was also the subject of false allegations of starving children - coming mainly (of course) from Sinn Fein but <b>Deputy Niall Collins of Fianna Fail</b> makes a contribution as well by referring to Marasmus as "<i>a form of malnutrition</i>". This seems to be the sole Fianna Fail contribution to this brand of hysteria. It does indicate that irrational attacks on the Catholic Church have a way of spreading.- and corrupting the entire society.</blockquote></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Are Fianna Fail <b>now</b> trying to match the Sinn Fein/Labour/Far Left brand of anti-clerical hatred? If so they will lose some core supporters and likely fail to impress the haters anyway!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">APPENDIX regarding History of Sisters of Charity & Voluntary Sector</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In part B above, I refer to the folly and cowardice of the <b>current</b> leadership of the Religious Sisters of Charity. However, it is only fair to recall their very different history. In his article <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nun-better-generosity-charity-care-hospitals-ireland-comment-2c8x2bvmf">Nun Better for Generosity, Charity and Care</a> in the Sunday Times on 8 May 2022, David Quinn wrote:</span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For most of the last 300 years the voluntary [i.e. non-State] sector has been run by religious organisations both Protestant and Catholic. The Religious Sisters of Charity founded St. Vincent's Hospital on its original St Stephen's Green site in 1835. It was run by women, for women. From a feminist point of view, you would think this is a good thing, but not when those in charge are nuns apparently. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The congregation was established in 1815 by Mary Aikenhead. It played a leading role in the fight against a terrible cholera outbreak in Dublin in 1832. The nuns were asked by a group of laypeople to take over the running of the Temple Street Children's Hospital in 1876. Three years later they set up the country's first Hospice for the Dying, Our Lady's in Harold's Cross, Dublin. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To this day they are involved in prison ministry, education, assisting the homeless, helping immigrants, offering mental health support and fighting sex trafficking...</span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">David Quinn also quotes Sam Coulter-Smith, a former Master of the Rotunda Hospital (and a Protestant) in praising the role of the voluntary hospitals in the Irish health-care system. Professor Coulter-Smith said: "<i>Pretty much everything good that has come out of the health service in Ireland in the past 300 years, has come out of the voluntary service</i>." He expands on the theme in a new book: <i><a href="https://irishacademicpress.ie/product/delivering-the-future-reflections-of-a-rotunda-master/">Delivering the Future: Reflections of a Rotunda Master</a>.</i> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Rotunda [founded 1745] is the world's oldest maternity hospital in continuous operation, and traditionally has had a Protestant ethos. Several Church of Ireland clergy are on the board of governors</span>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">According to David Quinn, Coulter-Smith thinks it is a good thing that the relocated NMH will still be a voluntary hospital because he believes these institutions are generally better than their HSE-run counterparts. He argues they are faster to react, less tied up in red tape, and can respond to emergencies better than the HSE system. </span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Indeed, in Part C above I quoted Health Minister Stephen Donnelly (Fianna Fail) saying that "<i>nobody is trying to use a compulsory purchase order on the Rotunda or the Coombe, which operate on land the State doesn’t own</i>." But will that last, if and when, Sinn Fein comes to power?? [See also <b>NOTE 4 above</b>]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-26935423555614836382022-02-28T22:35:00.021+00:002022-04-20T15:17:45.531+01:00Ukraine and the Decadence of the West<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaZNpOmpscGoMzLGARRqdSPTeN9qQpC16ax0j7ajrQdT1WDcwuzDBepDqpTT9QpLKCR9AOZVvpqqaQ97alOrxNuNuvxeTnNVd6jVlNLFshBvUOdoKmeMLUD7M6Oh9dLhd6e79CFrCTCxBh2Q3NO6HIpP2cXYoTQsSXQkzlT2Uq660_k29uAcPRqA9U_g=s927" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="927" height="493" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaZNpOmpscGoMzLGARRqdSPTeN9qQpC16ax0j7ajrQdT1WDcwuzDBepDqpTT9QpLKCR9AOZVvpqqaQ97alOrxNuNuvxeTnNVd6jVlNLFshBvUOdoKmeMLUD7M6Oh9dLhd6e79CFrCTCxBh2Q3NO6HIpP2cXYoTQsSXQkzlT2Uq660_k29uAcPRqA9U_g=w640-h493" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">US Soldiers at Grafenwoehr Army Base, Bavaria, Germany </span></h3></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"><b style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b></span></span></span><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(A) Some Introductory</span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> Remarks</span><b style="color: #0f1419;"><br /></b></span></span></span></h2><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">[1]</span></b><i style="color: #0f1419;"> </i><span style="color: #0f1419;">Grafenwoehr army base, Bavaria - the largest US base outside America. Male soldiers parade in women's shoes with signs "</span></span><i style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">We Are ALL hurt by Rape</i><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">", "</span></span><i style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">LOVE Should NOT Hurt</i><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">", "</span></span><i style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walk a Mile in Her Shoes</i><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">".</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>This </span><span>MIGHT make sense if</span><span> it was a "cunning plan" by Joe Biden (AKA </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldrick">Baldrick</a><span>) to trick Putin into </span><b><i>(A)</i> </b><span>believing that US soldiers are decadent wimps </span><b><i>(B)</i></b><span> thus encouraging Putin to attack the West and be annihilated. The pro</span><span>blem is that only </span><b><i>(A)</i></b><span> is likely to be valid!</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03);"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><b style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">[2]</span></b><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Tweet by </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Moore_(diplomat)" style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Richard Moore</a><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"> who apparently is really the Chief of British spy agency MI6 and this is </span><b style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</b><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a Parody Account!</span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Richard Moore @ChiefMI6 · Feb 25</i></b> <i>With the tragedy and destruction unfolding so distressingly in Ukraine, we should remember the values and hard won freedoms that distinguish us from Putin, none more than LGBT+ rights. So let’s resume our series of tweets to mark #LGBTHM2022</i></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">[Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans+ History Month 2022]</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>[3] </b></span><span style="color: #0f1419;">And of course Ireland - trying hard not to be left behind in the slide towards self-destruction: </span></span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/target-of-35pc-female-involvement-in-military-is-ambitious-41366645.html">Target of 35pc female involvement in military is ‘ambitious’</a></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"></span></span></span></div><blockquote><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Defence Forces have described a target of 35pc overall female participation within the organisation as “</span><i style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">ambitious</i><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">”. </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">The target was recently recommended in a report by the Commission into the Defence Forces <b>which also cited a “</b></span><b><i style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">masculine</i><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">” culture in the military</span></b></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">.... </span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">The Commission was established by Defence Minister Simon Coveney in late 2020 in response to concerns about the capabilities of the military and an ongoing retention crisis. [ </span><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Note (i)</span></b><span style="color: #0f1419;"> ]</span></span></div></blockquote><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">: <br /></span></span></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">[4]</span></b><span style="color: #0f1419;"> On the other hand we have the <a href="https://www.derryjournal.com/news/people/cultural-bling-and-a-me-centred-europe-sick-in-many-ways-derry-bishop-3589079">Catholic Bishop of Derry </a></span></span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.derryjournal.com/news/people/cultural-bling-and-a-me-centred-europe-sick-in-many-ways-derry-bishop-3589079">Donal McKeown</a>.</span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"></span></span></span></div><blockquote><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The horrible events in Ukraine ask our western states what is it that they stand for</b></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Amongst the threats to our society is not just a rampant Russian war in Central Europe, but the fact that liberal democracies look like little more than economic or industrial entities. Does Europe have any pretence at virtue or at generosity that goes beyond self-interest?...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">" A widespread emphasis on entitlement and on victimhood generates a corrosive blame culture. It is unhealthy when we demand that something impersonal called the ‘<i>State</i>’ should pick up the pieces of every mess that we make. A dependency culture weakens us individually and communally. Virtue and responsibility will build hope and healing"......</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">"</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">If western countries are unable to offer the world more than consumer goods and mind-numbing entertainment then we have nothing to boast of except our hollow economic power which struggles to drown out our nightmares</span><span style="color: #0f1419;">." </span></span></span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>[5]</b> </span> <a href="https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/west-wont-be-able-to-declare-victory-until-we-cut-dependence-on-vladimir-putins-regime-41501440.html">Major General Jonathan Shaw former Director of Special Forces in the British Army</a> shares the concerns of Bishop McKeown</span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"The West will only truly win when the Russian people reject the current regime and its ideology. My fear now, however, is that whatever happens in Ukraine, the West will lack the moral staying power to see down the threat posed by Putin....</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">" Meanwhile the curse of the 24-hour news cycle is that we can obsess over the dramatic and the visual at the expense of the important. This focus on what is happening on the ground distracts us from the real battle: that of values.<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i> Putin believes that the West is morally degenerate, that its support for democratic values is weak, and that its populations are more interested in their quality of life than Ukraine</i></b></span>."</span></div></blockquote><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; white-space: pre-wrap;">(B) The Decadence of the USA - and NATO</span></span></h2><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">On January 26th 2022 the Irish Independent published an article by conservative Catholic, columnist and author <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohrab_Ahmari">Sohrab Ahmari </a>that originally appeared in the Washington Post: <a href="https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/biden-is-correct-to-ignore-war-hawks-over-ukraine-41278447.html">Biden is Correct to Ignore War Hawks over Ukraine</a>. I actually disagree with his conclusion regarding Ukraine but he provides a wealth of information - including (remarkably) some issues that Left and Right in the USA agree on! </span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><blockquote><div><span style="color: #0f1419;">"Left and right agree on very little these days, but they share a sense that something has gone profoundly wrong with America – internally. The two camps disagree over the diagnosis, whether it’s structural racism or elite liberalism that’s to blame, but the symptoms are apparent to both: </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">the decrepit infrastructure, the loneliness that haunted young Americans long before social distancing, widespread job and health precarity, addiction and homelessness.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>"Then there’s the cultural incohesion, an inability to agree on the most basic facts about US history and identity</i></b>......</span> Biden’s [original] posture was perfectly sensible, given the political mood in Europe and especially its pivotal power, Germany. It also reflected a deeper wisdom, in continuity with his two immediate predecessors, that <span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-contextual; white-space: normal;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>US power is over-stretched, exhausted and battered by domestic polarisation and decay."</i></b></span></span></div></blockquote><div style="color: #0f1419;"></div></span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ahrami believes that the "<i>war hawks</i>" are asking the US President to be more zealous for European security than are Europeans themselves. He states that a majority of Europeans are ambivalent, at best, when it comes to America, Nato and the Russian threat.</span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><blockquote><div><span style="color: #0f1419;">"A 2020 Pew Research Centre survey of populations in 16 key Nato states found</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i> a majority opposes using force to defend a fellow member state</i></span><span style="color: #0f1419;"> in a conflict with Russia.</span></div><div style="color: #0f1419;"><br /></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419;">"In France, 53pc oppose fulfilling the Western Alliance’s Article 5 obligations under such a scenario, compared with 41pc who would back military action. More startling still,<b><i> </i></b></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>60pc of Germans oppose using force to defend a fellow member state</i></b>. <b>[!]</b></span><span style="color: #0f1419;"> Ukraine isn’t even a Nato member.". </span></div></blockquote><div style="color: #0f1419;"></div></span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ahrami believes Western Europe’s has no real commitment to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and points to our lackadaisical response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and "s<i>tealth invasion</i>" of the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine:</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div><blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">At various points since, Paris and Berlin resisted economic sanctions against Moscow, on occasion even calling for existing sanctions to be lifted. Meanwhile, </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Germany has remained determined to push ahead with Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, thus bypassing Ukraine and Poland and tightening Moscow’s energy stranglehold on the continent. </span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Successive US administrations of both parties begged for a rethink, to no avail, until Biden dropped the issue last year.</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"> <b style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Lately, Berlin has </b><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>signaled</b></span><b style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> it might abandon the project if Russia invades Ukraine – maybe!</b></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div></blockquote><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sohrab Ahrami believes it's crazy for the USA to try to </span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">police Europe’s borders when Europeans have been this indifferent, this long. I disagree with his conclusion while recognising that the premises of his argument are largely correct!</span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">On similar lines Ian O'Doherty writes in <a href="https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/the-divided-states-of-america-now-a-country-ripping-itself-apart-in-self-loathing-41400779.html"> "The Divided States of America – Now a Country Ripping Itself Apart in Self-Loathing</a>" </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><blockquote><span style="color: #0f1419;">On the foreign fields, the shambolic and shameful abandonment of Afghanistan will go down in the history books as one of the most craven acts by any US leader. It also rang the dinner bell for Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian invasion. </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>After all, when news emerged that Mr Putin had watched the live footage of the evacuation and laughed throughout, the die was cast.</b></span><span style="color: #0f1419;"> He already had the idea of invading Ukraine, but the American performance in Afghanistan told him that now was the time to make that idea a reality. </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">[ <b>Note (ii)</b> ]</span></blockquote><h2 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">(C) The Decadence of Germany</span></h2></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; white-space: pre-wrap;">[ 60pc of Germans oppose using force to defend a fellow NATO member state!]</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">On 29 January Ambrose Evans-Pritchard the international business editor of the Daily Telegraph wrote <a href="https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/markets-remain-calm-despite-talk-of-imminent-war-yet-putin-knows-he-has-a-narrow-window-and-a-strong-hand-41290207.html">Markets Remain Calm despite Talk of Imminent War yet Putin knows he has a Narrow Window and a Strong Hand</a></span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div><blockquote><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is now or never for Mr Putin. The stars are unusually well-aligned for the overthrow of the post-Cold War settlement....</span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Kremlin enjoys the same partial advantage on the politico-military front. European Nato disarmed through the austerity years and is now near rock-bottom, while Russia has been re-arming for a decade. The White House is perceived to be a pushover after waving its objections to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in a shabby deal with Germany....</div><div style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr Putin does not have to worry about serious economic retaliation. Germany has effectively vetoed use of the financial “<i>nuclear option</i>”, which would to expel Russia from the SWIFT system of international payments. Berlin’s argument is that such sanctions have asymmetric blowback. The US has little direct exposure and would suffer modest loss. German and European companies with large interests in Russia would take the brunt... “<i>I don’t see anything on the economic front that would seriously frighten Putin</i>,” said Ian Bond, former ambassador and British security planner now at the Centre for European Reform......</span></div><div style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Energy dependence has turned core Europe into an accomplice by defaul</i></span></b><span style="color: #0f1419;"><i>t....</i>
</span><span style="color: #0f1419;">
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i><b>Top figures in the German Social Democratic Party are not even willing to take Nord Stream 2 off the table if Mr Putin annihilates Ukraine</b></i></span><span style="color: #0f1419;">. Defence minister Christine Lambrecht said there is “</span><i style="color: #0f1419;">no connection</i><span style="color: #0f1419;">” between the two issues. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has belatedly agreed to demands from Washington and his Green coalition partners that there should be some linkage but the commitment is too vague and half-hearted to have much deterrent value. He still insists that the pipeline is a purely “</span><i style="color: #0f1419;">commercial</i><span style="color: #0f1419;">” matter.
</span><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Germany has not only refused to sell vital weapons to Ukraine but is actively preventing its Nato allies from doing so.</i></span></b></span></div></span></span></div></blockquote><div><span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i></i></span></b></span></div><div style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Regarding this point British journalist (and Berlin resident) Justin Huggler<a href="https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/us-intelligence-says-russia-has-compiled-kill-lists-to-wipe-out-ukrainian-resistance-41361968.html"> described an encounter</a> between the mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko and German foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at a Security Conference meeting in Munich (!)</span></div><blockquote><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">"</span><i style="color: #0f1419;">We need defensive weapons. We face one of the strongest armies in the world. We are ready to fight, to defend our families</i><span style="color: #0f1419;">,” Mr Klitschko told Ms Baerbock. “</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Thank you for the 5,000 helmets</i>,” he went on, referring to a shipment of helmets Germany sent instead of weapons</span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">. “<i>But we can’t defend our state with them, it’s not enough</i>.” </span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">The emotional outburst laid bare divisions that remain within the Western alliance. </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Germany claims it has a longstanding policy of not sending arms to conflict zones because of its Nazi past</b></span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">. [ </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Note (iii) </b>]</span></span></div></blockquote><p> See also Reuters article dated 21 January <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-ukraine-arms-idUSL1N2U123W">Germany blocks Estonia from Exporting German-origin Weapons to Ukraine </a></p><p></p><blockquote><p>Germany is blocking NATO ally Estonia from giving military support to Ukraine by refusing to issue permits for German-origin weapons to be exported to Kyiv as it braces for a potential Russian invasion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday...[The USA and] Many other NATO allies, including Britain and Poland, also agreed to export weapons directly to Ukraine, but the German government declined to do so.</p><p>“<i>Germany has not supported the export of lethal weapons in recent years</i>,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told a news conference on Friday.<b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i> In the case of Estonia, Berlin is refusing to allow a third country to send artillery to Ukraine because the weaponry originated in Germany, the Journal cited Estonian and German officials as saying</i></span></b>. </p></blockquote><p></p><div><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><div style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Germany has had a belated change of heart as described by Telegraph journalists in</span></div><div style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/germany-to-ramp-up-military-spend-in-major-100bn-defence-policy-shift-41392429.html">Germany to Ramp up Military Spend in Major €100bn Defence Policy Shift</a> <b>but</b></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><blockquote><span style="color: #0f1419;">Since the end of the Cold War, Germany has reduced its troop strength from 500,000 to about 200,000 today. On the day Mr Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine, </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Alfons Mais, the chief of the German land army, admitted that the Bundeswehr was in a desperate state and was “more or less bare”. “The options we can offer to politicians to support [Nato] are extremely limited,”</span><span style="color: #0f1419;"> he wrote on LinkedIn.</span></blockquote><span style="color: #0f1419;"></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; white-space: pre-wrap;"><h2 style="text-align: left;">(D) Conclusions </h2></span></div><div style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">60 per cent of Germans oppose using force to defend a fellow NATO member state!</span></b><span style="color: #0f1419;"> How many would refuse to defend their own country and collaborate with </span><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">any</span><span style="color: #0f1419;"> </span></i><span style="color: #0f1419;">enemy for a peaceful life? </span><span style="color: #0f1419;">[ </span><span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Note (iv) </b>]</span></span></div><div style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">At a Conference in Munich (!) Germany claimed it has a longstanding policy of not sending arms to conflict zones because of its Nazi past. For the same reason it banned Estonia from sending German-manufactured weapons to the Ukraine to help it defend itself. </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i><b>Germany has a degraded and perverse attitude to its Nazi past - more akin to Self-Hatred than Repentance.</b></i></span><span style="color: #0f1419;"> (Catholic confessors </span><b style="color: #0f1419;"><i>used</i></b><span style="color: #0f1419;"> to be good at distinguishing between the two.) One example is the case of the 93 year old "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Haverbeck">Nazi Grandma</a>" </span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ursula Haverbeck convicted several times for the crime of Holocaust Denial, released from prison at the end of 2020, quickly charged again and due to face a new trial about now. The German authorities have been pursuing her since 2004 as their armed forces decayed, they made themselves dependent on Russian energy supplies and resolved not to assist a non-NATO member attacked by Russia - because of Germany's Nazi past! </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>This is the kind of Weimar Decadence that helped Hitler to power in the first place and is now empowering Putin! </i></b></span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">[ </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Note (v) </b>]</span></span></div></span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>BUT</b></span><span style="color: #0f1419;"> Germany has reversed course, has agreed to major sanctions against Russia </span><b style="color: #0f1419;">and</b><span style="color: #0f1419;"> is sending arms to Ukraine and beefing up its military forces - so all is now OK! Forgive my cynicism but I agree wioth the Telegraph's Jeremy Warner that </span><a href="https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/west-totally-unready-for-sacrifices-needed-to-really-hurt-putin-41383124.html">West Totally Unready for Sacrifices Needed to Really Hurt Putin</a></span></span></div><blockquote><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are western electorates even remotely prepared for the economic deprivations this latter course of action – a war with Russia in all but name – is likely to entail? </span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">The already near hysterical political reaction to the cost of living squeeze suggests strongly they are not.</span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Without wishing to trivialise today’s hardships, they are as nothing compared with what would come. “<i>Welcome to the brave new world where Europeans are very soon going to pay €2,000 for 1,000 cubic metres of natural gas</i>,” said Putin’s sidekick, Dmitry Medvedev, rubbing it in over Europe’s unfortunate dependence on Russian gas.</span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have grown so complacent and lazy on the fruits of globalisation that the idea of anything more than a temporary interruption in the onward march of economic progress is so far beyond any recent experience as to be thought almost impossible.....</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">So forgive my scepticism when the West promises to put up a meaningful fight against Putin’s power play.<b> Even ignoring the threat of nuclear annihilation, the price of defiance will be high. It is not clear that mollycoddled western voters have the stomach for it</b></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">. By all means, Europe must scramble to wean itself off dependence on Russian gas, but exactly the same thing was said in 2014 after Crimea. Small wonder Putin thinks he can get away with it.</span></span></div></blockquote><div><span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">"</span><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Mollycoddled western voters</span></i><span style="color: #0f1419;">" indeed. Long before the Welfare State was even thought of, the main functions of the State were supposed to be defense against external aggression and maintenance of internal order. In part A above, I quote Bishop Donal McKeown regarding </span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">our "</span><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">dependency culture</span></i><span style="color: #0f1419;">", </span></span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"> "</span><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">emphasis on entitlement and on victimhood</span></i><span style="color: #0f1419;">" and "</span><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">d</span></i><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">emand that something impersonal called the ‘State’ should pick up the pieces of every mess that we make</span></i><span style="color: #0f1419;">". These attitudes are now rotting the foundations of the State especially in Germany where </span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">the chief of the German land army, admitted that the Bundeswehr was in a desperate state, was “<i>more or less bare</i>” and unable to contribute to NATO's response to Putin.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>If this crisis continues and impacts seriously on the State's ability to supply voters with goodies, I predict that our sympathy with the people of the Ukraine and refugees will evaporate with extreme speed. Western voters will start denouncing President Volodymyr Zelensky for '<i>intransigence'</i> and demand he conclude a "<i>peace at any price</i>" with Russia!</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>NOTES</b></span></span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><b style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(i)</span></b><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"> I recall reading about an Irish guy who joined the British army during the Second World War and became one of its highest decorated veterans. After the war he left the army and led a troubled unhappy life until dying in a car crash about 1950 - a time when there were few cars on Irish roads. A country needs people like that in times of War (although they can be trouble in peacetime). Our current Defence Minister and his "</span><i style="color: #0f1419;">Commission</i><span style="color: #0f1419;">" are doing their best to alienate such men and ensure they will </span><i style="color: #0f1419;">never</i><span style="color: #0f1419;"> join the army. "</span><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Masculine Culture</span></i><span style="color: #0f1419;">" indeed!</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>(ii) </b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's likely that Putin's advisers showed him the photo at the head of this article. If so he undoubtedly laughed a lot!</span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="color: #2b00fe;">(iii) </b><b style="font-style: italic;">Another </b>nice illustration of the link between Barbarism on one side and Decadence on the other! And it <i>also</i> happened at a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement">Conference in Munich</a>!</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(iv)</span></b><span style="color: #0f1419;"> For <b>Irish</b> equivalent see "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/11/archbishop-diarmuid-martin-simpsons-and.html">Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the Simpsons and Our Insect Overlords</a>"<br /></span></span></span><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span style="color: #2b00fe; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>(v)</b></span><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <b>Another</b> example of the corruption of Germany's attempts to face up to its Nazi past dates from 1970 when the Red Army Faction (or 'Baeder Meinhoff Gang') started a terrorist campaign that lasted until 1998. As per Wikipedia "</span><i style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">the group was motivated by leftist political concerns and t</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">he perceived failure of their parents' generation to confront Germany's Nazi past</span><span style="color: #0f1419;">, and received support from Stasi and other Eastern Bloc security services</span></i><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">." (On meetings with KGB in Dresden </span><span style="color: #2b00fe; white-space: pre-wrap;">the group was also met by Vladimir Putin, then KGB resident in East Germany!</span><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">) In 1977 Jillian Becker published "</span><i style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hitler's Children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Gang</i><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">" a study of the 'first generation' of the RAF that pointed out that the terrorists were more akin to Nazi Stormtroopers than to the forces of the German Federal Republic that opposed them. In addition German journalist Stefan Aust wrote in 1985 "<i>T</i></span></span><i style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">he Baader-Meinhof Gang drew a measure of support that violent leftists in the United States, like the Weather Underground, never enjoyed</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">. A poll at the time showed that a quarter of West Germans under forty felt sympathy for the gang and one-tenth said they would hide a gang member from the police</span><span style="color: #0f1419;">. Prominent intellectuals spoke up for the gang's righteousness (as) Germany even into the 1970s was still a guilt-ridden society</span></i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">."
As per Wikipedia: "</span><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Horst Mahler, a founding RAF member, is now a vocal Neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier</span><span style="color: #0f1419;">. In 2005, he was sentenced to six years in prison for incitement to racial hatred against Jews. He is on record as saying that his beliefs have not changed: Der Feind ist der Gleiche (The enemy is the same</span></i><span style="color: #0f1419;">)."</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div></div></div></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-17621272427888192012021-12-29T16:36:00.007+00:002021-12-30T11:13:51.065+00:00China's Grey Eminence and the Future of America and of Christianity<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlRjsckT68NrQil4sL8-j0Rwe0JgQ3r_gPjZdrx_qCbuRE2IAyzcvhWecJUAN0fLqwOUIHFzU8y-A3C2-tXP3zce9hlljRMkaxNGqe2j28HgCwEPfGt4pgBs5HSlv7rd9LKKjBtNi2APE0_OBpUA0iRQ9S1C4H6lSKRLJYGFrTPy1l4YLIqUuwqQKo1A=s359" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Wang Huning" border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="272" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlRjsckT68NrQil4sL8-j0Rwe0JgQ3r_gPjZdrx_qCbuRE2IAyzcvhWecJUAN0fLqwOUIHFzU8y-A3C2-tXP3zce9hlljRMkaxNGqe2j28HgCwEPfGt4pgBs5HSlv7rd9LKKjBtNi2APE0_OBpUA0iRQ9S1C4H6lSKRLJYGFrTPy1l4YLIqUuwqQKo1A=w303-h400" title="Wang Huning" width="303" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3>Professor Wang Huning - China's Grey Eminence</h3></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">China's Grey Eminence and 'America against America'</span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">François Leclerc du Tremblay, also known as Père Joseph, was a 17th Century French Capuchin friar, confidant and agent of Cardinal Richelieu. He was the original </span><i style="font-family: arial;">éminence grise</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> ("grey eminence") the term for a powerful advisor or decision-maker who operates secretly or unofficially. His historical successors include Talleyrand, Metternich, Kissinger, Vladimir Putin adviser Vladislav Surkov - and today </span><b style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Chinese academic Wang Huning, the very influential adviser of Chinese President Xi Jinping</span></i></b><span style="font-family: arial;">. Wang Huning was never a dissident but appears to have been an admirer of the United States and its achievements. This <i>could</i> have translated into good news for both </span><span style="font-family: arial;">countries and assisted reformers who wanted to liberalise the political regime in China. Unfortunately after a 6 months stay in the USA in 1988 he concluded that the country had bred a "<i>younger generation [that] is ignorant of traditional Western values</i>” and actively rejects its cultural inheritance and that "<i>nihilism has become the American way, which is a fatal shock to cultural development and the American spirit</i>". .</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>According to an article on Bloomberg News on 13 January 2021 "<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-13/a-2-500-book-on-u-s-decline-is-suddenly-a-must-read-in-china">A $2,500 Book on U.S. Decline Is Suddenly a Must-Read in China</a>" </div><div></div><blockquote><div>After chaos engulfed the U.S. Capitol last week, some Chinese intellectuals found themselves searching for copies of an out-of-print book to make sense of events. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“<i><b>America Against America</b></i>” forecast the U.S.’s decline due to domestic conflicts more than 30 years ago. </span><span><b>[1]</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Among the things driving demand was the author: <b>Wang Huning</b>, the Communist Party’s No. 5 leader and top political theorist to three Chinese presidents. Some copies have surged to more than 16,600 yuan ($2,500) on Kungfuzi, an online marketplace for antiques. That’s more than 3,000 times its original asking price in 1991, when Japan was more widely seen as America’s big economic rival.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>The interest in the book is the result of a renewed desire to understand a U.S. that is in the midst of a civil cold wa</i>r,” said Wang Wen, executive dean of Renmin University’s Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies. “<i>China’s doubts about the U.S. will certainly increase in light of recent events.</i>”</div></blockquote><div></div></span></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Wang Huning and America - A Dark Vision</span></span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><b>[</b>Much of the following is taken directly from two articles (A) by N. S. Lyons <a href="https://palladiummag.com/2021/10/11/the-triumph-and-terror-of-wang-huning/">The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning</a> in <a href="https://palladiummag.com/about/">Palladium Magazine</a> on 11 October 2021 and (B) book review by Habi Zhang <a href="https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-chinese-communist-who-understands-america/">The Chinese Communist Who Understands America</a> in <a href="https://lawliberty.org/about/">Law and Liberty</a>, 15 November 2021<b>]</b></div><div><br /></div><div>In 1988, Wang—having risen with unprecedented speed to become Fudan’s youngest full professor at age 30—won a coveted scholarship to spend six months in the United States as a visiting scholar. Profoundly curious about America, Wang took full advantage, wandering about the country like a sort of<b><i> latter-day Chinese <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville">Alexis de Tocqueville</a></i></b>, visiting more than 30 cities and nearly 20 universities.</div><div><br /></div><div>What he found deeply disturbed him, permanently shifting his view of the West and the consequences of its ideas.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wang recorded his observations in a memoir that would become his most famous work: <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i><b><a href="https://scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2021/11/03/america-against-america-the-chinese-de-tocqueville/">the 1991 book 'America Against America</a>'</b></i></span>. In it, he marvels <span style="color: #2b00fe;">at homeless encampments in the streets of Washington DC, out-of-control drug crime in poor black neighborhoods in New York and San Francisco, and corporations that seemed to have fused themselves to and taken over responsibilities of government</span>. Eventually, he concludes that America faces an “<i>unstoppable undercurrent of crisis</i>” produced by its societal contradictions, including between rich and poor, white and black, democratic and oligarchic power, egalitarianism and class privilege, individual rights and collective responsibilities, cultural traditions and the solvent of liquid modernity.</div><div><br /></div><div>But while Americans can, he says, perceive that they are faced with “<i>intricate social and cultural problems</i>,” they “<i>tend to think of them as scientific and technological problems</i>” to be solved separately. This gets them nowhere, he argues, because their problems are in fact all inextricably interlinked and have the same root cause: a radical, nihilistic individualism at the heart of modern American liberalism.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>The real cell of society in the United States is the individual</i>,” he finds. This is so because the cell most foundational (per Aristotle) to society, “<i>the family, has disintegrated</i>.</b></span>” Meanwhile, in the American system, “<i>everything has a dual nature, and the glamour of high commodification abounds. Human flesh, sex, knowledge, politics, power, and law can all become the target of commodification</i>.” This “<i>commodification, in many ways, corrupts society and leads to a number of serious social problems</i>.” In the end, “t<i>he American economic system has created human loneliness</i>” as its foremost product, along with spectacular inequality. As a result, “<b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">nihilism has become the American way, which is a fatal shock to cultural development and the American spirit</span></i></b>”.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, he says that the “<i>American spirit is facing serious challenges</i>” from new ideational competitors. Reflecting on the universities he visited and quoting approvingly from Allan Bloom’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Closing_of_the_American_Mind">The Closing of the American Mind</a>, <b>[2]</b> he notes a growing tension between Enlightenment liberal rationalism and a “<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>younger generation [that] is ignorant of traditional Western values</i>” and actively rejects its cultural inheritance</b></span>. “<i>If the value system collapses</i>,” he wonders, “<i>how can the social system be sustained</i>?”<b>[3]</b></div><div><br /></div><div><span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Ultimately, he argues, when faced with critical social issues like drug addiction, </span><b>[4] </b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">America’s atomized, deracinated, and dispirited society has found itself with “</span><i style="color: #2b00fe;">an insurmountable problem</i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">” because it no longer has any coherent conceptual grounds from which to mount any resistance.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"Civil Religion" and Christianity</span></h3><div><span><div>Wang concludes, “<i>political customs</i>” and “<i>political traditions</i>” sometimes are more powerful than laws because “<i>laws are written on paper whereas the former are engraved in hearts and minds</i>.” Hence, Wang argues that it is Americans’ sacralization, as he calls it, of the Constitution that makes it transcend those pieces of yellowed papers to be vibrant and everlasting.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sacralization is a unique feature that Wang identifies in America’s “<i>colorful national character</i>.” Wang writes, “<i>The American nation does not have a disposition for mystification or deification, but it has a special nature that I call ‘sacralization</i>.’” Wang noticed that Americans tended to sacralize certain qualities or phenomena they saw in politicians, athletes, businessmen, film stars, singers, technology innovators, as well as football games, national ceremonies, the military, and the space shuttle.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>It is of a cultic nature, but it is not a religious cult</i>,” Wang writes, “<i>pragmatic Americans find it hard to worship abstract, legendary, and invisible objects, but they can worship success, bravery, adventure, and wisdom in their own surroundings.</i>” <span style="color: #2b00fe;">This sacralization of a spirit for Wang is what Rousseau means by “<i>civil religion.</i>”</span> Wang’s following words are particularly illuminating: “<i>The process of sacralization has a fundamental social function, which is to maintain and transmit the core values of society . . . It is here that people’s sentiments, ideas, beliefs, pursuits come into some kind of agreement . . . In such an individualistic, self-centered society, sacralization is the best mechanism for spreading core values</i>.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Wang did not overlook the religious side of the American mind, though. In a section called <b><i>God on Earth</i></b>, Wang discussed another paradox about America. Varied religious organizations and vivacious religious activities play a cohesive role in public life. They are what he called “<i>Soft Administration.</i>” <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Wang noticed that religion both maintained social order and promoted freedom of society. He concluded that what made religion work in America was its secularization, separation from politics, and non-superstitious nature</span>. <b>[5]</b></div></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #282520;"><br /></span></span></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span>Return to China and End of Idealism</span></span></span></h3><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #282520;">Once idealistic about America, at the start of 1989 the young Wang returned to China and, promoted to Dean of Fudan’s International Politics Department, </span><i><b>became a leading opponent of liberalization</b></i><span style="color: #282520;">. </span></span></span><span style="color: #282520;">When Wang won national acclaim by leading a university debate team to victory in an international competition in Singapore in 1993, he caught the attention of Jiang Zemin, who had become party leader after Tiananmen. Wang, having defeated National Taiwan University by arguing that human nature is inherently evil, foreshadowed that, </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“<i>While Western modern civilization can bring material prosperity, it doesn’t necessarily lead to improvement in character</i>."</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="background-color: white;">Many Chinese are Pleased with Wang's View of the USA!</span></span></h3><div>From the smug point of view of millions who now inhabit the Chinese internet, Wang’s dark vision of American dissolution was nothing less than prophetic. When they look to the U.S., they no longer see a beacon of liberal democracy standing as an admired symbol of a better future. That was the impression of those who created the famous “<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddess_of_Democracy">Goddess of Democracy</a></i>,” with her paper-mâché torch held aloft before the Gate of Heavenly Peace on Tiananmen Square in 1989.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Instead, they see <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Wang’s America: deindustrialization, rural decay, over-financialization, out of control asset prices, and the emergence of a self-perpetuating rentier elite; powerful tech monopolies able to crush any upstart competitors operating effectively beyond the scope of government; immense economic inequality, chronic unemployment, addiction, homelessness, and crime; cultural chaos, historical nihilism, family breakdown, and plunging fertility rates; societal despair, spiritual malaise, social isolation, and skyrocketing rates of mental health issues; <b>a loss of national unity and purpose in the face of decadence and barely concealed self-loathing</b>; vast internal divisions, racial tensions, riots, political violence, and a country that increasingly seems close to coming apart.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>As a tumultuous 2020 roiled American politics, Chinese people began turning to Wang’s <i>America Against America</i> for answers. And when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, the book flew off the shelves. Out-of-print copies began selling for as much as $2,500 on Chinese e-commerce sites.</div></div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Wang's Nightmare as China Encounters Same Problems! </span></h2><div><div>But Wang is unlikely to be savoring the acclaim, because his worst fear has become reality: the “<i>unstoppable undercurrent of crisis</i>” he identified in America seems to have successfully jumped the Pacific. Despite all his and President Xi Jinping’s success in draconian suppression of political liberalism, many of the same problems Wang observed in America have nonetheless emerged to ravage China over the last decade as the country progressively embraced a more neoliberal capitalist economic model.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>Socialism with Chinese Characteristics</i>” has rapidly transformed China into one of the most economically unequal societies on earth - more so than the USA. Meanwhile, Chinese tech giants have established monopoly positions even more robust than their U.S. counterparts. Corporate employment frequently features an exhausting “996” (9am to 9pm, 6 days a week) schedule. Others labor among struggling legions trapped by up-front debts in the vast system of modern-day indentured servitude that is the Chinese “gig economy.” Up to 400 million Chinese are forecast to enjoy the liberation of such “self-employment” by 2036, according to Chinese e-commerce firm <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group">Alibaba</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>The job market for China’s ever-expanding pool of university graduates is so competitive that “<i>graduation equals unemployment</i>” is a societal meme. And as young people have flocked to urban metropoles to search for employment, rural regions have been drained and left to decay, while centuries of communal extended family life have been upended in a generation, leaving the elderly to rely on the state for marginal care. In the cities, young people have been priced out of the property market by a red-hot asset bubble.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Meanwhile, contrary to trite Western assumptions of an inherently communal Chinese culture, <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>the sense of atomization and low social trust in China has become so acute that it’s led to periodic bouts of anguished societal soul-searching after oddly regular instances in which injured individuals have been left to die on the street by passers-by habitually distrustful of being scammed</i></span>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Feeling alone and unable to get ahead in a ruthlessly consumerist society, Chinese youth increasingly describe existing in a state of nihilistic despair encapsulated by the online slang term neijuan (“<i>involution</i>”), which describes a “<i>turning inward</i>” by individuals and society due to a prevalent sense of being stuck in a draining rat race where everyone inevitably loses. This despair has manifested itself in a movement known as tangping, or “<i>lying flat</i>,” in which people attempt to escape that rat race by doing the absolute bare minimum amount of work required to live, becoming modern ascetics.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>In this environment, China’s fertility rate has collapsed to 1.3 children per woman as of 2020—below Japan and above only South Korea as the lowest in the world</b></span>—plunging its economic future into crisis. Ending family size limits and government attempts to persuade families to have more children have been met with incredulity and ridicule by Chinese young people as being “<i>totally out of touch</i>” with economic and social reality. “<i>Do they not yet know that most young people are exhausted just supporting themselves</i>?” asked one typically viral post on social media. </div><div><br /></div><div>But even those Chinese youth who could afford to have kids have found they enjoy a new lifestyle: the coveted DINK (“<i>Double Income, No Kids”</i>) life, in which well-educated young couples (married or not) spend all that extra cash on themselves. As one thoroughly liberated 27-year-old man with a vasectomy once explained to The New York Times: “<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>For our generation, children aren’t a necessity…Now we can live without any burdens. So why not invest our spiritual and economic resources on our own lives</i>?”</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"Liberalism" in China and in the West</span></h3><div>So while Americans have today given up the old dream of liberalizing China, they should maybe look a little closer. It’s true that China never remotely liberalized—if you consider liberalism to be all about democratic elections, a free press, and respect for human rights. But many political thinkers would argue there is more to a comprehensive definition of modern liberalism than that. Instead, <i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">they would identify liberalism’s essential endpoint as being the liberation of the individual from all limiting ties of place, tradition, religion, associations, and relationships, along with all the material limits of nature, in pursuit of the radical autonomy of the modern “consumer.”</span></i></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>From this perspective, China has been thoroughly liberalized, and the picture of what’s happening to Chinese society begins to look far more like Wang’s nightmare of a liberal culture consumed by nihilistic individualism and commodification.</b></span></div></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><b>NOTES:</b></div></span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[1] "</b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>It is worth noting that though it is Wang’s most famous book, copies are no longer available on Amazon or China’s counterparts such as Taobao, JD.com, or Dangdang. No official English translation is offered. Indeed, the book is as mysterious as its author. One can, however, find an electronic scanned pdf version online</i>." [Book Review in Law and Liberty: "<a href="https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-chinese-communist-who-understands-america/">The Chinese Communist Who Understands America</a>"]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[2]</b> As per <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Closing_of_the_American_Mind">Wikipedia</a> "Bloom titles the second part of the book "<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Nihilism, American Style</span></i>". He introduces in further detail the concept of "<i>value relativism</i>", mentioned previously only in the introduction. Value relativism, he says, plagues most elite institutions of higher learning. For Bloom, this dissolved into nihilism. He notices that students follow the path of least resistance when developing their values. For students, he writes, "<i>values are not discovered by reason, and it is fruitless to seek them, to find the truth or the good life</i>." <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Ironically, when traveling this path without reason, Bloom writes, students still "<i>adopt strong poses and fanatic resolutions</i></span><i>"</i>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[3]</b> From a book review </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2021/11/03/america-against-america-the-chinese-de-tocqueville/">America Against America: the Chinese de Tocqueville</a> by Scott Locklin</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Spiritual crisis</i></b>: <i>Mr. Wang was very concerned that even elite university students knew little to nothing about the history and culture of the society to which they belonged. His heart was at least somewhat with the neocons of the day; mentioning <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Bloom">Alan Bloom</a> and his best selling 1987 jeremiad against the ignorance of contemporary university students. Mind you: the morons described by Bloom and Wang are now professors in the universities and high officials in government. They’re still ignorant pustules, now responsible for creating ever more callow gelded toads to infest the crumbling halls of American power. He identified the cultural nihilism of the <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Baizuo">baizuo</a> all the way back in 1988; the upcoming tribe of people who would run the country into the ditch didn’t understand it, and didn’t much care for most of its inhabitants either.</i></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[4] </b>An update: "<i>In 2019 alone, <b>nearly 50,000 people in the United States died from opioid-involved overdoses</b>, according to CDC statistics. The misuse of and addiction to opioids – including prescription pain relievers, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and heroin — has been described as “a serious national crisis” that impacts public health as well as social and economic welfare across America, according to The National Institute on Drug Abuse</i>." </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (from Gript article </span><a href="https://gript.ie/u-s-judge-throws-out-4-5bn-settlement-protecting-sacklers-from-opioid-lawsuits/" style="font-family: arial;">U.S. Judge Throws Out $4.5bn Settlement Protecting Sacklers From Opioid Lawsuits</a><span style="font-family: arial;">)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[5]</b> This reminds me of George Orwell's remark in "<a href="https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/notes-on-nationalism/">Notes on Nationalism</a>" (1945 essay): "<i>If one follows up this train of thought, one is in danger of being led into a species of Conservatism, or into political quietism. It can be plausibly argued, for instance – it is even probably true – that patriotism is an inoculation against nationalism, that monarchy is a guard against dictatorship, and that organized religion is a guard against superstition</i>." </span></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-60366163907830242482021-09-06T04:19:00.011+01:002021-09-09T21:12:50.953+01:00The Folly of the Sisters of Charity (and other Nuns)<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibNfSpDjPb3orhHS5Ri5qEqtHmligTRS5VBX5X9dQ0_AOZbAtaO7FG_tNoZ35A_JJx-aGhHXzZbISB40xzva_tTv0ajWbaV48p0tXyt1aK90WN2l-nCJwpmLvChPklLVBXoy89kast4dAZ/s128/TheMagdaleneSisters.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Magdalene Sisters" border="0" data-original-height="128" data-original-width="128" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibNfSpDjPb3orhHS5Ri5qEqtHmligTRS5VBX5X9dQ0_AOZbAtaO7FG_tNoZ35A_JJx-aGhHXzZbISB40xzva_tTv0ajWbaV48p0tXyt1aK90WN2l-nCJwpmLvChPklLVBXoy89kast4dAZ/w640-h640/TheMagdaleneSisters.jpg" title="The Magdalene Sisters" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3>Nuns who Trashed their own Reputations in order to "Heal Pain" of Accusers!</h3></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In July 2021, Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar decided to bolster the chances of his Fine Gael party in a by-election by throwing a few scraps to anti-clerical voters. He suggested that ownership of the National Maternity Hospital was <b>still </b>a problem and that any obstetric or gynaecological service that was legal in the State would have to be available in the hospital at its new site. (See part D "<b><i>The Dishonesty of Leo Varadkar</i></b>" of article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/08/leo-varadkar-sisters-of-charity-and.html">Leo Varadkar, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital</a> ). Liberal priest Fr Brendan Hoban accused Varadkar of throwing "<i>the equivalent of a grenade</i>" into this so-called controversy, the salient points of which were settled years ago. However Varadkar knew he was in a win-win situation. He realised that the Sisters of Charity were not going to defend themselves so there was no danger of <i>losing</i> any votes. In 2017 the Sisters' most prominent representative Sr Stanislaus Kennedy reacted to a storm of anti-clerical hatred and lies directed at the nuns by describing it as "<i>Elder Abuse</i>"! [ See <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/depiction-of-sisters-of-charity-like-elder-abuse-says-sr-stan-1.3105759">Depiction of Sisters of Charity like ‘Elder Abuse’, says Sr Stan</a> ] <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>No Jewish woman face to face with anti-Semites would make that kind of "<i>mistake</i>" and the VERY Charitable Sisters thereby demonstrated their unfitness to survive in the modern world!</b></span></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(A) Irish Catholic Nuns and 'Appeasement' - "<i>A clever plan to sell out your friends in order to buy off your enemies</i>" </span></h3><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The quote is from a British journalist in The Guardian in 1939 and is a good description of the tactics of the Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of Charity, Presentation Sisters, Ursulines etc over the past 25 years. I wrote about it in a number of essays on <i>this </i>Blog including "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-decadence-of-sisters-of-mercy.html">The Decadence of the Sisters of Mercy</a>" and also the article entitled "<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/religious-congregations/sisters-of-mercy/index.php">Sisters of Mercy"</a> on my old website (not Blog) IrishSalem.com. The latter article also includes the related antics of other Congregations of female religious. The endless repetition of the same misguided tactics over a period of a quarter of a century suggests that "naivety" is NOT a sufficient explanation! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">What follows is my attempt to summarise 25 years of Nuns' folly:</span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">SISTERS OF MERCY</span></h4><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(i)</span></b> The <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">first</span></b> apology by the Sisters of Mercy followed the February 1996 broadcast by RTE of the documentary "<i>Dear Daughter</i>" regarding atrocities allegedly committed by the Sisters at Goldenbridge industrial school. These allegations included a nun Sister Xavieria beating one girl (Christine Buckley) so badly that she needed about 100 stitches in her leg. It was an <i>obvious</i> lie - as pointed out by <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/religious-congregations/sisters-of-mercy/reasonforfirstapology-deardaughter-feb1996.php">Richard Webster and by a contemporaneous article in The Sunday Times</a>. <br /></span><blockquote>"No medical evidence has ever been produced to substantiate this bizarre claim. The surgeon who ran the casualty department at the hospital in question has given evidence which renders it highly unlikely that such an incident ever took place. Apart from anything else, the surgeon points out that caning would not have caused a wound of this kind, which would have required surgical treatment under a general anaesthetic and not stitches in a casualty department. Yet although the evidence suggests that the woman’s memory was a delusion, her testimony was widely believed at the time." [Richard Webster]</blockquote></span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> Christine Buckley's risible claims was indeed "<i>widely believed at the time</i>" - mainly because of the <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/religious-congregations/sisters-of-mercy/textoffirstapology-feb1996.php">equally absurd apology by the Sisters of Mercy</a>. There was supposed to be a discussion within the Sisterhood as to how to handle the allegations.<b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> I was told that older Sisters believed the "<i>discussion</i>" was fake, with the outcome determined in advance and that the leadership n<i>ever</i> intended to condemn the lies or defend their own innocent members! </span></b> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(ii)</span></b> <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Second</span></b> Apology by the Sisters of Mercy: Richard Webster wrote that "<i>In the wake of the broadcast, atrocity stories about Goldenbridge and other industrial schools began to proliferate.</i>" It would be more accurate to write that "<i>In the wake of the apology by the Sisters of Mercy</i>.."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Following the documentary and apology, a family accused Sister Xavieria of being responsible for the death of their baby daughter 40 years before by burning the baby's legs. The Sisters did not admit liability but in October 1997 they paid £20,000 and expressed their "<i>sorrow and regret</i>" to the accusers. After receiving payment the mother gave an interview to the Daily Mirror in which she accused Sister Xavieria of using a hot poker to murder baby Marion Howe by burning holes in the baby's legs. <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/accusers/christine-buckley/hotpoker-wasused-11oct97.php">HOT POKER WAS USED ON LITTLE MARION.. NO CASH WILL GET HER BACK; I THINK MY BABY WAS MURDERED AT THE ORPHANAGE, SAYS PAYOUT MUM.</a> [The Mirror, 11 October 1997, article by Neil Leslie]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>The Mirror have highly paid lawyers to defend themselves against libel suits but Mirror executives rightly understood that they were dealing with decadent fools who would not fight!</i></span></b> The Mercy leadership team made no attempt to condemn the libel or to defend Sister Xavieria. (Perhaps they did not wish to "cause pain" to Christina Howe whose baby had died in 1955).</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(iii)</span></b> <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Third</span></b> Apology by the Sisters of Mercy: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Wall">Nora Wall</a> (formerly Sister Dominic) and her co-accused Pablo McCabe were wrongly convicted of rape in June 1999 the Sisters announced that: "</span><i style="font-family: arial;">We are all devastated by the revolting crimes which resulted in these verdicts. Our hearts go out to this young woman who, as a child, was placed in our care. Her courage in coming forward was heroic. We beg anyone who was abused whilst in our care to go to the Gardai"</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> (police.) Even after the collapse of the case against the two accused, the Sisters made no effort to apologise to Nora Wall or to withdraw their statement of support for her accusers.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Sisters' betrayal of Pablo (Paul) McCabe was equally grotesque. In her 2006 article in the Jesuit Review Studies "<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/irish-controversies/the-passion-of%20nora-wall-1999/miscarriageofjustice-winter06.php">Miscarriage of Justice: Paul McCabe and Nora Wall</a>", Breda O'Brien writes:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">Paul McCabe addressed a Diocesan Gathering of Mercy Sisters in Gracedieu in Waterford in1988. His account tells of being born in Dublin in 1949 to a single mother. She struggled on until Paul was three, but she ‘had great difficulty in working, paying for accommodation and paying someone to look after me.” Thus he came to live in what was to become known as the “ old St. Michael’s”, a junior industrial school run by the Sisters of Mercy in Cappoquin. His memories of that time are “<i>very happy ones of caring and interested women</i>.” He then went to the Industrial School at Artane, Dublin, which he found traumatic, as it had “<i>over nine hundred boys in a very strict set-up</i>.” </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So when Pablo could be depicted as a victim of the Patriarchy, the Sisters of Mercy allowed him to address one of their annual meetings. When he was falsely accused of rape, they threw him to the wolves and sided with his accusers! <b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The very patriarchal Archbishop John Charles McQuaid would never have invited Pablo McCabe to address a meeting of Dublin priests. Neither would he have betrayed Pablo - and one of his own priests - the way the Merciful Sisters betrayed Nora Wall and Pablo McCabe</span></i></b>!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(iv)</span></b> <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Fourth</span></b> Apology of the Sisters of Mercy:</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In May 2004 the Sisters unexpectedly made what was called their "<i>second</i>" (actually fourth) apology to their accusers. There was no obvious motive for this exercise in self-degradation but the apology was greeted with delight by leaders of "<i>victims</i>" groups - notably Christine Buckley. Shortly afterwards these leaders resumed their attacks on the the very Merciful Sisters. It is arguable that this apology - and the appointment of Diarmuid Martin as Archbishop of Dublin, the previous month - marked the end of any serious effort by the Catholic Church to defend itself against false allegations of child abuse.</span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">See articles by David Quinn in the Irish Independent on 6 May 2004 <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/religious-congregations/sisters-of-mercy/victimswelcome-2004apology.php">Victims Welcome Sisters of Mercy Apology</a> (as indeed they might):</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">The Mercy Sisters yesterday made what they called an "<i>unconditiona</i>l" apology to abuse victims and have directly appealed to victims to forgive them for any "<i>physical and emotional trauma</i>" they suffered while in their care. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The historic apology, which was issued suddenly and unexpectedly, was prompted by complaints from victim groups that an earlier apology, issued in 1996, was conditional and appeared to cast doubt on whether abuses had actually occurred in orphanages and industrial schools. </span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">AND</span></blockquote><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote>The latest apology by the Sisters was really a bolt from the blue. Most other statements of this sort by Church organisations had usually come as a result of intense public and media pressure. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">This one emerged following a long period of consultation within the Order</span>. [My emphasis]The leadership team of the Mercy Sisters, led by Sr Breege O'Neill, were well aware that their previous apology, issued in 1996, had not been favourably received by victim groups. Although it did not deny that abuses had taken place, and both apologised and sought forgiveness from the victims, just as this one did, it also offered a partial defence of the record of the Mercy Sisters making the apology seem equivocal and conditional to some. </blockquote><p> <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This "<i>unconditional</i>" apology was issued <i>after</i> it was clear that the allegations of child rape against Nora Wall and Pablo McCabe were false as was the claim that Sister Xavieria murdered a baby. The Sisters of Mercy "l<i>eadership team</i>" led by Sr Breege O'Neill, ignored the protests of the older nuns who were targeted by the sociopaths and abased themselves before power</span></b>: </p><p></p><blockquote>Reading out the statement on behalf of her congregation yesterday, the head of the Mercy Sisters, Sr Breege O'Neill, pleaded with victims to forgive them for any abuses they had suffered. Responding to questions afterwards, she said she accepted that all her fellow sisters could do was to ask for forgiveness and it was up to the victims to give it.</blockquote><p></p></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b> (v)</b></span> <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Reaction of Secular World</span></b> to Sisters' Self-Abasement</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2003/04 one anti-clerical Irish journalist surprised me by publishing some articles about false allegations of child abuse directed against Catholic priests and religious. <b><i>After</i></b> the Sisters' fourth apology he reverted to his normal hostile sneering tone. I was told by someone who knew him that he saw the apology as demonstrating that the Sisters of Mercy were imbeciles and responded accordingly!</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">A few years ago I corresponded with a much more credible individual who had done a lot to combat false allegations. However, in relation to the Sisters of Mercy, he told me that "<i>I won't stick out my neck on behalf of people who won't defend themselves</i>".</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Nora Wall left the Sisters of Mercy. In 2002 she got an <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/paul-williams/SunWorldApology.php">apology and libel damages from the Sunday World</a>, in 2005 a <a href="https://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1201/70340-walln/">Certificate of Miscarriage of Justice from the Court of Criminal Appeal</a> and in 2016<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/ex-nun-nora-wall-settles-damages-case-for-miscarriage-of-justice-1.2645707"> major damages from the State</a>. The much older Sister Xavieria did not leave the Congregation but I was told that she was deeply unhappy about how she was treated by its leaders.</span></li></ul><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">PRESENTATION SISTERS</span></h4><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>(vi)</b></span> In 2002, 18 religious congregations - including the Sisters of Mercy - agreed with the Governemnt to pay a voluntary contribution of €128 million towards the cost of compensating alleged victims of child abuse under a Residential Institutions Redress Scheme set up by the Government. The Redress Scheme was proposed as a way of compensating "<i>victims</i>" while avoiding putting them through the "<i>trauma</i>" of court proceedings (where evidence of wrong-doing would have been needed.) <i><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Scheme provided for compensation for physical, sexual or emotion abuse or denial of opportunity and the validation threshold was set so low that, in effect, anyone who ever attended an industrial school would qualify for compensation</span></b>.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>The Redress Scheme was a Government initiative and did not require any input from the religious congregations.<i> </i><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-weight: bold;"><i>However in 2001 Sister Elizabeth Maxwell, a Presentation Sister who was then head of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI), had approached the Government with a unilateral offer that the religious would contribute</i>. </span>Her "naivety" ensured that the Government kept increasing its demands and Sister Elizabeth kept abasing herself. An article in the the Irish Times on 1st June 2009 is entitled "<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/sr-maxwell-says-2002-deal-may-have-been-inadequate-cori-figure-has-open-mind-on-payments-1.774312">Sr Maxwell says 2002 Deal May Have been Inadequate. CORI Figure has 'Open Mind' on Payments</a>" It points out that the highest number of claims originally envisaged was 2,000 but "<i>The Residential Institutions Redress Board ultimately received 14,584 applications by its deadline of December 15th, 2005.</i>" </div><div><div></div></div></span></div><blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><div>The Presentation Sister who helped negotiate the 2002 compensation agreement for abuse victims with the Government has said she is keeping her mind “<i>totally open</i>” on what further contributions the religious congregations may make in the context. Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Sr Elizabeth Maxwell said she was <i>“waiting until the meeting with the Taoiseach next Thursday to see what proposals he has</i>’’. Then “the congregations can decide how much they can contribute’’ towards that, she said.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 2002 agreement was conducted “<i>in good faith</i>’’ at the time, she said, and <i>“on the basis of figures made available to us by the Government and the congregations</i>.’’ Earlier yesterday Sr Maxwell said the 2002 agreement may have been inadequate in the light of information in the Ryan report. Secretary general to the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori) at the time of the 2002 agreement, she said she was not then aware of the extent of the abuse....</div></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Asked if congregations should hand over €1.5 billion to the scheme, an estimated figure of their value, Sr Maxwell said they had not been asked. “<i>We may arrive at some point like that when we speak to the Taoiseach . . . the Government may not have to forcibly take anything from us.</i></span>”</span></div><div></div></blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>A "negotiator" like Sister Elizabeth Maxwell was a gift to Ireland's anti-clerics! </b></span>In 2017 several politicians from Fianna Fail, The Greens, Labour and the Social Democrats claimed that the Sisters of Charity owed €3 million "Redress" to the State - at a time when it actually owed €2 million to them! The Fine Gael Health Minister who knew the truth remained silent - why defend people too decadent to defend themselves against transparent lies? [See section (<span style="color: #2b00fe; font-weight: bold;">B) (ii) </span>below]. <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And indeed the Sisters of Charity followed in the footsteps of Sister Elizabeth, declined to condemn the lie and bowed before the power of the State.</span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">URSULINE SISTERS</span></h4><div><b style="color: #2b00fe;">(vii) </b>In August 2009,<b style="color: #2b00fe;"> </b>Sister Marianne O'Connor, an Ursuline Sister and then head of CORI accepted an invitation from John Cooney (the journalist who claimed that Archbishop John Charles McQuaid had been a homosexual paedophile) to address his Humbert Summer School.</div><div><br /></div><div>In her speech Sr Marianne endorsed suggestions that there be a national day of atonement for victims of abuse, and spoke of <i>“a service where a public ritual of reconciliation could occur between representatives of the survivors, the State, the religious and the church</i>”. Noting that her attendance at Humbert was <i>“the first public forum to which religious have been invited since Ryan [report</i>]”, she continued that <i>“I am here, first and foremost, to apologise . . . to do whatever we can to make reparation</i>.” She continued: “<i>We religious are asking for forgiveness . . . Without forgiveness one is stuck, unable to move forward</i>.” Survivors “<i>had the huge challenge, and the huge power, of forgiving . . . But forgiveness, like mercy, blesses the giver and the receiver</i>,” she said. The congregations would “<i>provide money for reparation. But we must do much more than provide money. We must listen and learn, to the degree survivors will permit us, to journey with them as they discover what they need</i>”, she said.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/religious-congregations/sisters-of-mercy/sistermarianne-getsreply-24aug09.php">In an article in the Irish Independent on 24 August 2009</a>, the same John Cooney reported on how "<i>victims</i>" had responded to Sister Marianne's touching invitation:</div><div><blockquote>In turn, survivor Michael O'Brien, the former mayor of Clonmel who captured the nation's imagination by challenging the platitudes of Government minister Noel Dempsey on an unforgettable RTE 'Questions and Answers' programme, bowed to the good judge [Ryan] and thanked him "<i>for the momentous work you and your team have done</i>". But Mr O'Brien was only prepared to give conditional pardon to the religious congregations who locked up him and thousands of other children in penal institutions as serfs. He will forgive his oppressors only when he knows in his heart that "<i>these people mean it when they say 'we are really, really sorry</i>'." "<i>I do not want silly apologies. I want to see repentance</i>," he said.</blockquote></div><div>I wrote at the time: "<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>This was the culmination of many years of self-degradation by female religious congregations in the face of false accusers - especially the Sisters of Mercy. They have made themselves ludicrous and thereby have made it impossible for anyone to "<i>reconcile</i>" with them</b></span>."</div><div><br /></div></span></div><div><h3><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">(B) National Maternity Hospital and The Folly of the Sisters of Charity</span></h3></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Back in 2017 I made three correct predictions regarding the future of this controversy - in my article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/12/sister-stanislaus-kennedy-sisters-of.html">Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital [2]</a>. Well they were all the related to the same prediction really!</span></div><div><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(i) </b>"<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">If the Sisters of Charity manage to handle the present crisis properly, namely by refusing to make concessions in the face of hysterical attacks, then it could discourage such attacks in future. And that will benefit lots of people apart from clergy or religious.</span></i>"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />In that respect I was pleased to read the following in Valerie Hanley’s article in The Mail on Sunday on 23 April [2017]:</span></div><blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;">A source revealed: ‘<i>The nuns are adamant that they have fulfilled all their obligations under the redress board. When something is repeated enough it becomes fact. There has been an awful lot of vitriol loaded on the nuns. There has been a nonsense argument going on all week and there is no basis for some of what has been said. Some of what has been said is prejudice for things that happened historically. It’s band-wagonism and politicians are running after it. The politicians should be doing better.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The nuns are annoyed and they consider some of the comments that have been made as being defamatory. I think their attitude now is ‘let the State go off and build their hospital on their own land</span></b></i>’. [My Emphasis]</span></div></blockquote><div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">That’s all very well and I couldn’t agree more BUT the Sister’s comment is being made anonymously. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">My own fear is that – under pressure – the Sisters of Charity will cave in and authorise an amendment to the National Maternity Hospital Agreement approved in November 2016. In that case, their critics will rejoice and declare themselves victorious and vindicated.</span> In previous comments I have detailed how the Sisters of MERCY were savaged because of their constant attempts to ingratiate themselves with people who hated them. I also have an article on the subject here: <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/religious-congregations/sisters-of-mercy/index.php">Sisters of Mercy</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I hope that the Sisters of Charity now understand the dangers of Appeasement – defined by one British newspaper in 1939 as “<i>A clever plan of selling off your friends in order to buy off your enemies</i>”</span>. (For the Sisters of Mercy, that worked the same way it did for Neville Chamberlain!)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b>But of course my hopes were vain and the nuns caved in!</b></span></div><div><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(ii) </b>I wrote in 2017 about the repeated claims by politicians and journalists that the Sisters of Charity had failed to pay the balance of €3 million “<i>compensation</i>” that they “<i>owed</i>” the State. Health Minister Simon Harris said that the two matters should be considered separately. What two matters? On 23 April [2017] the Mail on Sunday (journalist Valerie Hanley) reported:</span></div><blockquote><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">The Department of Education has confirmed to the Mail on Sunday that that the nuns’ legal costs for the Ryan Commission will be offset against the €3 million of payments for abuse victims that are outstanding. While these costs have not been finalised, media reports that were based on briefing documents have estimated them at €5 million, a sum that would more than wipe out the outstanding bill that they owe.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Crucially, the department has confirmed that the reason for the delay in resolving the problem is nothing to do with the nuns, but is down to its own officials figuring out the final costs of the congregation’s legal representation at the Ryan Commission…..</span></div></blockquote><div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Yet, as Ms. Hanley pointed out, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">the claim that the Sisters owed €3 million, had been repeatedly cited by politicians from Fianna Fail, The Greens, Labour and the Social Democrats and the media</span> as justification for outraged comments about the agreement brokered by Kieran Mulvey. Did the Minister for Health not liaise with his Education colleague? Or did he decide to sidestep the issue – on the basis that discretion is the better part of valour when faced with anti-clerical hysteria?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Back in 2017 I wondered what would have been the attitude of Jews if they had been attacked in similar fashion</span></b>? Suppose that a Jewish group had offered to donate land for a hospital under precisely the same conditions as those agreed in November 2016 between Holles St and St Vincents. Suppose that the media and politicians erupted with hate-filled lies – including claims that the Jewish group committed “<i>atrocities</i>” against children, “<i>experimented on [a child] for vaccine trials</i>” and owed the State €3 million. Suppose that the Government Ministers responsible failed to defend the Jewish group against the lies and it was left up to a Daily Mail journalist to find out – via a Freedom of Information request – that the Jewish group owed nothing and had actually overpaid!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I wrote that this would never happen because the Jewish group would immediately defend its slandered members and take legal action against those responsible. Anti-Semites know this and are very mindful of the risks they would be facing. So Anti-Semites have to be very careful – but NOT anti-clerics and in particular not anti-clerics who tell lies about nuns. <i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>The leaders of female religious congregations have always preferred the Appeasement approach.</b></span> <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>This has worked for them in much the same way it did for Neville Chamberlain in the 1930s i.e. it encourages further attacks from people who recognise moral cowardice when they see it.</b></span> </i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Thus Leo Varadkar's recent attempt to win votes in the Dublin Bay South by-election by bullying supine nuns!</span></div><div><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(iii)</b> An article in the Irish Medical Times “A Complicated Delivery” by editor Dara Gantly on 10 May 2017 concluded as follows:</span></div></div><div></div><blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;">…What is of further interest now is that the Minister [for Health] wants to begin a “<i>broader conversation</i>” about the structure of our health service, including the role of voluntary hospitals and the interest religious congregations have in them. This has been happening in education (slowly mind), so we should not be too surprised to see it start in Health.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />“<i>That is a good thing and I want to separately put in place a process to facilitate that broader conversation which is long overdue and which will, rightfully, take some time</i>,” Minister Harris has noted. ..</span></div></blockquote><div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I wrote in 2017 "<i>And what will be the nature of this conversation IF Minister Harris sees that the Sisters of Charity and the Church will not stand up for themselves but will attempt to conciliate the mob? When politicians and the media claimed that the Sisters owed €3 million in “compensation”, it was not the Minister for Health, but a Daily Mail journalist who queried the Department of Education and discovered that the Sisters owed nothing and in fact had over-paid! </i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"<b style="font-style: italic;">If the Sisters of Charity attempt to appease the mob in relation to the National Maternity Hospital, then reason and logic will NOT feature in the future “broader conversation” referred to by Simon Harris!"</b></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b style="font-style: italic;"><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">And so it has turned out!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h4><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">The Sisters Surrender to the Secular Power!</span></h4><p><span style="font-family: arial;">On 31 May 2017 Sr Mary Christian, Congregational Leader of the Religious Sisters of Charity issued a <a href="https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2017/05/the-new-national-maternity-hospital-and-the-religious-sisters-of-charity/">Statement</a> confirming that the Sisters were withdrawing from any involvement in St Vincent's Hospital that they had founded in 1834 - and also confirming the abandonment of the hospital's Catholic ethos:</span></p><p></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Religious Sisters of Charity will end our involvement in St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and will not be involved in the ownership or management of the new National Maternity Hospital.....</span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Upon completion of this proposed transaction, the requirement set out in the SVHG Constitution, to conduct and maintain the SVHG facilities in accordance with The Religious Sisters of Charity Health Service Philosophy and Ethical Code, will be amended and replaced to reflect compliance with national and international best practice guidelines on medical ethics and the laws of the Republic of Ireland.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The SVHG Board, management and staff will continue to provide acute healthcare services that foster Mary Aikenhead’s core values of dignity, compassion, justice, quality and advocacy....</span></p></blockquote><p></p><div><b><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Nobody was fooled by this pious invocation of the name of their foundress. It was clear that they were surrendering to the pressure (and blatant lies) of a secular mob. Their cowardice ensured that the attacks on them would continue - even to the present day! </span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(C) CONCLUSION:</span></h3><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2017 I referred to an editorial in the Irish Medical Times (10 May) entitled <a href="http://www.imt.ie/opinion/minister-build-that-hospital-10-05-2017/#comment-15258">“Minister Build That Hospital</a>” subtitle <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sorry episode has revealed much that is ugly about modern Ireland </span>and quoting<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><b>Doctor Ruairi Hanley</b></span></div><blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;">….Regrettably, there is another factor in this dispute that has taken us beyond mere clinical disagreement. Over the past month, a baying liberal cyber mob has entered the fray and all sense of perspective has been lost. Please note, I am not referring here to those colleagues who have genuine concerns about this project. As already stated, I disagree with these people, but I respect their view.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">No, the group that I find beyond parody are the extreme liberal, Catholic-hating online brigade who appear to think that a giant abortion clinic is the most important priority for South Dublin. I suspect some of these people will not be satisfied until a few nuns are imprisoned and the Catholic Church is effectively eradicated from any involvement in Irish society.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Liberal outrage</span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The vicious, obnoxious tone of some members of this new mob is truly appalling. They have turned on <b>Dr Rhona Mahony</b>, an outstanding and dedicated obstetrician who is a role model for Irish women. But, let’s be honest, the cool gang could not care less about the facts. Once they heard mention of nuns the red mist descended and it was then we moved to a classic liberal outrage contest.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">For these individuals, online perception is always more important than clinical outcome. In their world it is apparently acceptable for this project to be sabotaged, with negative consequences for women and children, so long as a few elderly nuns get a good cyber-kicking.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>Naturally, if the mob gets their way the hospital will be delayed at a cost of tens of millions of euro to the taxpayer. In my opinion, this would undoubtedly be the most expensive act of online ‘virtue signalling’ in human history.</i></b></span> [RC My emphasis]</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">As an aside, I make no apologies for pointing out that the Catholic Church has done enormous good work in healthcare for the poorest in society over the past century, <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>even if I am one of the only doctors in Ireland willing to say this publicly.</i></b></span> [RC My emphasis]….. </span></div></blockquote><div></div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Indeed </b>Doctor Doctor Ruairi Hanley was "<i>one of the only doctors in Ireland willing to say this publicly</i>." This was an Editorial in the highly prestigious Irish Medical Times written about a controversial topic and during the height of the controversy. So how many Comments did it attract? Precisely one - from my NON medical self! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Why were <i>other</i> doctors so reluctant to stick their necks out? I suspect that it was only partly fear of the "<i>baying liberal mob</i>" that Dr Hanley refers to. There is also the fact that the Sisters of Charity refused to defend themselves and abased itself before said mob - as Irish nuns have been doing for the past quarter century! Leo Varadkar felt free to insult them again in order to please anti-clerical voters in the recent Dublin Bay South by-election. <b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">He knew there would be no comeback from the nuns - least of all from Sr Stanislaus Kennedy whose "progressive" reputation COULD have enabled her to embarrass Varadkar, had she not opted to stay silent! </span></i></b></span></div><div><br style="font-family: arial;" /></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-17118507470157785012021-08-04T13:41:00.031+01:002021-08-19T21:50:03.183+01:00Leo Varadkar, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital <div style="text-align: left;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdhGh4N7tvRr1Bditd9XVYec5g0db9I9S6Edi7attqT1WiYXO7Y6TFATNGrTZti2MYD4ToDFnrADtWfJ_7blysFzVnLVm2AyqZqoV2oiZ-dVHS8F9LOg7Kvlqxah9njtjVmDS3gNHNrrKy/s620/SistersOfCharity_NMH_GetYourRosaries.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Anti-Clerical Hysteria "Get Your Rosaries Off Our Ovaries"" border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="620" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdhGh4N7tvRr1Bditd9XVYec5g0db9I9S6Edi7attqT1WiYXO7Y6TFATNGrTZti2MYD4ToDFnrADtWfJ_7blysFzVnLVm2AyqZqoV2oiZ-dVHS8F9LOg7Kvlqxah9njtjVmDS3gNHNrrKy/w640-h341/SistersOfCharity_NMH_GetYourRosaries.jpg" title="Anti-Clerical Hysteria "Get Your Rosaries Off Our Ovaries"" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h4><span style="font-family: arial;">Anti-Clerical Hysteria and the National Maternity Hospital</span></h4></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I have <i>three</i> previous articles that relate to this topic: <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/11/sister-stanislaus-kennedy-and-false.html">Sister Stanislaus Kennedy and False Allegations against The Sisters of Charity [1]</a>;</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/12/sister-stanislaus-kennedy-sisters-of.html" style="font-family: arial;">Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital [2]</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> <i>and</i> </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/10/kevin-myers-and-age-of-de-valera-and.html" style="font-family: arial;">Kevin Myers and the Age of De Valera and McQuaid</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> The latter article doesn't mention the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) as such but concerns then Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar in 2017 libelling journalist Kevin Myers as an anti-Semite. Kevin Myers is a long-standing supporter of Israel, Varadkar MUST have known that the claim was false but he choose to put himself at the head of a Twitter mob that was targeting Myers at the time. His recent antics concerning the NMH have a similar rationale - the use of media-created public hysteria for political advantage! ..</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(A) Background</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>According to its <a href="http://www.nmh.ie/home/governance.13645.html">website</a> the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) situated at Holles St, Merrion Square, Dublin "was established through charitable donations in 1894 and, in 1903 the NMH became a Corporation on receipt of its Charter from the Crown. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>The legal status of the NMH emanates from the Charter and subsequent legislation and in that respect is along the same lines as the other two major Dublin maternity hospitals</i>." </span>[These are<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span>the Rotunda Hospital founded in 1745 and The Coombe in 1826 - all three founded during the period of British rule in Ireland and the latter two before Catholic Emancipation]</div><div><br /></div><div>"Under the Charter, before its amendment in 1936, the control of NMH rested with the members of the Corporation known as Governors numbering up to 65 but <i>the day to day operational control rested with the Master, an obstetrician and gynaecologist elected by the Governors</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div>"NMH was rebuilt in 1930s and this opportunity was taken to amend the Charter by the National Maternity Hospital, Dublin (Charter Amendment) Act 1936 (the “Act”). The Act which increased the number of Governors up to 100 established an Executive Committee to manage the Corporation's property and affairs. <i>The Governors elect the ordinary members of the Executive Committee at each Annual General Meeting and elect the Master once every seven years." </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>The extensive rebuilding of the NMH in the 1930s was largely financed by the (in)famous lottery called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Hospitals%27_Sweepstake">Irish Hospital Sweepstakes</a> but by the early years of this century the accommodation had become inadequate and a move to a much larger site was needed. In May 2013 it was announced that the hospital would relocate to the site of St. Vincent's University Hospital, Elm Park. A new facility would be built on the same campus as St Vincent's Hospital. </div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.thejournal.ie/holles-street-hospital-move-st-vincents-926761-May2013/">Announcing the move</a>, Fine Gael Minister for Health, James Reilly said the new facility could assure mothers and babies of the best quality care “<i>in a state-of-the-art, custom-built, modern healthcare facility</i>”. The Department said the relocation would address a recommendation from an independent KPMG report, compiled in 2008, which had recommended that maternity hospitals in Dublin should be located close to adult acute services.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Master of NMH Holles St, Dr Rhona Mahony, said the existing building was no longer fit for purpose, and the new facility was urgently needed. “<i>The relocation of NMH will address this need and will achieve our strategic aim of close location with St Vincent’s University Hospital,</i>” she said.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(B) 2017 Controversy re Alleged Role of Sisters of Charity in New NMH</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>St Vincent's Hospital was founded by Mother Mary Aikenhead, foundress of the Religious Sisters of Charity, on St Stephens Green, Dublin in 1834</i></span><b>.</b> The hospital was subsequently moved to its current site in Elm Park in 1970, and in 1999 was renamed St. Vincent's University Hospital, to highlight its position as a principal teaching hospital of University College Dublin. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Media reports in 2013 made no mention of any problems relating to the alleged role of the Sisters of Charity in the relocated National Maternity Hospital!</span><span> The controversy began in April 2017 when a former Master of the NMH, Dr Peter Boylan, resigned from the board over the alleged influence of the Sisters on the new hospital. By 3 May 2017 a petition to oppose their - supposedly - becoming the sole owners of the relocated National Maternity Hospital had been signed by more than 100,000 people.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span>My article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/12/sister-stanislaus-kennedy-sisters-of.html">Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital [2]</a> deals with this 2017 bogus controversy - with particular reference to the allegations of Dr Boylan. It should have been abundantly clear from the outset that the Sisters of Charity .would have no role whatsoever in the operation of the NMH. As a result of the thuggish abuse hurled at them they <i>also</i> speeded up their withdrawal from their management role in St Vincent's University hospital. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>This was an act of folly and cowardice by the nuns that empowered our anti-clerics and pointed towards the recent antics of Tanaiste (Deputy PM) Leo Varadkar! </i></b></span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span>Leading "liberal" nun <a href="Sister Stanislaus Kennedy and False Allegations against The Sisters of Charity [1]">Sister Stanislaus Kennedy described the thuggish assault on the integrity of her colleagues as "<i>Elder Abuse</i></a>" NOT anti-Catholic or anti-clerical hatred. Her risible response only reinforces the view that the Sisters are incapable of defending themselves and can be abused and insulted with impunity!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(C) Will Sisters of Charity Impose Catholic Ethos on NMH (as per Dr Peter Boylan)?</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><b>(i)</b> An article in the Sunday Times dated 1st August 2021 is entitled <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-nhm-head-ownership-is-irrelevant-qjkb3jlp6">New NHM Head: Ownership Is Irrelevant</a> and subtitled "<span style="color: #2b00fe;">Pat McCann says red line for government on who owns the hospital site is not important and that nuns will have no part in how services are operated</span>"</div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div><div><b><i>Pat McCann, the newly elected head of the National Maternity Hospital board</i></b>, has said he will not ask St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG) to sell the site to the state because it is “<i>irrelevant</i>” who owns it.</div><div><br /></div><div>McCann believes that as long as the state owns the hospital building, the ownership of the land is not important. “<i>Where you have a building on a campus like St Vincent’s, it’s very common in Ireland and the UK that there are common services such as egress and car parks. The easiest way to manage that is to have a ground lease</i>,” he said. “<i>The Intercontinental hotel in Dublin is built on ground owned by the RDS, but there is a ground lease and the RDS has no hand, act or part in how the hotel runs its business</i>.”</div><div><br /></div><div>The founder of the Dalata hotel group has arranged to meet James Menton, the chairman of SVHG, this week <i>“to make sure we’re all aligned on what we’re doing</i>”.<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> He does not intend to meet the Religious Sisters of Charity, who own SVHG, as “<i>they will have no hand, act or part</i>” in the relocated National Maternity Hospital (NMH</span>).....</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">McCann succeeds Nicholas Kearns, a former president of the High Court, who resigned from the NMH in July and later said the Dublin Bay South by-election “<i>had made things more complicated</i>”. During the campaign, the tanaiste Leo Varadkar said state ownership of the NMH was a “<i>red line</i>” issue for the government</span>. McCann said he “<i>absolutely</i>” supports the current plan for the state to own the new building on a site it will lease for 149 years from SVHG.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>The thing to watch is if there are any restrictive covenants in that lease,” he said. “There is only one: that what goes on the site is the hospital. All [medical] procedures that are legally available in the state will be available there</i>.”</div></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>(ii) Previous Head of NMH Board and Master of NMH reply to Dr Peter Boylan (2017)</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">(from article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/12/sister-stanislaus-kennedy-sisters-of.html">Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital [2]</a> )</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i></i><p><b>Nicholas Kearns</b> (former President of the High Court) was Deputy Chair - in effect Head - of the National Maternity Hospital Board in 2017 and <b>Dr Rhona Mahony</b> was Master of the Hospital. They replied to an inflammatory text message from Dr Peter Boylan on 23 April 2017. </p><blockquote><i>"Both the Master and I have received and read your text sent to us at 13.47 today. </i> <i>We are now asking for your immediate resignation from the Board of Holles St – both because of your public intervention to criticise and oppose the overwhelming majority decision of the Board taken in November last to approve the agreement reached with SVUH for the transfer of Holles St to Elm Park – a vote on which you abstained – and in addition because of the content of your text sent today. </i><i>“It’s intimidatory tone is most regrettable</i>.”<br /></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div>The National Maternity Hospital also issued a statement:</div><div></div><blockquote><div>“<i>Dr Boylan was a member of the NMH Board at all times during the six month period of mediation which resulted in the agreement of 21 November 2016 to co-locate the National Maternity Hospital with St Vincent’s University Hospital. The Board was kept fully briefed on all developments by the negotiating team during that period.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>The decisive final meeting of the board overwhelmingly supported the agreement with 25 in favour, two abstentions (including Dr Boylan) and one vote agains</i>t</span></b>. [My emphasis] </div><div><br /></div><div><i>Thereafter the agreement was approved by government and planning permission was lodged. Last week, some five months after the agreement was approved, Boylan, without warning, consultation with or notification to the Board, its chair or the master of the hospital, went public in attacking the agreement. Board members have a duty of loyalty to the Board on which they serve and for this reason his resignation has been sought</i>.</div></blockquote><div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div>An Irish Times article dated 8 December 2018 headed <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/dr-rhona-mahony-says-nuns-will-not-run-new-maternity-hospital-1.3725039">Dr Rhona Mahony says Nuns Will Not Run New Maternity Hospital</a> has the subheading "<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Holles Street master says Canon Law ‘Irrelevant’ to New Cacility at St Vincent’s campus</i></span>"</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div></div></div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div><div>The outgoing master of the National Maternity Hospital has said there will be no religious involvement at all in the proposed new maternity hospital on the St Vincent’s campus. Dr Rhona Mahony, who finishes her term in Holles Street on January 1st, [2019] said it was unfortunate that a lot of people thought nuns were going to be running the new facility...</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>So let’s just be very clear. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Sisters of Charity will not be running this hospital. They never sought to run this hospital. They never sought to have any involvement in this hospital and they were never going to have any involvement in this hospital and they do not have any involvement in this hospital</span></i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">,</span>” she told RTÉ’s Marian Finucane programme.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>Telling women stories that this hospital will be run by religious sisters is really damaging. It frightens women because they may believe that services for them will be restricted in terms of not providing termination of pregnancy, not providing contraception, when in fact the opposite is the case</i>....</div></div><div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>Dr Mahony said the Sisters of Charity, who own the St Vincent’s campus, have given the land for the new maternity hospital free of charge and are getting out of Irish healthcare</i></b></span>. She said the hospital will be run by a lay company operating under Irish law and all services allowed under Irish law including abortion will be able to take place in the hospital. She stressed there will be no religious interference “<i>whatsoever</i>” and that canon law will be “<i>irrelevant</i>” to the ethos of the hospital.</div></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">According to the Wikipedia article on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maternity_Hospital,_Dublin">National Maternity Hospita</a>l, Dr Rhona Mahony privately complained that "<i>the feminists are going to unravel this fantastic hospital for women</i>"!</span> [1]</b></p><div style="text-align: left;"><b>(iii) </b>So what was <b>Dr Peter Boylan</b>'s solution in 2017 - to avoid the alleged takeover by the Sisters of Charity of the relocated National Maternity Hospital? Well back then he proposed a Compulsory Purchase Order of land belonging to Elm Park golf club (near St Vincent's Hospital) and linking the new NMH by tunnels etc to St Vincent's . But problems quickly emerged with that "solution". Health Minister Simon Harris pointed out that using a CPO would not be “<i>the ideal solution by any means</i>” because it would mean the project getting “<i>caught up in some potential legal difficulty for a large number of years</i>” In an Irish Independent article on 25 April 2017, Shane Phelan gave an illustration of this difficulty. He referred to the case of Thomas Reid who resisted efforts by IDA Ireland to compulsorily purchase his land in 2011. The matter went all the way to the Supreme Court where Mr. Reid won his case in 2015. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My own comment at the time was that<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> in the scenario suggested by Dr. Boylan, Elm Park Golf Club would be VERY likely to win a legal battle. They could point out that their land is “<i>on the periphery</i>” (as Dr Boylan states) and that for ideological reasons, the National Maternity Hospital had rejected the offer of a more central site from the Sisters of Charity!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/state-would-face-bill-of-50m-plus-to-compulsorily-purchase-site-for-national-maternity-hospital-40573608.html">More recently</a> Dr Boylan "<i>revealed on RTE Radio that former Health Minister Simon Harris had suggested to him that the NMH could be co-located at at Tallaght instead</i>" - a proposal that would delay its construction by years and waste millions already spent .However it might all be worth-while to spite the Catholic Church!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(D) The Dishonesty of Leo Varadkar </span></h3><div style="text-align: left;">In an article in the Irish Independent on <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/nuns-are-being-bullied-over-land-for-new-national-maternity-hospital-says-prominent-priest-40666488.html">Nuns are Being ‘Bullied’ over Land for New National Maternity Hospital, says Prominent Priest</a>, Sarah McDonald writes:</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">A well-known priest has said the Religious Sisters of Charity are being bullied in the row over the ownership of the land for the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) at St Vincent’s Hospital. Fr Brendan Hoban, a co-founder of the Association of Catholic Priests which represents over 1,000 Irish priests, said “<i>a sustained effort is being made to bully the Sisters of Charity into complying</i>” with politicians’ demands over the valuable 29-acre site.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Criticising what he believes to be a populist anti-Catholic mood of politicians in the Dáil, the Co Mayo priest said he did not think the Sisters of Charity should ‘<i>gift</i>’ the site at Elm Park to the State but should instead sell the site to the State and “<i>use the enormous proceeds to re-direct their own medical services, especially towards the poor</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />In his weekly column for the Western People, Fr Hoban noted that when the nuns offered the site adjacent to St Vincent’s Hospital complex in Elm Park, the Government’s only reservation was that the new hospital would be able to deliver the full range of services open to it under the law....</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><br /></div><div>Fr Hoban accused Tánaiste Leo Varadkar of throwing “<i>the equivalent of a grenade</i>” into the mix a few weeks ago when he indicated that ownership was still a problem and that any obstetric or gynaecological service that was legal in the State would have to be available in the new hospital.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Describing the Tánaiste’s intervention as “<i>odd</i>”, the retired parish priest noted that prior to Mr Varadkar’s comments, the only voice objecting to the agreement co-locating the new hospital in Elm Park was the former Master of the Holles Street, Dr Peter Boylan, whom he described as “<i>a persistent Greek chorus of just one</i>”.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>He also questioned the reasons for Mr Varadkar’s intervention in light of the recent letter signed by 42 senior clinicians at the NMH, including the current master and three former masters, expressing concern that misinformation and misunderstanding would delay “<i>a vital project to create a world-class maternity hospital for the women and babies of Ireland</i>”</b></span>.<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> They believe there will be no restriction on treatments and no subservience to religious control in the new hospital.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Suggesting that the nuns are collateral damage of Mr Varadkar’s agenda, Fr Hoban said there seemed to be only one solution. “<i>Let the Sisters of Charity sell the site of the hospital to the state</i>” and let Mr Varadkar explain the consequent loss of millions of euros, he said.</div></div></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Unfortunately I think it's too late for the solution suggested by Fr Hoban. However <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/government-not-looking-for-alternative-national-maternity-hospital-site-leo-varadkar-insists-40576424.html">the co-leader of the Social Democrats Roisin Shortall</a> has provided a plausible explanation for Leo Varadkar's "<i>odd</i>" decision to throw "<i>the equivalent of a grenade</i>" into the NMH relocation process:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div></div><blockquote><div>She asked him: “<i>When precisely did you become seriously concerned about the proposed new National Maternity Hospital? In the Dáil last week you told us there were fundamental problems with two aspects of the deal, ownership, and governance. I've been telling you exactly that for the past four years. I'm quite curious about when you finally saw the light</i>.”...</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>Work started on the legal framework in 2017, but four years later, there's still no sign of it. You complained bitterly about the proposed 99-year lease, saying it wasn't satisfactory, and that we should own the site, but it was your Government that proposed a lease in the first place.</i>”</div><div><br /></div><div>Ms Shortall added: “<i>So I'm curious, Tánaiste, as to what prompted you to get to your feet in this House last week to express serious concern. <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Was there something significant about the timing? I notice it’s an issue that voters in Dublin Bay South care deeply about. Perhaps their concern has been a catalyst for some long overdue action</span></b></i><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">.</span></b>”</div></blockquote><p>And THAT is why 42 senior clinicians at the NMH, including the current master and three former masters, expressed concern that misinformation and misunderstanding would delay “<i>a vital project to create a world-class maternity hospital for the women and babies of Ireland</i>”. Except Leo Varadkar is <b>not</b> misinformed nor does he misunderstand. Political advantage is far more important for him than progressing the building of a new National Maternity Hospital!</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;">(E) The Folly of the Sisters of Charity</span></h3></div><div style="text-align: left;">Back in 2017 I made three correct predictions regarding the future of this controversy - in my article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/12/sister-stanislaus-kennedy-sisters-of.html">Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital [2]</a>. Well they were all the related to the same prediction really!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>(i) </b>"<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">If the Sisters of Charity manage to handle the present crisis properly, namely by refusing to make concessions in the face of hysterical attacks, then it could discourage such attacks in future. And that will benefit lots of people apart from clergy or religious.</span></i>"</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />In that respect I was pleased to read the following in Valerie Hanley’s article in The Mail on Sunday on 23 April [2017]:</div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">A source revealed: ‘<i>The nuns are adamant that they have fulfilled all their obligations under the redress board. When something is repeated enough it becomes fact. There has been an awful lot of vitriol loaded on the nuns. There has been a nonsense argument going on all week and there is no basis for some of what has been said. Some of what has been said is prejudice for things that happened historically. It’s band-wagonism and politicians are running after it. The politicians should be doing better.</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The nuns are annoyed and they consider some of the comments that have been made as being defamatory. I think their attitude now is ‘let the State go off and build their hospital on their own land</span></b></i>’. [My Emphasis]</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">That’s all very well and I couldn’t agree more BUT the Sister’s comment is being made anonymously. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">My own fear is that – under pressure – the Sisters of Charity will cave in and authorise an amendment to the National Maternity Hospital Agreement approved in November 2016. In that case, their critics will rejoice and declare themselves victorious and vindicated.</span> In previous comments I have detailed how the Sisters of MERCY were savaged because of their constant attempts to ingratiate themselves with people who hated them. I also have an article on the subject here: <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/religious-congregations/sisters-of-mercy/index.php">Sisters of Mercy</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I hope that the Sisters of Charity now understand the dangers of Appeasement – defined by one British newspaper in 1939 as “<i>A clever plan of selling off your friends in order to buy off your enemies</i>”</span>. (For the Sisters of Mercy, that worked the same way it did for Neville Chamberlain!)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>But of course my hopes were vain and the nuns caved in!</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b><div><b>(ii) </b>I wrote in 2017 about the repeated claims by politicians and journalists that the Sisters of Charity had failed to pay the balance of €3 million “<i>compensation</i>” that they “<i>owed</i>” the State. Health Minister Simon Harris said that the two matters should be considered separately. What two matters? On 23 April [2017] the Mail on Sunday (journalist Valerie Hanley) reported:</div><blockquote><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Department of Education has confirmed to the Mail on Sunday that that the nuns’ legal costs for the Ryan Commission will be offset against the €3 million of payments for abuse victims that are outstanding. While these costs have not been finalised, media reports that were based on briefing documents have estimated them at €5 million, a sum that would more than wipe out the outstanding bill that they owe.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Crucially, the department has confirmed that the reason for the delay in resolving the problem is nothing to do with the nuns, but is down to its own officials figuring out the final costs of the congregation’s legal representation at the Ryan Commission…..</div></blockquote><div></div><div>Yet, as Ms. Hanley pointed out, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">the claim that the Sisters owed €3 million, had been repeatedly cited by politicians from Fianna Fail, The Greens, Labour and the Social Democrats and the media</span> as justification for outraged comments about the agreement brokered by Kieran Mulvey. Did the Minister for Health not liaise with his Education colleague? Or did he decide to sidestep the issue – on the basis that discretion is the better part of valour when faced with anti-clerical hysteria?</div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Back in 2017 I wondered what would have been the attitude of Jews if they had been attacked in similar fashion</span></b>? Suppose that a Jewish group had offered to donate land for a hospital under precisely the same conditions as those agreed in November 2016 between Holles St and St Vincents. Suppose that the media and politicians erupted with hate-filled lies – including claims that the Jewish group committed “<i>atrocities</i>” against children, “<i>experimented on [a child] for vaccine trials</i>” and owed the State €3 million. Suppose that the Government Ministers responsible failed to defend the Jewish group against the lies and it was left up to a Daily Mail journalist to find out – via a Freedom of Information request – that the Jewish group owed nothing and had actually overpaid!</div><div><br /></div><div><div>I wrote that this would never happen because the Jewish group would immediately defend its slandered members and take legal action against those responsible. Anti-Semites know this and are very mindful of the risks they would be facing. So Anti-Semites have to be very careful – but NOT anti-clerics and in particular not anti-clerics who tell lies about nuns. <i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>The leaders of female religious congregations have always preferred the Appeasement approach.</b></span> <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>This has worked for them in much the same way it did for Neville Chamberlain in the 1930s i.e. it encourages further attacks from people who recognise moral cowardice when they see it.</b></span> </i></div></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Thus Leo Varadkar's recent attempt to win votes in the Dublin Bay South by-election by bullying supine nuns!</span></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>(iii)</b> An article in the Irish Medical Times “A Complicated Delivery” by editor Dara Gantly on 10 May 2017 concluded as follows:</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">…What is of further interest now is that the Minister [for Health] wants to begin a “<i>broader conversation</i>” about the structure of our health service, including the role of voluntary hospitals and the interest religious congregations have in them. This has been happening in education (slowly mind), so we should not be too surprised to see it start in Health.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />“<i>That is a good thing and I want to separately put in place a process to facilitate that broader conversation which is long overdue and which will, rightfully, take some time</i>,” Minister Harris has noted. ..</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">I wrote in 2017 "<i>And what will be the nature of this conversation IF Minister Harris sees that the Sisters of Charity and the Church will not stand up for themselves but will attempt to conciliate the mob? When politicians and the media claimed that the Sisters owed €3 million in “compensation”, it was not the Minister for Health, but a Daily Mail journalist who queried the Department of Education and discovered that the Sisters owed nothing and in fact had over-paid! </i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"<b style="font-style: italic;">If the Sisters of Charity attempt to appease the mob in relation to the National Maternity Hospital, then reason and logic will NOT feature in the future “broader conversation” referred to by Simon Harris!"</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b style="font-style: italic;"><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span>And so it has turned out!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Sisters Surrender to the Secular Power!</span></h4><p>On 31 May 2017 Sr Mary Christian, Congregational Leader of the Religious Sisters of Charity issued a <a href="https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2017/05/the-new-national-maternity-hospital-and-the-religious-sisters-of-charity/">Statement</a> confirming that the Sisters were withdrawing from any involvement in St Vincent's Hospital that they had founded in 1834 - and also confirming the abandonment of the hospital's Catholic ethos:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>The Religious Sisters of Charity will end our involvement in St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and will not be involved in the ownership or management of the new National Maternity Hospital.....</p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Upon completion of this proposed transaction, the requirement set out in the SVHG Constitution, to conduct and maintain the SVHG facilities in accordance with The Religious Sisters of Charity Health Service Philosophy and Ethical Code, will be amended and replaced to reflect compliance with national and international best practice guidelines on medical ethics and the laws of the Republic of Ireland.</span></p><p>The SVHG Board, management and staff will continue to provide acute healthcare services that foster Mary Aikenhead’s core values of dignity, compassion, justice, quality and advocacy....</p></blockquote><p></p><div><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Nobody was fooled by this pious invocation of the name of their foundress. It was clear that they were surrendering to the pressure (and blatant lies) of a secular mob. Their cowardice ensured that the attacks on them would continue - even to the present day! </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(F) CONCLUSION:</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><div>In 2017 I referred to an editorial in the Irish Medical Times (10 May) entitled <a href="http://www.imt.ie/opinion/minister-build-that-hospital-10-05-2017/#comment-15258">“Minister Build That Hospital</a>” subtitle <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sorry episode has revealed much that is ugly about modern Ireland </span>and quoting<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><b>Doctor Ruairi Hanley</b></div><blockquote><div>….Regrettably, there is another factor in this dispute that has taken us beyond mere clinical disagreement. Over the past month, a baying liberal cyber mob has entered the fray and all sense of perspective has been lost. Please note, I am not referring here to those colleagues who have genuine concerns about this project. As already stated, I disagree with these people, but I respect their view.</div><div><br /></div><div>No, the group that I find beyond parody are the extreme liberal, Catholic-hating online brigade who appear to think that a giant abortion clinic is the most important priority for South Dublin. I suspect some of these people will not be satisfied until a few nuns are imprisoned and the Catholic Church is effectively eradicated from any involvement in Irish society.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Liberal outrage</b></div><div>The vicious, obnoxious tone of some members of this new mob is truly appalling. They have turned on <b>Dr Rhona Mahony</b>, an outstanding and dedicated obstetrician who is a role model for Irish women. But, let’s be honest, the cool gang could not care less about the facts. Once they heard mention of nuns the red mist descended and it was then we moved to a classic liberal outrage contest.</div><div><br /></div><div>For these individuals, online perception is always more important than clinical outcome. In their world it is apparently acceptable for this project to be sabotaged, with negative consequences for women and children, so long as a few elderly nuns get a good cyber-kicking.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>Naturally, if the mob gets their way the hospital will be delayed at a cost of tens of millions of euro to the taxpayer. In my opinion, this would undoubtedly be the most expensive act of online ‘virtue signalling’ in human history.</i></b></span> [RC My emphasis]</div><div><br /></div><div>As an aside, I make no apologies for pointing out that the Catholic Church has done enormous good work in healthcare for the poorest in society over the past century, <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>even if I am one of the only doctors in Ireland willing to say this publicly.</i></b></span> [RC My emphasis]….. </div></blockquote><div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Indeed </b>Doctor Doctor Ruairi Hanley was "<i>one of the only doctors in Ireland willing to say this publicly</i>." This was an Editorial in the highly prestigious Irish Medical Times written about a controversial topic and during the height of the controversy. So how many Comments did it attract? Precisely one - from my NON medical self! <b>[2]</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Why were <i>other</i> doctors so reluctant to stick their necks out? I suspect that it was only partly fear of the "<i>baying liberal mob</i>" that Dr Hanley refers to. There is also the fact that the Sisters of Charity refused to defend themselves and abased itself before said mob - as Irish nuns have been doing for the past quarter century! <b>[3]</b> Leo Varadkar felt free to insult them again in order to please anti-clerical voters in the recent Dublin Bay South by-election. <b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">He knew there would be no comeback from the nuns - least of all from Sr Stanislaus Kennedy whose "progressive" reputation COULD have enabled her to embarrass Varadkar, had she not opted to stay silent! </span></i></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>NOTES:</b></p><div style="text-align: left;"><b>[1] </b>Wikipedia refer to a Sunday Times article dated 23 April 2017 "<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bishop-says-new-hospital-must-obey-the-church-jjbgzzn86">Bishop says New Hospital Must Obey the Church</a>", most of which is behind a paywall.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>[2]</b> This is the text of my Comment on the Irish Medical Times Editorial dated 10 May 2017</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><i>Rory Connor</i></div><div>24th May 2017 at 11:54 pm</div><div>I couldn’t agree more.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have a number of comments on this issue on the Association of Catholic Priests website, (topic “<a href="https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2017/05/catholic-ethos-and-other-mysteries/">Catholic Ethos and Other Mysteries</a>”) the latest one being number 52 which might serve as a summary</div><div>http://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2017/05/catholic-ethos-and-other-mysteries/</div><div><br /></div><div>Sadly the ACP have merged 2 separate although related discussions, so you have to search for the Maternity Hospital one. However it definitely IS worth-while! My own other comments are numbers 20, 25 and 32.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>[3]</b> See blog article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-decadence-of-sisters-of-mercy.html">The Decadence of the Sisters of Mercy</a> and website article <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/religious-congregations/sisters-of-mercy/index.php">The Sisters of Mercy</a> that - despite its title - <i>also</i> describes the antics of<b> Presentation Sister Elizabeth Maxwell</b> and <b>Ursuline Sister Marianne O'Connor</b>, both former Heads of the Conference of Religious in Ireland. There is something especially grotesque about the antics of the leaders of <b>FEMALE</b> Religious Congregations (although anyone who suspects me of Misogyny should try reading <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/11/archbishop-diarmuid-martin-simpsons-and.html">Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the Simpsons and our Insect Overlords</a> )</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-48380429685152861112021-07-08T23:55:00.025+01:002021-07-18T17:10:43.750+01:00Blood Libel in Canada - Church Burning and Graves of Indigenous Children at former Residential Schools<p> <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib-l6Ubh8Uv07QLxQUoGVrkp1AEnNV_h3xtMQ9qteFolMPkB29jtvNef1c5XGzexVig4DXwl0meG3nfh54nnyWISOd1qR4SwN3Zm_kl8Zmlpc8t4WjfXCx0-UFzs0DaVnXHj5GPyW0_Ubs/s960/Canada_ChurchBurns_Morinville_Alberta.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib-l6Ubh8Uv07QLxQUoGVrkp1AEnNV_h3xtMQ9qteFolMPkB29jtvNef1c5XGzexVig4DXwl0meG3nfh54nnyWISOd1qR4SwN3Zm_kl8Zmlpc8t4WjfXCx0-UFzs0DaVnXHj5GPyW0_Ubs/w640-h360/Canada_ChurchBurns_Morinville_Alberta.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">Catholic Church Burns in Morinville, Alberta</span></h3></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(A) Introduction - "Hate Crime" in Canada and Ireland</span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Over the past two months I experienced one of my periodic episodes of Writer's Block but I can't ignore the current hysteria in Canada. It's <i><b>their</b></i> equivalent of <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html">"Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews</a>" complete with support from politicians and media and some "Survivor" leaders who have already made claims so absurd that said politicians and journalists will quietly ignore them in future! (In Ireland <i>no one in authority</i> now pretends to believe that <a href="https://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/accusers/christine-buckley/index.php">Christine Buckley</a> was beaten so badly by Sr Xavieria that she needed 100 stitches OR that the <a href="https://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/accusers/christine-buckley/hotpoker-wasused-11oct97.php">same nun used a hot poker to murder a baby!</a>) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The foregoing essay on Blood Libel concentrates mainly on the Christian Brothers - allegedly beating boys to death in residential schools. Since 2010 however the focus has shifted to nuns who ran Mother and Baby Homes for single mothers and allegedly starved babies to death. I covered this in my article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/02/deaths-of-children-in-mother-and-baby.html">"Deaths of Children in Mother and Baby Care Homes (did they die of starvation?)"</a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">It would not surprise me if the Canadian witch-hunt follows a similar course to ours i.e. with the more lurid child-killing claims being broadcast by media and politicians - <i><b>and then quietly side-lined -</b></i>, to be followed by more "<i>moderate</i>" allegations that are difficult to disprove several decades later!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">One way in which the Canadian hysteria differs from ours is that about a dozen Catholic churches have already been vandalised or burned to the ground. There has been <i>some</i> vandalism of Church buildings and monuments in Ireland but nothing on that level. <b>However</b> <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/12/eu-commissioner-phil-hogan-forced-to.html">our last EU Commissioner <b><i>and</i></b> our last Minister for Justice used Parliamentary Privilege to libel a woman because she had been a nun</a> while a previous Justice Minister endorsed a claim (in 2009) that the Church was involved in the unsolved murder of a girl in 1970. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">This kind of libel is the <i><b>spiritual</b> </i>equivalent of the Nazi <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht">Kristallnacht</a>. In Canada they are going in for a more physical imitation!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h2 style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbQ9LhsoXRhAxyuEK5IMHvTtoDR1xEWoaVR-g2FPO1dxiCcrcC3HUaAM5h2-XIHhnrRU1QvOL4yzOc_NO2Fk6s_MdUwVsxQXrFK-G2vorMLbFws-vphO1MGvqTUTyGrOni8kHWfnWfznj3/s1000/Kristallnacht_Fasanenstrasse_Synagogue%252C_Berlin_1938.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Interior view of the destroyed Fasanenstrasse Synagogue, Berlin, 1938" border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1000" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbQ9LhsoXRhAxyuEK5IMHvTtoDR1xEWoaVR-g2FPO1dxiCcrcC3HUaAM5h2-XIHhnrRU1QvOL4yzOc_NO2Fk6s_MdUwVsxQXrFK-G2vorMLbFws-vphO1MGvqTUTyGrOni8kHWfnWfznj3/w640-h450/Kristallnacht_Fasanenstrasse_Synagogue%252C_Berlin_1938.jpg" title="Interior view of the destroyed Fasanenstrasse Synagogue, Berlin, 1938" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Interior view of the destroyed Fasanenstrasse Synagogue, Berlin, 1938</span></b></h3></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(B) UK Guardian Endorses Blood Libel</span></h2><div><span style="font-family: arial;">On 21 June 2021 The Guardian published an article headlined <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/27/canada-must-reveal-undiscovered-truths-of-residential-schools-to-heal">"Canada Must Reveal ‘Undiscovered Truths’ of Residential Schools to Heal"</a> with subheading "<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The man who led the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission insists an independent investigation into decades of abuse of Indigenous children is essential."</span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"> It includes the following:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote><div>Murray Sinclair, a former senator and one of the country’s first Indigenous judges, warned that the “<i>undiscovered truths</i>” of the schools are probably far more devastating than many Canadians realize – including <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>the deliberate killing of children by school staff and the likelihood that such crimes were covered up</i></b></span>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sinclair called for a powerful investigative body, free of government interference, and with the power to subpoena witnesses. “<i>We need to know who died, we need to know how they died, we need to know who was responsible for their deaths or for their care at the time that they died,</i>” said Sinclair, a member of the Peguis First Nation. “<i>We need to know why the families weren’t informed. And we need to know where the children are buried.</i>”</div></blockquote><div>And also: </div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div></div><blockquote><div>Justin Trudeau described the graves as “<i>a shameful reminder</i>” of the systemic racism that Indigenous peoples still endure, adding: “<i>Together, we must acknowledge this truth, learn from our past, and walk the shared path of reconciliation, so we can build a better future</i>.”</div><div><br /></div><div>But Sinclair warned that reconciliation requires a sustained effort to change by ordinary Canadians and powerful institutions of state – an effort that has so far remained elusive. "<i>The government, our social institutions, and even our population acknowledge what was done to Indigenous people was wrong. There have been several apologies and a promise of things will change. But there’s been no change,” </i>he said.<i> “So long as any change is only given reluctantly, it means there remains a willingness, ability – and even desire – to go back to the way things were</i>.”</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sinclair led a historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission which in 2015 concluded that the residential school system amounted to <b>cultural genocide</b></span>. <b>[1]</b></div></blockquote><div></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">But now he is suggesting MORE than "<i>cultural</i>" genocide:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote>“<i>We’ve heard stories from survivors who witnessed children being put to death, particularly infants born in the schools who had been fathered by a priest. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Many survivors told us that they witnessed those children, those infants, being either buried alive or killed – and sometimes being thrown into furnaces</span></i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">,</span>” said Sinclair, who oversaw thousands of hours of testimony. “<i>Those stories need to be checked out.</i>” <b>[2]</b></blockquote></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The last Indigenous Residential School closed over 30 years ago but remarkably many problems persist among First Nations groups - <b><i>including unnatural deaths</i></b>:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote><div>Dozens of First Nations do not have access to drinking water, the government is fighting a human rights tribunal order to compensate Indigenous children who suffered in foster care and a federal minister has admitted racism against Indigenous peoples is rampant within the healthcare system. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Indigenous people are overrepresented in federal prisons and</span> <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i><b>Indigenous women are killed at a rate far higher than other groups</b></i></span><b>.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Such realities are the result of a sustained campaign to create and sustain racial inequity, said Sinclair. "<i>It took constant effort to maintain that relationship of Indigenous inferiority and white superiority</i>,” he said. “<i>To reverse that, it’s going to take generations of concerted effort to do the opposite</i>.</div></blockquote><div></div></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><i><b>So WHO is killing Indigenous women and what effect is casting the blame on Racism and White Superiority going to have on efforts to resolve the problem?</b></i></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">US Media also do Blood Libel</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>An article in the New York Post dated 12 July 2021 is headed <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/07/12/us-media-shamefully-justified-a-string-of-canadian-church-burnings/">US Media Shamefully Justified a String of Canadian Church Burnings</a></div></span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>“<b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Discovery of Mass Grave of Indigenous Children Prompts Grief and Questions</span></i></b>” ran a Washington Post headline. “<b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">‘Horrible History’: Mass Grave of Indigenous Children Reported in Canada</span></i></b>” was The New York Times’ headline.</div><div><br /></div><div>Those headlines were false — according to all three chiefs who made the discoveries. “<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This is not a mass grave site, this is just unmarked graves</span></i>,” Cowessess First Nation chief Cadmus Delorme said of the biggest site. Indeed, the remains aren’t even believed to be all of children. A band leader said the site was a community cemetery, including graves of nonindigenous people — unmarked because wooden markers had decomposed.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Washington Post eventually corrected “<i>mass grave</i>”; the Times’ headline remains.</div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Church critics used that framing to justify, and even encourage, the rash of arsons. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“<i>Burn it all down,</i>” tweeted the head of the BC Civil Liberties Association</span> and the chair of the Newfoundland Canadian Bar Association Branch. “<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>It’s very dangerous to conflate the string of church fires with violence against mosques,</i>” activist Nora Loreto said</span>, insisting they weren’t “<i>hate crimes</i>” — in other words, the Catholic Church had it coming.</span></div></blockquote><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(C) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Church Burning is "Understandable"</span></h2><div><span style="font-family: arial;">According to Brian Lilley, political correspondent for the Toronto Sun in <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeau-explains-away-arson-attacks-on-churches">Trudeau Explains Away Arson Attacks on Churches</a> (Monday, 5 July 2021)</span></div><blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;">About a dozen churches have been set on fire, some simply damaged, others burned right to the ground. Even more Christian churches — mostly Catholic but not exclusively — have been vandalized over the past several weeks. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, it’s true that Justin Trudeau has also said that the burning and destruction of churches is “</span><i style="font-family: arial;">unacceptable and wrong</i><span style="font-family: arial;">,” but by saying it is also “</span><i style="font-family: arial;">understandable</i><span style="font-family: arial;">,” the PM undermines his mild condemnation of what is going on.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><br /></div><div>Trudeau only spoke of what has been happening on July 2, almost three weeks after this spate of attacks on churches started. The first arson that I heard of — that was related to the discovery of unmarked graves at residential school sites — was St. John’s Tuscaroras, an Anglican chapel set ablaze on June 12.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since then, several Catholic churches, a number of Anglican parishes, and Evangelical churches serving African and Vietnamese immigrant communities have been targeted. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">If there were attacks like this taking place at Mosques or other places of worship, then we know that Trudeau would have tweeted right away, issued statements, and rightly denounced the attacks as hate crimes</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Instead, even when asked, Trudeau can’t use that phrase and his condemnations come with what amounts to a “yeah, but” at the end of it. “<i>It is unacceptable and wrong that acts of vandalism and arson are being seen across the country, including against Catholic churches</i>,” Trudeau said on Friday. It’s a rather weak denunciation, but then he made it worse by saying that what has happened is understandable.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I understand the anger that’s out there against the federal government, against institutions like the Catholic Church. It is real, and it’s fully understandable, given the shameful history that we are all becoming more and more aware of and engaging ourselves to do better as Canadians</span>,</i>” Trudeau said.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #191919; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;">On Monday, Trudeau said that vandalism and arson aren’t the way to go, that it doesn’t help with reconciliation. He’s right, but he still can’t use the kind of language he would use for any other faith group. “<i>That is simply not right, it is a shame</i>,” Trudeau said of burning churches when asked if these acts were hate crimes.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #191919; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;">By his own definition, these arsons and acts of vandalism would be hate crimes, but he can’t say that. So instead, he calls it “<i>a shame</i>.” He may as well have added a “tut-tut” at the end and a finger wag.</p></div></span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>If mosques were vandalised or burned to the ground in the wake of an Islamic atrocity, would Justin Trudeau wait for weeks before issuing </i>any <i>kind of condemnation - and would he then use the word "understandable"</i></b></span>? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(D) Head of British Columbia Civil Liberties Group Tweets ‘Burn It All Down’ </span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In an article in Global News on 4 July <span><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8002314/bccla-church-fire-tweet/">Head of B.C. civil liberties group under fire over ‘burn it all down’ tweet</a> Simon Little wrote - in relation to a Canadian equivalent of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties:</span></span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) is facing criticism over comments she made on social media in response to the burning of multiple churches in the wake of the discovery of human remains in unmarked graves at former residential schools.<br /><br />Harsha Walia leads the organization, which fights for civil liberties and human rights. She is also a long-time advocate for migrant justice, Indigenous rights, equality and economic justice.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>In a June 30 tweet responding to a news article about a pair of Catholic churches burning down, Walia wrote “<i>burn it all down</i>.” The tweet set off a firestorm on social media, both from people who described the message as inflammatory and stoking hate, and others who defended the tweet, saying people have no right to police Indigenous people’s grief and rage...</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said he felt the tweet went too far. “<i>I thought it was just disgusting and reprehensible that somebody who heads up an organization like that would make such comments,</i>” he said. “<i>It’s vile beyond belief, it does nothing to bring about reconciliation. All it does is create conflict and division</i>.</span>”</div></span></div></span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><span><div></div></span></div><div>When Terry Glavin, columnist for the National Post and Ottawa Citizen, took a swipe at people defending Harsha Walia, Gerald Butts - <span style="color: #2b00fe;">former right-hand man and confidant of Justin Trudeau</span>- jumped in to defend Walia. </div><div><br /></div><div>"<i>So Gerry, defending the 'burning churches is cool' crowd?</i>” Glavin tweeted to Butts.</div><div>“<i>No Terry, it is not. Though it may be understandable</i>,” Butts replied. Same word used by Trudeau! <b>[3]</b></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>About the <b><i>only</i></b> thing that surprises me concerning the whole disgusting affair, is the comment by Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth! Otherwise it's a carbon copy of the behaviour of politicians and "human rights" groups in Ireland.</span></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(E) "Unmarked Graves" at former St Eugene Mission School, Cranbrook, British Columbia (1912-1970)</span></h2><div><span>The "discovery" of these graves was one of the episodes that sparked hysteria and Church-burning across Canada in recent weeks. Unfortunately for the hysterics, <b><i>this</i></b> one is a cemetery that has been in continuous use by the local community before and since the Mission School closed half a century ago! </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Note there is nothing suspicious about the "<i>unmarked graves</i>". Even in a cemetery that has been in continuous use, old wooden grave markers decay and the cemetery fence has to be replaced. In cemeteries that are no longer used, both markers and fence would eventually disappear. "Using a wooden marker at a gravesite remains a practice that continues to this day in many Indigenous communities across Canada." The following article also points out that it was Government policy that all indigenous children in the area between the ages of 7 and 15 should attend the school. Some children died of "<i>TB or other diseases</i>" according to former Chief Sophie Pierre, who herself attended the school, but she lends no support to the lurid claims of Murray Sinclair. [Part <b>(B)</b> above]</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>An article by Adam MacVicar in Global News on 1st July 2021 is entitled: </span></div><div><span><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7996606/cranbrook-residential-school-graves-chief/">‘We Knew It Was There’: Former B.C. Chief says Unmarked Graves near Cranbrook Need More Context</a></span></div><blockquote><div><div>The detection of human remains in unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in B.C. was not an unexpected discovery, according to the area’s former chief. On Wednesday, it was confirmed that ground-penetrating radar found 182 unmarked graves in a cemetery at the site of the former Kootenay Residential School at St. Eugene Mission just outside Cranbrook, B.C. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">The remains were found when remedial work was being performed in the area to replace the fence at the cemetery last year.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Sophie Pierre, former chief of the St Mary’s Indian Band and <span style="color: #2b00fe;">a survivor of the school itself,</span> told Global News that while the news of the unmarked graves had a painful impact on her and surrounding communities, they had always known the graves were there. </div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>There’s no discovery, we knew it was there, it’s a graveyard</i>,” Pierre said. “<i>The fact there are graves inside a graveyard shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.</i>” <span style="color: #2b00fe;">According to Pierre, wooden crosses that originally marked the gravesites had been burned or deteriorated over the years. Using a wooden marker at a gravesite remains a practice that continues to this day in many Indigenous communities across Canada.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div>The cemetery sits about 150 meters from the former residential school, which was in operation between 1912 and 1970. It is now a luxurious golf resort owned by five local area bands. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">At the time it was mandated by law that all Indigenous children living in the area between the ages of seven and 15 were to attend the school</span>. ...</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Pierre said while there is a possibility there are some children who attended the school were buried in the cemetery, more work is required to confirm those details. “<i>There could very well be, and in good likelihood, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">some children that were in the residential school that died here because of TB or other diseases, and were buried there</span>,</i>” Pierre said. “<i>But it’s a graveyard</i>.”....</div></div></blockquote><p></p><blockquote>The graveyard near Cranbrook originally dates back to Christian missionaries who settled in the area in the early 1800s, prior to the construction of the school. A church and a hospital were also built in the area. It eventually became a graveyard for the community, which it remains to this day. “<i>We just buried one of our people there last month</i>,” Pierre said. “<i>Anyone who died in my community would be buried there</i>.” </blockquote><p></p><div><div></div></div><div>The article goes on to point out that hundreds of unmarked graves, many believed to be children, have been found near residential school sites across the country recently, including in Kamloops, British Columbia, and the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan.</div><div><blockquote>[Sophie] Pierre acknowledged uncovering those graves is important work, and sheds light on the traumatic history and reality for Indigenous peoples across Canada. However, she said the findings at the cemetery near Cranbrook isn’t the same as the other findings at other residential schools throughout the country. "<i>What happened in these other places is these remains have been found not in graveyards, that’s the big difference</i>,” Pierre said. “<i>It’s horrible</i>.”</blockquote><p><b><i> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Or alternatively these are graveyards that have not been used for several decades so the wooden crosses and the cemetery fence have rotted away!</span> </i></b> </p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> (F) CONCLUSION: Canada - A Society Spewing on Itself!</span></h2></div><div>It isn't only the Catholic Church that is under attack from the Justin Trudeau equivalent of Mao's Red Guards! It is also the first Prime Minister of Canada <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">John A McDonald</span></b> and Methodist Minister <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Egerton Ryerson</b></span> who was one of the founders of the Canadian public school system <i>and </i>the Indian residential school system. On the other hand, Justin Trudeau - the Prime Minister who feels that the burning of Catholic Churches is "<i>understandable</i>" - faces no questions about the role of his father <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Pierre Trudeau</b></span> who wanted to eliminate Indian Status and fully assimilate First Nations into the general population of Canada! <b>[4]</b></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egerton_Ryerson">Egerton Ryerson</a> (24 March 1803 – 19 February 1882) was a Canadian educator and Methodist minister who was a prominent contributor to the design of the Canadian public school system <span style="color: #2b00fe;">and the Canadian Indian residential school system</span>. In 1844, Ryerson was appointed Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada. In that role, he supported reforms such as creating school boards, making textbooks more uniform, and making education free.<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> Because of his contributions to education in Ontario, he is the namesake of Ryerson University (Toronto), Ryerson Press, and Ryerson, Ontario</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div>On June 1, 2021, following the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, the Egerton Ryerson statue at Ryerson University was vandalized with red paint. On June 6, the statue was toppled, decapitated and thrown into Toronto Harbour; <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>Ryerson University stated that the statue will not be restored or replaced</i></b></span>. The head of the statue was subsequently placed on a pike at the Six Nations of the Grand River near Caledonia, Ontario.</div><div><br /></div><div>In an article in the National Post on 6 April 2021 Ron Stagg, Professor of History and Patrice Dutil, Professor of Politics at Ryerson University wrote :<a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/opinion-egerton-ryerson-has-been-falsely-accused-of-trying-to-erase-indigenous-culture"> Egerton Ryerson has been Falsely Accused of Trying to Erase Indigenous Culture </a></div><blockquote><div><div>Ryerson is being misjudged. He was not a racist and he did not discriminate against Indigenous people. It was the exact opposite! As a young man he was appointed to the Credit mission, home of the Mississaugas. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i><b>He learned their language, worked in the fields with the people of the settlement and became a life-long friend of future chief Kahkewaquonaby (Sacred Feathers), known in English as Peter Jones.</b></i></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>In fact, it was in recognition of his services to the Mississauga, that Ryerson was adopted and given the name of a recently deceased chief, “Cheechock” or “Chechalk.”</i></b></span></div><div><br /></div><div>After he left the Credit mission, Ryerson kept in touch with Peter Jones. In the 1830s he assisted the Mississaugas, whose land was confiscated by colonial authorities, by approaching Queen Victoria personally through back channels. He also advanced the careers of a number of talented Indigenous individuals. When Peter Jones was gravely ill at the end of his life, he stayed in the comfortable home of his old friend Ryerson in Toronto. Ryerson was a friend of Indigenous people.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is also wrong to blame Egerton Ryerson for creating residential schools.<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> It was Peter Jones, working with another prominent Methodist, who argued that the government should fund schools to educate Indigenous men in the new techniques in agriculture, so that they might survive in a colony where land to hunt and fish freely was rapidly disappearing</span>. By 1842, the authorities accepted the concept, as a way to put First Nations on farms and to eliminate the expense of annual treaty payments, not as a way to assimilate them.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In 1846, government agents met with thirty chiefs, representing most of the First Nations in what is now southern Ontario. After some discussion, almost all the leaders agreed that such schools were necessary, and many even agreed to use part of their treaty payments to help support the schools</span>. A year later, the government approached Ryerson, an acknowledged expert on education, and asked him to provide a curriculum for schools that would train Indigenous people for a settled life.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Ryerson was fully in agreement with the plan because he worried that Indigenous communities would be destroyed unless they changed their economic life. He delivered general suggestions for a curriculum — nothing else — that were typical of his day. It was patronizing, as it was based on Euro-Canadian models, but it had the support of most of the Indigenous leaders. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Ryerson participated precisely because he saw education as the best instrument to protect First Nations from advancing settlement</span>.</div></blockquote><div></div><div>The Ryerson statue was <i>originally</i> vandalised on July 18, 2020 - in addition to two others of <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>John A. Macdonald (first Prime Minister of Canada</b>)</span> and King Edward VII at the Ontario Legislature – as part of a demand to tear down the monuments. Black Lives Matter Toronto claimed responsibility for the actions stating that "<i>The action comes after the City of Toronto and the Province of Ontario have failed to take action against police violence against Black people</i>." Three people were arrested at the time and were each charged with three counts of mischief and conspiracy to commit a summary offence. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">The charges were dropped on 4 June 2021 and demonstrators tore down the Ryerson statue on 6 June! Ryerson University has stated that the statue will not be restored or replaced!</span></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Egerton Ryerson and Jesuit Hero Jean de Brebeuf S.J. </span> </h3><div style="text-align: left;">Egerton Ryerson working among the Mississauga First Nation in the 19th century was - in a way - continuing the work of Jesuit hero, martyr and saint <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_Br%C3%A9beuf">Jean de Brebeuf</a> among the Hurons [Wyandot] in the far more violent age of "New France" in the 17th century. (It's true that Fr de Brebeuf would not have appreciated the comparison!)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><div>Brébeuf had been chosen for the New World because he had a knack for languages, and so was well equipped for engagement with an altogether alien culture. The assignment proved a wise one, as Brébeuf immersed himself deeply among the Wyandot, or Huron, a tribal confederacy that had gathered on the north shores of Lake Ontario two centuries before. From 1626, the Jesuit père devoted himself as the apostle to the Hurons, with the singular mission of making these people Catholic.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Jean and his companions reached Quebec on June 19, 1625, and immediately began to prepare for his journey to the Huron nation. Happily, he had a great talent for something that would prove critical in his work. The great explorer Samuel de Champlain wrote about Brébeuf, "<i>He had such a striking gift for languages that…he grasped in two or three years what others would not learn in twenty</i>." </div><div><br /></div><div>That facility would assist him in working with a people with whom he shared little in common, save their common humanity. To enter into their world Jean resolved to do everything according to their customs, no matter how strenuous, eating their food, sleeping as they did, working as hard as they did. Here is a powerful echo of the Call of the King, from the Spiritual Exercises, in which one is asked to "<i>labor as Christ labors</i>." </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In addition to learning their customs and beliefs, Jean wrote a Huron grammar and translated a catechism in the local language</span>. Brébeuf would spend three years among these families before being asked to return to Rouen in 1629, after political difficulties made it harder for the French to remain.......</div><div><br /></div><div>When he returned to New France in 1635, he was cheerfully welcomed by his Huron friends. Immediately he and Antoine Daniel, another Jesuit, began their work in earnest. (They were one of several Jesuits working in the region at the time.) Near a town called Ihonotiria, near current-day Georgian Bay in Canada, Fathers Brébeuf and Daniel began teaching the people about Christianity. They were later joined by two other French Jesuits, Charles Garnier and Isaac Jogues.....</div><div><br /></div><div>Brébeuf and his fellow Jesuits ministered to the Wyandot another 13 years. Then, under military pressure from the northward-moving Iroquois, the Wyandot and their Jesuit companions found themselves in dire straits. Finally, as the invading Iroquois sacked the mission village of Saint-Louis, Brébeuf and fellow priest Gabriel Lalemant were taken captive and tortured to death.</div><div><br /></div></div></blockquote><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Justin Trudeau, Pierre Trudeau and "Assimilation" Policy </span></h3></div></div><div><div>An Editorial in the National Catholic Register on 9 July 2021 entitled <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/canada-s-trudeau-fans-the-flame-of-blame">Canada’s Trudeau Fans the Flame of Blame</a> reads in part</div><div></div></div><blockquote><div><div>Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swiftly joined with Native leaders in <span style="color: #2b00fe;">demanding that Pope Francis apologize</span> for the Church’s role in operating the majority of these residential schools during the 19th and 20th centuries. This misguided rhetoric of blame has now escalated into the burning down and vandalization of a number of Catholic churches across Canada.....</div><div><br /></div><div>However, it is simply not the case that Canada’s Catholics and other Christians lagged behind the nation’s political leadership in terms of renouncing assimilationist policies. </div><div><br /></div><div>As recently as 1969, the Canadian government formally advocated a new policy abolishing separate status for its Indigenous residents for the express purpose of integrating them more fully into Canadian society. This proposal was abandoned only after fierce resistance from the Native peoples themselves. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Canadian prime minister who advanced this proposed new policy was actually Justin Trudeau’s father, <b>Pierre Trudeau</b>, a man still widely regarded in Canada for enlightened, progressive thinking. So if Justin Trudeau truly believes in the concept of “<i>inherited</i>” institutional guilt, as he appears to do with respect to Pope Francis, in fairness it ought to be noted that his own inheritance is vastly more tangible than that of the Holy Father</span>. <b>[4]</b></div></div></blockquote><p>The first Canadian Prime Minister <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">John A MacDonald</span></b> also approved the assimilationist approach proposed in the 1879 "<i>Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds</i>". Thus (as per Wikipedia) - <i>On 18 June 2021, following the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, the statue of Macdonald was removed from [Kingston's] City Park after city council voted 12–1 in favour of its removal, and is set to be installed at Cataraqui Cemetery where Macdonald is buried</i>. <b>[5]</b></p><p><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In fact the Canadian secular authorities would always have been keener on assimilating the First Nations than Churchmen like Fr Jean de Brebeuf S.J. and Methodist Minister Egerton Ryerton. For the latter, making good citizens would have been a <i>by product</i> of making good Christians and <i>not</i> the main objective!</span></b></p></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b>A Final Irony</b></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">It's quite possible that Pierre Trudeau was correct in 1969 and that the policy began by Fr Jean de Brebeuf in the 17th century and continued by Egerton Ryerson in the 19th had come to the end of its useful life. It's possible that assimilation as ordinary Canadian citizens WAS the way for the First Nations to go. There has been a huge increase in symptoms of social breakdown since then - violence, addiction, suicide and child abuse - more so than in the general population. The Canadian State's pursuit of multi-culturalism has led them to subsidise a culture and away of life that is no longer viable. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The same can be said about Ireland in relation to our treatment of the Travellers. Up until the 1960s the policy of the Irish State was to integrate them (then called Tinkers) into the settled population. Since then we <i>also </i>have stressed the multi-cultural approach - up to granting Ethnic Minority status in 2017. The results - in terms of crime and other symptoms of social breakdown - are not pretty!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span></span></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">NOTES:</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[1]</b> A Guardian article dated 2 June 2015 headed </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/02/canada-indigenous-schools-cultural-genocide-report">Canada's Indigenous Schools Policy Was 'Cultural Genocide', says Report</a> summarises the Report of Canada's <b><i>Truth and Reconciliation Commission</i></b> chaired by Murray Sinclair who is described as "<i>a Manitoba judge whose parents and grandparents both survived residential schools</i>." After seven years of hearings, and testimony from thousands of witnesses, </span><span style="font-family: arial;">the commission’s final report declares.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"> “<i>These measures were part of a coherent policy to eliminate Aboriginal people as distinct peoples and to assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream against their will. </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Canadian government pursued this policy of cultural genocide because it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to Aboriginal people and gain control over their land and resources</i>.”</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There is <b>no </b>mention of infants being buried alive or killed and thrown into furnaces. Did Murray Sinclair ignore such testimonies back then because he regarded them as incredible? Why does he think they are credible now? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[2]</b> "<i>We’ve heard stories from survivors who witnessed children being put to death, particularly infants born in the schools who had been fathered by a priest. Many survivors told us that they witnessed those children, those infants, being either buried alive or killed – and sometimes being thrown into furnaces</i>,” said Sinclair. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This is strongly reminiscent of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Monk"><i>Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk</i> (1836)</a> in which the author claimed to expose the systematic sexual abuse of nuns by Catholic priests and the infanticide of the resulting children in a convent in Montreal (although "Maria Monk" claimed the babies were strangled after being baptised, and then buried in a lime pit).</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[3] </b>See <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeau-pal-gerald-butts-also-calls-church-burning-understandable">LILLEY: Trudeau pal Gerald Butts also calls church burning 'understandable'</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[4]</b> As per the Wikipedia article on <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Trudeau" target="_blank">Pierre Trudeau</a></b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">In 1969, Trudeau along with his then Minister of Indian Affairs Jean Chrétien, proposed the 1969 White Paper (officially entitled <i>Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian policy</i>). <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Under the legislation of the White Paper, Indian Status would be eliminated. First Nations Peoples would be incorporated fully into provincial government responsibilities as equal Canadian citizens, and reserve status would be removed imposing the laws of private property in indigenous communities. Any special programs or considerations that had been allowed to First Nations people under previous legislation would be terminated, as the special considerations were seen by the Government to act as a means to further separate Indian peoples from Canadian citizens</i></span>. This proposal was seen by many as racist and an attack on Canada's aboriginal population. The Paper proposed the general assimilation of First Nations into the Canadian body politic through the elimination of the Indian Act and Indian status, the parcelling of reserve land to private owners, and the elimination of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>The White Paper prompted the first major national mobilization of Indian and Aboriginal activists against the federal government's proposal, leading to Trudeau setting aside the legislation.</i></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">[5]</span><b> </b><span style="font-family: arial;">See </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7961292/john-a-macdonald-statue-kingston-removed/">Sir John A. Macdonald statue removed from Kingston’s City Park</a> including </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i>Now our people can heal, all those residential school survivors can heal, all those <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixties_Scoop">60’s Scoop people</a> can finally heal.</i>” Kingston resident Lisa Cadue said.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Or alternatively Canada may experience endless outbreaks of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_playing">Victim Playing</a>!</span></div><br /><br /><br /></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-23469908609506914562021-05-09T21:54:00.010+01:002021-05-29T17:44:41.848+01:00Richard Dawkins ("Catholicism is Worse than Child Abuse") - Cancelled by American Humanists and Trinity Students!<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAh2VjJk7jPFBlQFD566-Y1L4zFVZwwDEPWQKXvSPo0sVkQ0Vds9S1qBWmIU4XAB6lJrA4EPbvDBaMzNnEohqJdr_AYEnC7nveNXpz_1IgUnK9AqRnTeRlrASz5e6n3OA-ZKn13VP_FMuK/s620/RichardDawkins.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Richard Dawkins" border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="620" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAh2VjJk7jPFBlQFD566-Y1L4zFVZwwDEPWQKXvSPo0sVkQ0Vds9S1qBWmIU4XAB6lJrA4EPbvDBaMzNnEohqJdr_AYEnC7nveNXpz_1IgUnK9AqRnTeRlrASz5e6n3OA-ZKn13VP_FMuK/w640-h426/RichardDawkins.jpg" title="Richard Dawkins" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">Richard Dawkins and Trinity College Students' Union</span></h3></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(A) Introduction</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In 1996, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Humanist_Association">American Humanist Association</a> gave Dawkins their Humanist of the Year Award. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/20/richard-dawkins-loses-humanist-of-the-year-trans-comments">In 2021, they voted to withdraw it</a>, stating he "<i>demean[ed] marginalized groups</i>", including transgender people, using "<i>the guise of scientific discourse</i>". In September 2020 <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/trinity-college-historical-society-rescind-richard-dawkins-invitation-over-authors-stance-on-islam-and-sexual-assault-39568028.html">The Hist - or the College Historical Society of Trinity College Dublin - rescinded their invitation</a> to Dawkins to address the society in 2021 </span><span style="font-family: arial;">citing his stance on the religion of Islam and sexual assault as reasoning for their cancellation. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Bríd O’Donnell, auditor of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Historical_Society">The Hist</a> explained </span><span style="font-family: arial;">She added <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">the<i> </i>society<i> “will not be moving ahead with his address as we value our members comfort above all else”. </i></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I will write more about these two organisations. [The Hist was established in Trinity College in 1770, inspired by the club formed by Edmund Burke during his time in Trinity in 1747. It is the oldest surviving undergraduate student society in the world.] For now, suffice it to say that neither of them saw anything immoral about Dawkins' grotesque attacks on the Catholic Church - <i>even though some of his own followers are embarrassed by them!</i> American Humanists and Trinity students are prepared to tolerate any vicious or lying attack on the Catholic Church because they themselves hate it. Their attitude is similar to that of some Weimar intellectuals in the 1920s and 30s who were so caught up in hatred of the Churches, Capitalists, Army etc that they failed to understand that the Nazis were the real danger! (See Notes<b> [1]</b> and <b>[2]</b> )</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">[The following is an edited version of the <a href="https://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-dawkins/index.php">article on Richard Dawkins</a> on my old website (not Blog) <a href="http://www.IrishSalem.com">www.IrishSalem.com</a> ]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">(B) Richard Dawkins: "Catholicism is Worse than Child Abuse"</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: arial;">In October 2002, there was an article in " <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dubliner_(magazine)">The Dubliner</a></i>" magazine entitled, "<i><a href="https://biblearchive.com/blog/richard-dawkins-the-god-shaped-hole/">The God Shaped Hole</a></i>" reporting on Richard Dawkins conversation with editor Emily Hourican. In the course of the conversation, Dawkins compares Catholicism to the sexual molestation of children, and argues that Catholicism is worse:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Regarding the accusations of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, deplorable and disgusting as those abuses are, they are not so harmful to the children as the grievous mental harm in bringing up the child Catholic in the first place</span></i>."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-dawkins/CatholicismDubliner.php">As is clear from the full article</a>, the above is not taken out of context but is an accurate representation of Dawkins' attitude to Catholics.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><h4 style="text-align: left;">Article in "The Dubliner" and Reply re "Catholicism is Worse than Child Abuse"</h4><div>Dawkins stated that:</div><blockquote><div>"....<span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Roman Catholic Church is one of the forces for evil in the world, mainly because of the powerful influence it has over the minds of children</span>. The Catholic Church has developed, over the centuries, brilliant techniques in brain washing children; even intelligent people who have had a proper, full cradle-Catholic upbringing find it hard to shake it off when they reach adulthood. Obviously many of them do - and congratulations to them for it - but even some really quite intelligent people fail to shake it off, powerful evidence of the skill in brainwashing that the Catholic Church exercises. It's far more skilled than, for instance, the Anglican Church, mere amateurs in the game.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The Catholic Church also has an extraordinarily retrogressive stance on everything to do with reproduction. Any sort of new technology which makes life easier for women without causing any suffering is likely to be opposed by the Catholic Church.<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> Regarding the accusations of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, deplorable and disgusting as those abuses are, they are not so harmful to the children as the grievous mental harm in bringing up the child Catholic in the first place</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div>" I had a letter from a woman in America in her forties, who said that when she was a child of about seven, brought up a Catholic, two things happened to her: one was that she was sexually abused by her parish priest. The second thing was that a great friend of hers at school died, and she had nightmares because she thought her friend was going to hell because she wasn't Catholic. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">For her there was no question that the greatest child abuse of those two was the abuse of being taught about hell. Being fondled by the priest was negligible in comparison</span>. And I think that's a fairly common experience.</div><div><br /></div><div> "I can't speak about the really grave sexual abuse that obviously happens sometimes, which actually causes violent physical pain to the altar boy or whoever it is, but I suspect that most of the sexual abuse priests are accused of is comparatively mild - a little bit of fondling perhaps, and a young child might scarcely notice that. The damage, if there is damage, is going to be mental damage anyway, not physical damage. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Being taught about hell - being taught that if you sin you will go to everlasting damnation, and really believing that - is going to be a harder piece of child abuse than the comparatively mild sexual abuse</span>. .......</div></blockquote><p> <b>A critic of Dawkins, Mike Gene replied:</b></p><p></p><blockquote><p>I think it clear that this is raw anti-religious bigotry. We can ignore the letter from "<i>a woman in America</i>" as <b>a)</b> we have no idea whether her account is valid and <b>b)</b> even if valid, it is an anecdote. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Since Dawkins is a drum-banger for science, surely he would recognize science would need much more than a vague anecdote to support this contention.</span></p><p>So let's think through on Dawkins' logic. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>First</b>, where is the science?</span> What scientific evidence does Dawkins offer to support the contention that believing in Hell is a worse form of abuse than being sexually molested? Where is the evidence of this "<i>grievous mental harm</i>" in bringing up the child Catholic? His biased opinion? His emotional approach? An anecdote?</p><p><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Secondly</span></b>, it is ironic that Dawkins has the science backwards. There are plenty of studies to show that sexual molestation of a child can have long term, negative effects. Dismissing it as "<i>a bit of fondling</i>" and being "<i>mental damage anyway</i>" is insulting to the many victims of child molestation. And there are plenty of studies that also show that religious belief and convictions, if held seriously, provide a net positive benefit in terms of psychological and physical health. I<span style="color: #2b00fe;">n other words, contrary to the views of Dawkins, being raised a Catholic is <b>not</b> worse than being sexually abused.</span></p><p>But let's follow through with this example of Dawkins Think. As it stands, it is illegal to sexually molest a child. And, of course, it is not illegal to raise your child as a Catholic. But if it is really more harmful to raise your child as a Catholic than to sexually molest your child, as Dawkins believes, society needs to adjust its laws. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">According to Dawkins' logic, we should <b>a)</b> either make it illegal to raise your child as a Catholic, as it is worse than pedophilia, or <b>b)</b> legalize pedophilia, since it is not as bad as the legal activity of teaching a child about Hell and Catholicism</span>. Which option would Dawkins choose? It's his logic, thus his choice to clarify.</p><p>Consider a simple analogy. The house next to your house goes up for sale. Two families are interested in buy it. The first family is a devout Catholic family. The father is hard working and has broken no laws. But he has taught his kids to believe in Catholic doctrine, including belief in Hell. The second family is not religious. The father is also hard working, but he also sexually molests his kids.<b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> In Dawkins World, you hope the child molester moves in next door, as he is not as bad as the Catholic man</span></i></b>."</p></blockquote><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;">(C) It Should be Illegal for Parents to Indoctrinate Their Children - Petition Signed by Dawkins</span></h3><div><div>In December 2006, Dawkins signed a Petition that upset some of his most devoted followers - so much so that he quickly withdrew his signature and claimed he had "<i>misunderstood</i>" same. In contrast he has never withdrawn his claim that Catholicism is worse than child abuse. While the latter claim worries some of his followers, it is directly entirely at the Catholic Church and therefore a lot more palatable to anti-clerics).</div><div><br /></div><div>Martin Wagner of "<a href="https://www.axp.show/">The Atheist Experience</a>" Blog *** wrote in an article called "<a href="http://atheistexperience.blogspot.com/2006/12/has-dawkins-totally-jumped-shark.html">Has Dawkins Totally Jumped the Shark</a>":</div><div><br /></div><div>"The petition, authored by one Jamie Wallis using a service on the No 10 Downing Street website that allows users to write their own petitions and gather signatures right there for the PM's consideration, reads as follows:</div><div><blockquote><i>We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Make it illegal to indoctrinate or define children by religion before the age of 16. In order to encourage free thinking, children should not be subjected to any regular religious teaching or be allowed to be defined as belonging to a particular religious group based on the views of their parents or guardians. At the age of 16, as with other laws, they would then be considered old enough and educated enough to form their own opinion and follow any particular religion (or none at all) through free thought</i>.</blockquote></div><div>"Whoa.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Let's run through this.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The first and most obvious thing that comes to mind is that what the petition asks is something that in America is unequivocally unconstitutional: government intrusion in private religious practice. Ed Brayton, over at <a href="https://scienceblogs.com/dispatches">Dispatches from the Culture Wars</a>, has gone into outrage overload at this whole thing, declaring that "<i>as far as I'm concerned, this pretty much removes Dawkins from any discussion among reasonable people</i>." He goes on to a laundry list of entirely valid criticisms.</div><div></div><blockquote><div>This proposal is every bit as noxious and totalitarian as a proposal from Christian reconstructionists that those who teach their children about witchcraft or atheism should be thrown in jail would be. Just imagine what you would have to do to actually enforce such a law. No one could take their children to church, which means you'd have to literally police the churches to make sure no children went in. Nor could they teach their children about religion at home, read the Bible with them, say prayers with them before they go to bed. The only way to enforce such a law would be to create a society that would make Orwell's 1984 seem optimistic by comparison.</div></blockquote><div></div><div>"In case the "<i>thrown in jai</i>l" part sounds a little hyperbolic to you, recall that the petition itself uses the word "<i>illega</i>l," and the general idea is that if someone does something illegal, then they've earned at the very least a citation and at worst imprisonment. Does Dawkins really want people to go to jail for taking their kids to Sunday School? Has he really gone that far over the top?" [<b>End of Quotation from Martin Wagner</b>]</div><div><br /></div><div>*** The Blog motto seems to be "<i>We feed on the blood of the ignorant!</i>" - but they may not be referring to Dawkins!</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>My Comment:</b> Dawkins withdrew his signature, claiming that he had misunderstood the Petition, believing it only referred to religious schools. The Petition does not mention schools at all and moreover is perfectly in line with Dawkins claim that raising your child as a Catholic is a form of child abuse.</span></div></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;">(D) Hitler was not an Atheist; He was a Catholic - as per Richard Dawkins</span></h3><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-dawkins/ratzinger-isenemy-22sept10.php">On 22 September 2010 the UK Guardian</a> reported that "<i>Richard Dawkins has contacted the Guardian to strongly deny that he compared Roman Catholics to Nazis, rather he said that Hitler was a Roman Catholic</i>." The Guardian then gave a detailed account of his speech that included the following:</div><blockquote><div>"The unfortunate little fact that Ratzinger was in the Hitler Youth has been the subject of a widely observed moratorium. I've respected it myself, hitherto. But after the pope's outrageous speech in Edinburgh, blaming atheism for Adolf Hitler, one can't help feeling the gloves are off ..</div><div><br /></div><div>"Hitler was a Roman Catholic. Or at least he was as much a Roman Catholic as the 5 million so-called Roman Catholics in this country today. For Hitler never renounced his baptismal Catholicism, which was doubtless the criterion for counting the 5 million alleged British Catholics today. You cannot have it both ways. Either you have 5 million British Catholics, in which case you have to have Hitler, too. Or Hitler was not a Catholic, in which case you have to give us an honest figure for the number of genuine Catholics in Britain today – the number who really believe Jesus turns himself into a wafer, as the former Professor Ratzinger presumably does.</div><div><br /></div><div>"In any case, Hitler certainly was not an atheist. In 1933 he claimed to have "<i>stamped atheism out</i>", having banned most of Germany's atheist organisations, including the German Freethinkers League whose building was then turned into an information bureau for church affairs. ...</div><div><br /></div><div>"Even if Hitler had been an atheist – as Joseph Stalin more surely was – how dare Ratzinger suggest that atheism has any connection whatsoever with their horrific deeds? Any more than Hitler and Stalin's non-belief in leprechauns or unicorns. Any more than their sporting of a moustache – along with Francisco Franco and Saddam Hussein. There is no logical pathway from atheism to wickedness.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Unless, that is, you are steeped in the vile obscenity at the heart of Catholic theology. I refer (and I am indebted to Paula Kirby for the point) to the doctrine of original sin. These people believe – and they teach this to tiny children, at the same time as they teach them the terrifying falsehood of hell – that every baby is "<i>born in sin</i>". That would be Adam's sin, by the way: Adam who, as they themselves now admit, never existed.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Original sin means that, from the moment we are born, we are wicked, corrupt, damned. Unless we believe in their God. Or unless we fall for the carrot of heaven and the stick of hell. That, ladies and gentleman, is the disgusting theory that leads them to presume that it was godlessness that made Hitler and Stalin the monsters that they were. We are all monsters unless redeemed by Jesus. What a vile, depraved, inhuman theory to base your life on. </div></blockquote><blockquote><div>"<b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Ratzinger is an enemy of humanity. </span></b>..........."</div></blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">(E) Extracts from "Hitler's Secret Conversations" (aka "Hitler's Table Talk") regarding Christianity</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;">The book <i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Hitler's Secret Conversations 1941-1944</span></i> published by Farrar, Straus and Young, Inc. first edition, 1953, contains definitive proof of Hitler's real views. The book was published in Britain under the title, "<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944"</span></i>, which title was used for the Oxford University Press paperback edition in the United States.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><b>All of these are quotes from Adolf Hitler</b>:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><i>Night of 11th-12th July, 1941</i><b>:</b><br />National Socialism and religion cannot exist together.... The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity's illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity.... Let it not be said that Christianity brought man the life of the soul, for that evolution was in the natural order of things. (p 6 & 7)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><i>10th October, 1941, midday:</i><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure.</span> (p 43)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><i>14th October, 1941, midday:</i><br />The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death.... When understanding of the universe has become widespread... Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity.... Christianity has reached the peak of absurdity.... And that's why someday its structure will collapse.... ...the only way to get rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little.... Christianity the liar.... <span style="color: #2b00fe;">We'll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State.</span> (p 49-52)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><i>19th October, 1941, night:</i><br />The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><i>21st October, 1941, midday:</i><br />Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism, the destroyer.... The decisive falsification of Jesus' doctrine was the work of St.Paul. He gave himself to this work... for the purposes of personal exploitation.... Didn't the world see, carried on right into the Middle Ages, the same old system of martyrs, tortures, faggots? Of old, it was in the name of Christianity. Today, it's in the name of Bolshevism. Yesterday the instigator was Saul: the instigator today, Mardochai. Saul was changed into St.Paul, and Mardochai into Karl Marx. By exterminating this pest, we shall do humanity a service of which our soldiers can have no idea. (p 63-65)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><i>13th December, 1941, midnight:</i><br />Christianity is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more senseless, nor any more indecent way of turning the idea of the Godhead into a mockery.... .... When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity. Let's be the only people who are immunised against the disease. (p 118 & 119)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><i>14th December, 1941, midday:</i><br />Kerrl, with noblest of intentions, wanted to attempt a synthesis between National Socialism and Christianity. I don't believe the thing's possible, and I see the obstacle in Christianity itself.... Pure Christianity-- the Christianity of the catacombs-- is concerned with translating Christian doctrine into facts. It leads quite simply to the annihilation of mankind. It is merely whole-hearted Bolshevism, under a tinsel of metaphysics. (p 119 & 120)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><i>9th April, 1942, dinner:</i><br />There is something very unhealthy about Christianity (p 339)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><i>27th February, 1942, midday:</i><br />It would always be disagreeable for me to go down to posterity as a man who made concessions in this field. I realize that man, in his imperfection, can commit innumerable errors-- but to devote myself deliberately to errors, that is something I cannot do. I shall never come personally to terms with the Christian lie. Our epoch Uin the next 200 years will certainly see the end of the disease of Christianity.... My regret will have been that I couldn't... behold ." (p 278)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;">(F) MY CONCLUSION</span></h3><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Hitler was in fact, a Social Darwinist who believed in an impersonal Providence which gives victory to the strong by using a process of natural selection to ensure the survival of the fittest. (He objected to Christianity because he saw it as "<i>a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature ..... the systematic cultivation of the human failure</i>".) In addition Hitler - like Dawkins - did not believe in Original Sin - which the Catholic Church regards as a radical weakness in human nature by means of which we have a "natural" tendency to do evil rather than good.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><b>NOTES:</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span>[<b>1]</b> As per Wikipedia "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Historical_Society">The College Historical Society (CHS) – popularly referred to as The Hist</a> – is one of the two debating societies at Trinity College Dublin. It was established within the college in 1770 and was inspired by the club formed by the philosopher Edmund Burke during his own time in Trinity in 1747. <b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">It is the oldest surviving undergraduate student society in the world</span></i></b>. .... Prominent members have included many Irish men and women of note, from the republican revolutionary Theobald Wolfe Tone and the author Bram Stoker, to founding father of the Northern Irish state Edward Carson and first President of Ireland Douglas Hyde, and – in more recent times – Government Ministers Mary Harney (who was the first female auditor of the society) and Brian Lenihan."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span>Theobald Wolfe Tone, later leader of the United Irishmen rebellion in 1798, was elected auditor in 1785, and future rebel Thomas Addis Emmet was a member of the committee. The society was briefly expelled from the college in 1794, but readmitted on the condition that <i>"No question of modern politics shall be debated</i>". Eight members of The Hist were expelled in 1798 in the run-up to the Rebellion, and a motion was later carried condemning the rebellion, against their former auditor.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span>Tension between the society and the college flourished in the early nineteenth century, with the auditor being called before the provost in 1810. After a number of members were removed at the request of the college board, the society left the college in 1815. The society continued from 1815 as the Extern Historical Society until 1843, when it reformed within the college again on the condition that no subject of current politics was debated. As per Wikipedia "<i>This provision remains in the Laws of the Hist as a nod to the past, but the college authorities have long since ceased to restrict the subjects of the society's debates.</i>" </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>The decadence of <i>the oldest surviving undergraduate student society in the world ("</i></b></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>we value our members comfort above all else”) </i></b></span><b style="color: #2b00fe;">is therefore significant and illustrates the truth of the old saying that "<a href="https://whiskymoods.com/uncategorized/a-fish-rots-from-the-head-down/"><i>A fish rots from the head down</i>"!</a></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>[2]</b> The Guardian has a very informative article dated 20 April 2021 on the issue "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/20/richard-dawkins-loses-humanist-of-the-year-trans-comments">Richard Dawkins Loses ‘Humanist of the Year’ Title over Trans Comments"</a> The subtitle is <span style="color: #2b00fe; font-style: italic;">"American Humanist Association criticises academic for comments about identity using ‘the guise of scientific discourse’, and withdraws its 1996 honour" </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Like The Hist, the American Humanist Association had no problem with Dawkins' view that raising one's child as a Catholic is worse than child sex abuse. So exactly WHAT did the AHA object to? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div></div><blockquote><div> On Monday, it announced that it was withdrawing the award, referring to a tweet sent by Dawkins earlier this month, in which he compared trans people to Rachel Dolezal, the civil rights activist who posed as a black woman for years.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In 2015, Rachel Dolezal, a white chapter president of NAACP, was vilified for identifying as Black</span></i>,” wrote Dawkins on Twitter. “<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Some men choose to identify as women, and some women choose to identify as men. You will be vilified if you deny that they literally are what they identify as. Discuss</span></i>.”</div></blockquote><div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><div>The Guardian article goes on to give details of a statement from the AHA board:</div><div></div><blockquote><div>The AHA said that Dawkins had “<i>over the past several years accumulated a history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalised groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values</i>”. The evolutionary biologist’s latest comment, the board said, <i>“implies that the identities of transgender individuals are fraudulent, while also simultaneously attacking Black identity as one that can be assumed when convenient</i>”, while his “<i>subsequent attempts at clarification are inadequate and convey neither sensitivity nor sincerity</i>”.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>Consequently, the AHA Board has concluded that Richard Dawkins is no longer<span style="color: #2b00fe; font-weight: bold;"> </span></i><span><i>deserving of being honored by the AHA, and has voted to withdraw, effective immediately, the 1996 Humanist of the Year award.</i>”</span></div></blockquote><p>The claim that Dawkins had "<i>accumulated a history of making statements that .. demean marginalised groups</i>" presumably includes his 2015 remark that: “<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Is trans woman a woman? Purely semantic. If you define by chromosomes, no. If by self-identification, yes. I call her “she” out of courtesy</span></i>.”</p><p><b>[3]</b> The Hist and the American Humanist Association are not the ONLY secular organisations to take offence at Dawkins' tweet. The afore-mentioned Guardian article also quotes Alison Gill, vice president for legal and policy at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Atheists">American Atheists</a> (founded by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O%27Hair">Madalyn Murray O'Hair</a>) and a trans woman. According to The Guardian "<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>s</i></b></span><b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">he said Dawkins’ comments reinforce dangerous and harmful narratives"</span></i></b>. She said: “<i>Given the repercussions for the millions of trans people in this country, in this one life we have to live, as an atheist and as a trans woman, I hope that Professor Dawkins treats this issue with greater understanding and respect in the future</i>.”</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div><span></span></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div></div></div><div></div></span></div></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-65140572330119243582021-04-01T20:08:00.002+01:002021-04-01T20:08:40.693+01:00No more lockdowns – Britain will treat Covid like flu, says Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EWqZFQl0grr8otfbHklhIri2KQWPOOtsW7l0fuKyMFY73WWHWqKePkM6b3Dtn-d1H8_BR7RLe_eIE5QHvjjjd3aNQ1kzAyI2pFxA5YX8Q6T5Nn9-azpVoDYDhmdOj5Zqm-H8-R6roqgG/s465/Prof_Chris_Whitty.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="465" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EWqZFQl0grr8otfbHklhIri2KQWPOOtsW7l0fuKyMFY73WWHWqKePkM6b3Dtn-d1H8_BR7RLe_eIE5QHvjjjd3aNQ1kzAyI2pFxA5YX8Q6T5Nn9-azpVoDYDhmdOj5Zqm-H8-R6roqgG/w640-h426/Prof_Chris_Whitty.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer</span></h3></td></tr></tbody></table></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/01/no-lockdowns-britain-will-treat-coronavirus-like-flu-says/" style="font-family: arial;">No More Lockdowns – Britain Will Treat Covid Like Flu, says Chris Whitty</a></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Accepting some virus deaths is price of allowing people to live a 'whole life', says chief medical officer</i></b></span></h4><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>by Sarah Knapton, SCIENCE EDITOR<br /></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>1 April 2021 • 4:43pm</b></span></h4><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b>Lockdowns are unlikely to be needed again as Britain learns to treat coronavirus like flu, Prof Chris Whitty has said.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The chief medical officer said that up to 25,000 people die in a bad flu year without anyone noticing and that accepting some Covid deaths would be the price of keeping schools and business open and allowing people to live a "<i>whole life</i>".</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Prof Whitty, speaking on a Royal School of Medicine webinar, said the Government would only be forced to "<i>pull the alarm cord</i>" if a dangerous variant arrived, against which people had no immunity and which sparked exponential growth.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />"C<i>ovid is not going to go away,</i>" he said. "<i>You've got to work out what's a rational policy to this and here I would differentiate quite a lot between a pandemic environment and what you get with seasonal flu</i>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />"<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Every year, somewhere between 7,000 and 9,000 citizens die of flu, most of them very elderly, and every few years you get a bad flu year where 20,000 to 25,000 die of it. The last time we had that was three years ago and no one noticed it</span>.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i>"<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">So it is clear we are going to have to manage it, at some point, rather like we manage the flu. Here is a seasonal, very dangerous disease that kills thousands of people and society has chosen a particular way round it</span></i>."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Prof Whitty said it was important to bring Covid deaths as low as possible, but warned that society would not tolerate being locked down to prevent similar numbers of deaths to those from flu.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />"<i>We want to get as close as we can [to zero] but the question is how do you balance that against other priorities?</i>" he said. "<i>What are people prepared to put up with? What we've demonstrated in the last year is we don't have to have flu at all if we don't want to, because the things we’ve done against Covid have led to virtually no influenza.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i>"<i>If next year we say 'we can deal with flu, everyone lock down over the winter</i>' I think the medical profession would not make itself popular with the general public.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />"<i>We need to work out some balance which actually keeps it at a low level, minimises deaths as best we can, but in a way that the population tolerates, through medical countermeasures like vaccines and in due course drugs, which mean you can minimise mortality while not maximising the economic and social impacts on our fellow citizens</i>."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Prof Whitty said although there would always be more measures that could be put in place to save lives, such as shutting schools and universities or preventing relatives visiting the elderly in care homes, such restrictions prevented people from living a "<i>whole life</i>".</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Asked by Sir Simon Wessely, professor of psychological medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, whether lockdowns would be reimposed if cases rose, even in local areas, Prof Whitty said: "<i>No, I don't think so</i>."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />However, he added: "<i>Society will not tolerate more than a certain number of people being ill, even if they know it's going to go away come the spring, and the area where we're going to have to pull the alarm cord is if a variant of concern comes in that we can see is now back to a situation of unconstrained growth because the immunological response to it is just not there</i>."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Boris Johnson has previously vowed that the current unlocking of restrictions is irreversible, and next week the Government will determine whether shops can reopen on April 12 as planned.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that infections in the community are continuing to fall, dropping eight per cent in a week. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />However, Mr Johnson warned last week that cases were rising in Europe and a third wave may spread to Britain from the continent. Latest data from the King's College ZOE symptom tracker app also suggests the 'R' number may now be at one, or even above in some areas. The ONS warned that cases may be rising in the East of England.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Prof Whitty said that it was impossible to prevent variants from coming into the UK, and argued that shutting the borders would be unlikely to prevent new infections. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The Government has been strongly criticised for keeping the borders open during both lockdowns, even though studies have shown that the vast majority of Britain’s cases were imported from countries like Spain and Italy.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />"<i>We have to accept the idea that stopping variants coming to the UK is not a realistic starting point, but you can slow it down,</i>" he said. "<i>Anyone who believes you can put up some border policy that stops it is misunderstanding the problem completely</i>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />"<i>While the 'R' is less than one, which it has been for two or three months, then new variants don't have much of a foothold. Once we start to open things up, then if a variant comes in it has the opportunity to spread and the more cases you import the quicker the starting point. What we’re trying to do is slow it down</i>.”</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Prof Whitty also said that it was sensible to keep an "<i>open mind</i>" on whether the AstraZeneca vaccine caused blood clots until it was proven otherwise.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>© Telegraph Media Group Limited 2021</b></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-87399815366577630342021-03-31T21:39:00.005+01:002021-04-13T18:12:52.667+01:00Proposed Restorative (Redress) Scheme for Former Residents of Mother and Baby Homes<p style="text-align: left;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw4D-j9yCOw57hD1fodZV80jsbIl_c9CagI1Cvruy0Yx6bUrEfrArTKWHU6vkqK9PWaK6sv1nFfiAogcc0UhCQaxym3kdLNXtOpNSAxwrXVZWv8R_3dSDb77p3TIR4O8ZyyTSPtAYmo3g6/s633/RodericOGorman.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Minister for Children, Roderic O'Gorman" border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="633" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw4D-j9yCOw57hD1fodZV80jsbIl_c9CagI1Cvruy0Yx6bUrEfrArTKWHU6vkqK9PWaK6sv1nFfiAogcc0UhCQaxym3kdLNXtOpNSAxwrXVZWv8R_3dSDb77p3TIR4O8ZyyTSPtAYmo3g6/w400-h291/RodericOGorman.jpg" title="Minister for Children, Roderic O'Gorman" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">Minister for Children, Roderic O'Gorman</span></h3></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>OAK Consulting</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>c/o Department of Children, Equality and Youth</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Block 1, Miesian Plaza</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>50-58 Baggot St Lower</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Dublin 2</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">With reference to the "Restorative Recognition Scheme" I note that "</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Submissions are being invited from former residents, their families, advocacy and representative groups and other interested parties</i>." I am definitely an "<i>interested party</i>". I was a De La Salle Brother from 1966 to 1969 and details of my background are in the article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-reason-why-brother-maurice-kirk-and.html">The Reason Why: Brother Maurice Kirk and I</a>" on my Blog <a href="http://IrishSalem.Blogspot.com">IrishSalem.Blogspot.com</a>. I believe that nearly every one of my former colleagues who worked in an Industrial School or similar institution was accused of child abuse and if I had done so myself, I'm sure I would have been accused also.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Hate Speech from the media plus the almost evidence-free payouts from the <b><i>previous</i></b> Redress Board, encouraged people to lie.<b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> I am therefore concerned that there is going to be a repetition of the previous fiasco.</span></i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></i></b></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b>(A) Richard Webster regarding our <i>previous</i> Redress Scheme</b></span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"> I corresponded for years with the late UK cultural historian Richard Webster on the issue of false allegations and the Irish Redress Board. I gave him the material regarding Ireland that he included in his book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Bryn-Estyn-Making-Modern/dp/0951592246#:~:text=The%20Secret%20of%20Bryn%20Estyn%20is%20an%20exhaustively%20researched%20analysis,adolescent%20boys%20in%20North%20Wales.">The Secret of Bryn Estyn - The Making of a Modern Witch Hunt</a>" - a work that mainly concerns a child abuse panic in North Wales but also material on similar bouts of hysteria in other countries. (His book is mainly about lying attacks on <b><i>secular</i></b> child care personnel but he sees the link with similar attacks on the Catholic Church). He published the Irish material separately on his website in an essay "<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-webster/states-of-fear-redress-folly-2005.php">States of Fear, the Redress Board and Ireland's Folly</a>". Unfortunately Richard Webster died in 2011 aged only 60. His friends maintained the website RichardWebster.net until recently but it's no longer available (although his Blog is). Fortunately I copied the text onto <b>my</b> old website and I have linked to that. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b><i>The data regarding Ireland in the book mainly concerns the allegations made by Pat Rabbitte, and the late Christine Buckely and Mary Raftery.</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I <b>also</b> gave Richard the material concerning the Redress Board on which he based his essay "<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-webster/the-christmas-spirit-ireland-24ded05.php">The Christmas Spirit in Ireland</a>" dated 24 December 2005. Again I copied it onto my old website IrishSalem.com My contribution to that essay mainly consisted of the the statistics and the quote with which Richard ended it: </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote>With the standard of proof dangerously close to zero it is clearly, for the moment at least, almost impossible to be refused compensation. As the former bank robber James Gantley put it a year ago, the Redress Board is '<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>The Good Ship Lollipop, lots of dosh for everyone</i>'</span>.</blockquote><p><b><i>The Secret of Bryn Estyn</i></b> was published at the beginning of 2005 but was 9 years in the making. In the <b><i>book</i></b> Richard wrote that: <a id="TOP" name="TOP" style="background-color: #aaafb2; color: #284759; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></a></p><p style="display: inline;"></p><blockquote>Once again it must immediately be acknowledged that some of the allegations which have been made against Roman Catholic priests – possibly the majority of the early ones – are genuine. Others, including a number based on bizarre recovered memories, are quite evidently false.</blockquote><p></p></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><p>But in the <b><i>later essay</i></b> he said: </p><p></p><blockquote>But it is also likely to be the case that a very large number of the claims received [by the Redress Board], <span style="color: #2b00fe;">perhaps as many as 90%</span>, would prove, if it were possible to investigate them fully, entirely false. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">If that is indeed the case then the Irish government has committed a protracted act of folly on a scale unprecedented in the entire history of sexual abuse compensation scheme</span>s. [my emphasis]</blockquote><p></p><p> I hope that I contributed to his change of emphasis! </p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(B) My Testimony to the Ryan Commission re False Allegations</span></h3></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>I gave evidence to the Ryan Commission on my own behalf and as a member of the group "<i>Let Our Voices Emerge</i>" that represented victims of false allegations. I had a letter in the Irish Examiner on 7 November 2011 "<a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-20173020.html">Ryan Report Did Not Deal with False Allegations"</a></div><div>that summarizes our experience. </div><div><br /></div><div>My own testimony concerned false allegations of child murder - mainly targeting the Christian Brothers but also against the Sisters of Mercy. An updated version of my testimony is contained in my article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html">Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews</a>" The same kind of allegations have been made against the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam (and Good Shepherd nuns etc) - except they are supposed to have <b><i>starved</i></b> children to death rather than <b><i>beaten </i></b>them to death!</div><div><br /></div><div>In that connection, I also contributed to Hermann Kelly's 2007 book "<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kathys-Real-Story-Culture-Allegations/dp/1906351007">Kathy's Real Story: A Culture of False Allegations Exposed</a>" which deals mainly with fake abuse "<i>survivor</i>"<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-490977/Lies-Little-Miss-Misery--memoir-abused-girl-fake-says-new-investigation.html"> Kathy O'Beirne</a> but also goes into the culture of hysteria that made her own book "<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kathys-Story-Childhood-Magdalen-Laundries/dp/1840189681">Kathy's Story: A Childhood Hell Inside the Magdalen Laundries</a>" into a best-seller in 2005. I contributed to the second part of Mr. Kelly's book and especially to the section he which he discusses claims that the Christian Brothers had been responsible for the deaths of boys in their care. Because many of these claims refer to periods when no boy died of ANY cause(!), I coined the phrase "<i>Murder of the Undead</i>". Since Hermann Kelly is more moderate than I, he uses the subheading "<i>Funerals of the Undead</i>" in his discussion of this issue! </div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(C) History Seminar on Tuam Children's Home etc</span></h3><div><a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/10/seminar-on-tuam-childrens-home-online.html">This History Seminar</a> was held in Galway on in October 2020 and - apart from myself - it featured Eugene Jordan, recently the President of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society and Brian Nugent ,author of <i> @Tuam Babies: A Critical look at the Tuam Children's Home Scandal. </i>A major topic was the claim that the Bon Secours and other nuns allowed children to starve to death. These allegations were based on a (deliberate?) misunderstanding of the medical term "<i>Marasmus</i>". (The Final Report of the Commission on Mothers and Baby Homes later confirmed that Marasmus on a Death Certificate did <b><i>not </i></b>mean death by wilful neglect.)</div><div><br /></div><div><div>In my own lecture, I quoted from a crazy article by Emer O'Kelly in the Sunday Independent on 8 June 2014 "<i><a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/tuam-babies-cry-not-for-justice-but-for-vengeance-30337370.html">Tuam Babies Cry Not For Justice But For Vengeance</a></i>" that opens with the following:</div><div><blockquote><i>Seventy years ago, on the orders of a maniac, little children and babies were herded into barren camps in Germany and occupied Poland by men in black uniforms. They were starved to death in those camps; sometimes they had hideous medical experiments carried out upon them while alive, so hideous the silence of death was probably merciful. And when they died, their little bodies were thrown into huge pits. Because they were scum: Jewish scum.</i></blockquote></div><div><b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In the course of the article Emer O'Kelly trice denounces the Good Shepherd Sisters i.e. the wrong nuns!</span></i></b></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Similar thuggish articles appeared in other newspapers (including the Sunday World) and <b style="font-style: italic;">obviously </b>affected former residents. In my "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/01/open-letter-to-archbishop-michael-neary.html">Open Letter to Archbishop Michael Neary regarding Tuam Home</a>" I quoted one of them (regarding the Good Shepherd Home in New Ross in 1964) : </div><div><blockquote><i>I saw a baby in a nun’s arms and blood dripping along the floor. I saw another nun standing with a shovel in her hand. I was a 12 year old. I knew they were going out to do something, or dig a hole for that child but nobody would listen to me.</i></blockquote></div><div>This was published in the Sunday World on 29 June 2014. Earlier that same month Fr Brian D’Arcy had an article entitled “<b><i>Fr Brian: Baby Graves are Our Greatest Crime</i></b>” that includes the following:</div><div><blockquote>“<i>When I first heard the news that more than 800 babies were buried in what was formerly a septic tank I was astonished – because initially I thought it happened in some famine-stricken country today. Then I thought I was hearing about Nazi Germany….</i></blockquote></div><div>Please note that part C of my article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/02/deaths-of-children-in-mother-and-baby.html">Deaths of Children in Mother and Baby Care Homes</a>" is entitled "<b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Commission Acknowledges Existence of False Allegations!</span></i></b>" and includes the Commission's conclusion that "<span style="color: #2b00fe;">A number of witnesses gave evidence that was clearly incorrect. This contamination probably occurred because of meetings with other residents and <b>inaccurate media coverage</b></span>" [my emphasis]</div><div><br /></div></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(D) SUMMARY</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I had intended to write m<i>ore </i>but today 31 March 2021 is the deadline for submissions. I may send additional material<i> a</i>s an Appendix later tonight. To summarise my concerns I will repeat the above quotation from Richard Webster's 2005 essay "<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-webster/the-christmas-spirit-ireland-24ded05.php">The Christmas Spirit in Ireland"</a>:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">But it is also likely to be the case that a very large number of the claims received </span>[by the Redress Board]<span style="color: #2b00fe;">, perhaps as many as 90%, would prove, if it were possible to investigate them fully, entirely false. If that is indeed the case then the Irish government has committed a protracted act of folly on a scale unprecedented in the entire history of sexual abuse compensation schemes.</span></i></blockquote><p><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I am concerned to ensure that Minister for Children, Equality and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman does not repeat this "protracted act of folly" !</span></b></p><p>[ I note that <i>"submissions received will be subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 and may also be published as part of a final report on the Restorative Recognition Scheme."</i> I am publishing my submission on my Blog IrishSalem.blogspot.com . You may find it easier to access the links via the Blog rather than the email! ]</p></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Best wishes</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Rory Connor</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>11 Lohunda Grove</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Clonsilla</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Dublin 15</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><b>Submissions</b></div><div>10:32 PM </div><div>to me</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Dear Rory</b></div><div>I wish to acknowledge receipt of your written submission which we will take into consideration when compiling our report.</div><div><br /></div><div>With my thanks and kind regards</div><div><b>Mary Lou</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Dear Mary Lou</b></div><div>Thanks a lot. Before clock strikes midnight I'm sending you links to two articles I wrote regarding Richard Webster after his death (Appendix 1) and a link to his Blog that is still online (Appendix 2). Both have material on Redress Boards in Nova Scotia and Jersey as well as Ireland</div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Appendix 1</span></b> "<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-webster/in-memory-of-richard-webster-14aug11.php">In Memory of Richard Webster</a>" - article/obituary on my old website after he died on 23 June 2011 and "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2019/08/richard-webster-idea-of-evil-and.html">Richard Webster, The Idea of Evil and Operation Midland</a>" my Blog article comprising some of our correspondence regarding the Jersey lunacy.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Appendix 2.</span></b> HIS 2008 blog article "<a href="http://richardwebster-net.blogspot.com/2008/11/something-evil-had-happened-i-had-to-go.html">Something evil had happened . . . I had to go on' - Jersey in the Sunday papers</a>"</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Rory</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">EPILOGUE:</span></b></h3><div><div><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(i) Associated Press Apology to Bon Secours Sisters</span></b></div><div> I had intended to add more to my submission but, as usual for me, ran up against a deadline. The main thing omitted is reference to my article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/10/tuam-babies-and-associated-press.html">Tuam Babies and Associated Press Apology to Bon Secours Sisters</a>" </div><div><br /></div><div>The Jesuit magazine "<i><a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/">America</a></i>" got the AP to apologise for its worldwide publication of stories that the Catholic Church had refused to baptise the Tuam babies and that it was Church policy to refuse Baptism to the children of unmarried mothers. The AP apology indicated that they had repeated "<i>incorrect Irish news reports</i>"</div><div><br /></div><div>THIS lie isn't on the same level as the ones about Nazi nuns starving babies to death but it's important because it can be PROVEN false- even half a century or more later. I'm not sure how it started BUT I recall reading reports about "<i>Survivors</i>" claiming that nuns had insulted them and referred to their babies as "<i>Spawn of Satan</i>". I assume that some "<i>Survivors</i>" then progressed from telling stories whose credibility <b><i>can't</i></b> be established decades late, to telling lies that <b><i>can</i></b>. And Irish media published their lies! </div><div><br /></div><div>It's interesting that it was a publication in the USA that got the AP to apologise. I'm sure there are many Americans - ignorant of or prejudiced against the Catholic Church - who would have seen nothing remarkable about this tale. (Just another routine example of Catholic Evil). However is there a single <b>Irish</b> editor - or journalist - who actually believed it? Probably not but there are <b>no</b> Irish MSM editors who are interested in nailing the lie or securing an apology! </div></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>(ii)</b> <b>"A Redress Board for Jersey"</b></span></div><div><b>[<i>Extract from R Webster's article dated 9 June 2008 - no longer online but I quote from it in my article "<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-webster/in-memory-of-richard-webster-14aug11.php">In Memory of Richard Webster</a>" - see Appendix 1 above]</i></b></div></span><blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There have also been a number of other developments. More than a week ago the <i>Jersey Evening Post</i> reported that calls had been made by victims' advocates for Jersey to set up a '<i>Redress Board</i>'. In practice this would mean that compensation could be awarded to alleged victims without the the need for allegations to be tested in a criminal court. In support of this move Fay Maxted, chief executive of the Survivors' Trust, actually cited the examples provided by compensation schemes set up both in the Republic of Ireland and in Nova Scotia:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i>The redress boards set up in Nova Scotia and Ontario in the 1990s, and in Ireland in 2002, have been able to allow victims the opportunity to be heard and recompensed in some way and given communities the opportunity to challenge the silence and secrecy that concealed the abuse in the past</i>."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Today almost exactly the same story appears in the <i>Guardian</i>. What neither the <i>Jersey Evening Post</i> nor the <i>Guardian</i> pointed out was that<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> there is a significant amount of evidence that both in Ireland and Nova Scotia these schemes have in practice functioned almost as a compensation-on-demand scheme for anyone who has made allegations of abuse, whether or not there is any evidence to support these allegations. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">In both cases there have been well-informed claims that the creation of such redress schemes has led to, or intensified, a veritable culture of false allegations. This is the argument put forward by Herman Kelly in the closing sections of his book <i><a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/hermann-kelly/hermannkelly-richardwebster-10may08.php">Kathy's Real Story: A Culture of False Allegations Exposed</a></i>. The same argument was also implicit in the conclusions of the Canadian judge Fred Kaufman when he was commissioned by the Nova Scotia government to conduct an inquiry into the compensation scheme there.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">For my own comment on the workings of the Irish redress board, click <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-webster/the-christmas-spirit-ireland-24ded05.php">here</a>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">If the Jersey parliament were to act on the ill-judged recommendations reported today by the Guardian, they would be committing an act of the grossest kind of folly</span>. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">[My emphasis RC]</span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b>(iii) Ireland, Jersey and Myself as Footnote in History!</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>[ Extract from R Webster's article of 19 April 2008 <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-webster/flat-earth-news-04apr-08.php">Flat Earth News and The Jersey Child Abuse Scandal - Part 1</a></span> </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote><div>The idea that residents of children homes were being murdered played little or no part in the Kincora, North Wales and Casa Pia scandals. But such ideas were prominent in the moral panic which overtook the Irish Republic in 1999 after the broadcast on Irish TV of <i>States of Fea</i>r, a three-part documentary series about the Irish industrial schools. Amidst the widespread allegations of abuse which were made in the wake of this programme, many children were said to have disappeared or been murdered in schools run by the Christian Brothers. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">As the tireless campaigner Rory Connor has pointed out, in a comment posted on the Community Care website, ‘<i>these included accusations in a major Sunday newspaper of mass killing (“a Holocaust”) at Letterfrack in Co. Galway</i>.’ However, as Connor notes, ‘<i>Not a single claim has proved to be correct. This is not surprising as several relate to periods when no child died of any cause</i>.’</span></div><div><br /></div><div>In Ireland, as in North Wales and Kincora, there can be no doubt that some children were physically or sexually abused in children’s homes. But in all these cases what has happened is that a small nucleus of reality has had woven around it a vast tissue of fantasy and fabrication. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Both in Ireland and in North Wales, as in similar scandals in Cheshire, Merseyside, Northumbria (and indeed in Nova Scotia), the evidence indicates that overwhelming majority of allegations associated with such scandals are false. </span>[My emphasis]</div></blockquote><div></div></span></div><p> </p><div><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-43964139194704430492021-03-23T19:24:00.000+00:002021-03-23T19:24:19.077+00:00Brown University Students (Rhode Island) Can Accuse Others of Sex Attacks Anonymously<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brown-university-students-can-accuse-others-of-sex-attacks-anonymously-fm08g302d">Brown University Students Can Accuse Others of Sex Attacks Anonymously</a></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDGd8uj-FG4w5pY2WkVtECSKDQ0X8ZgzDFH2JW_jXGIXRLeDPvRGNnRh15CUrW2Kr_MYFgpxFM-8nJFsChrS3TMR1EhfZmX-jgoB5lmJwJTbY8F8ri4VDi5LlB5Z01giT7WsBIceqa9aGX/s1180/BrownUniversity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="1180" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDGd8uj-FG4w5pY2WkVtECSKDQ0X8ZgzDFH2JW_jXGIXRLeDPvRGNnRh15CUrW2Kr_MYFgpxFM-8nJFsChrS3TMR1EhfZmX-jgoB5lmJwJTbY8F8ri4VDi5LlB5Z01giT7WsBIceqa9aGX/w640-h360/BrownUniversity.jpg" title="Brown University in Rhode Island first hit the headlines over alleged assaults in the early 1990s" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Brown University in Rhode Island first hit headlines over alleged assaults in the early 1990s</b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>The Times by Will Pavia, New York</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>March 23 2021, </i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">[<b>I made use of my two free Times articles a week, to view THIS article and to make a contribution to the Comments section. RC</b> ]</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">A lavatory at Brown University once made headlines across America after women at the college began writing the names of men who had allegedly sexually assaulted them in a list on the wall.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The “<i>rape list</i>”, as it was called, appeared amid complaints from female students that administrators treated allegations as misunderstandings or indiscretions by “<i>boys</i>” who “<i>do not know the rules yet</i>”. It also prompted complaints from men who claimed that they had been anonymously slandered.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Three decades later Rhode Island’s oldest Ivy League university has set up an online reporting system in which students can make allegations of sexual assault or harassment anonymously to college officials. Some student groups say that it will encourage victims who might be reluctant to speak about their experience in person or over the phone.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">“<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Anonymous denouncements</span>,</i>” Professor Nicholas Christakis, a sociologist and physician at Yale University, tweeted. “<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>What could possibly go wrong</i>?</span>”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Professor Amna Khalid, a historian at Carleton College in Minnesota who writes about higher education, said: “<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">It’s a way for some people to come forward with stories about what’s happened, but if they are going to name the person but not be willing to put their name forward then it could become a way of targeting people they don’t like</span></i>.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Brown said the system was “</span><i style="font-family: arial;">one additional mechanism through which community members can report incidents of sexual violence</i><span style="font-family: arial;">” and allowed for support to be offered even if there was no formal complaint. The system would also provide “</span><i style="font-family: arial;">as complete a picture as possible about alleged incidents</i><span style="font-family: arial;">”.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Extract from COMMENTS:</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>MQ</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><i>This looks on the surface to be outrageous, but may well be effective as long as the accusees remain anonymous as well. Ms. Alpha lodges a complaint against Mr. Beta. If, within a short time, another complaint is lodged against Mr. Beta, an investigation begins. It should at least be a deterrent for all but the most sex-crazed predators</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Rory Connor - replying to MQ</b></div><div><b>(i) </b><i>And what if Ms Alpha tells her friends MS Gamma, Delta, Epsilon etc what she has done and encourages them to make lying anonymous complaints against the same guy in support? Will there be ANY stage at which the College authorities refer this to police as a criminal conspiracy? OR will they make a private decision to ignore complaints that seem frivolous?</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>(ii)</b> <i>There is also the question of <b>libel</b> - which doesn't necessarily mean a false allegation has to be broadcast to the nation. A female student who tells College authorities that she has been sexually assaulted by a male student at the same College, <b>IS</b> going to affect the attitude of the authorities to that student! </i></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Again this online accusation system is being set up for the benefit of female students at "<b>Rhode Island's oldest Ivy League University</b>" too embarrassed to talk about sex. Should they be at University at all?</i></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-10097916639293819632021-02-16T20:48:00.026+00:002021-02-25T02:13:45.521+00:00Deaths of Children in Mother and Baby Care Homes (did they die of starvation?)<p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is Eugene Jordan, past President of the </span><a href="https://gahs.ie/" style="font-family: arial;">Galway Archaeological and Historical Society</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> being interviewed by Niall McConnell of </span><a href="https://www.irishpatriots.com/" style="font-family: arial;">Síol na hÉireann</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> on 15 February 2021. The topics include naming and shaming the politicians who spread false information regarding the deaths of children, comparing religious run Homes to secular County Homes plus the living and social conditions in Ireland during the first half of the 20th century.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">[ See previous articles on the Tuam Babies especially "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/10/seminar-on-tuam-childrens-home-online.html">Seminar on Tuam Children's' Home</a>" and "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/01/open-letter-to-archbishop-michael-neary.html">Open Letter to Archbishop Michael Neary</a>" ]</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="369" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pw_YssWBmqI" width="444" youtube-src-id="pw_YssWBmqI"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><h1 class="title-text" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> Eugene Jordan Exposes lies of the Mother & Baby Care Homes 15/2/21</span></h1><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The above YouTube video consists of an Introduction only. The full video interview is HERE: </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.purged.tv/l/1261012468/Exclusive-7pm-Live-Stream---Eugene-Jordan-Exposes-lies-of-the-Mother---Baby-care-homes---15-2-21">Eugene Jordan Exposes lies of the Mother & Baby care homes:</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Eugene: Irish politicians took the word "</span><b style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Marasmus</span></i></b><span style="font-family: arial;">", which appeared as a cause of death on a small number of death certificates as evidence of starvation. It was a lie, and that has been proven in the </span><a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/d4b3d-final-report-of-the-commission-of-investigation-into-mother-and-baby-homes/" style="font-family: arial;">Final Report of Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation</a><span style="font-family: arial;">. Will politicians have the guts to do the right thing and apologise for misleading the people?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(A) Eugene Jordan: Politicians and "Children Starved to Death"</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The following quotations are from Eugene Jordan's website <a href="https://falsehistory.ie/"><b>FALSE HISTORY DEBUNKED</b></a> and specifically from his article <a href="https://falsehistory.ie/political-fantasy-chidren-starved-to-death/">Political Fantasy – Children Starved to Death</a> The first quote is from <b><i>Chapter 33: Deaths</i></b> of the Final Report of the Commission - concerning the Marasmus issue</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b><blockquote><b>33. 5</b>. Some commentators have concluded that infant deaths which occurred in mother and baby homes due to marasmus indicates that infants were neglected, not appropriately cared for, and/or wilfully starved to death in these institutions.<br /><br />However, <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">marasmus was a frequently cited cause of infant deaths in institutional, hospital and community settings in early twentieth-century Ireland</span></b>. The Commission considers it unlikely that deaths in hospitals and family homes were due to wilful neglect and so<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> <b>cannot conclude that the term marasmus denotes wilful neglect in mother and baby homes</b></span>. The more likely explanation is that marasmus as a cause of death was cited when an infant failed to thrive due to malabsorption of essential nutrients due to an underlying, undiagnosed medical condition. </blockquote><blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b>Dáil Éireann debate – Wednesday, 27 Jun 2012</b> </h3></blockquote><blockquote><b><i>Deputy Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin)</i></b><br />In 1939, the Government’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer refuted damning public and health inspectorate concerns in regard to the standards of care at <span style="color: red;"><b>Bethany Home</b></span> on the basis of a <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>barbaric belief that it was normal for children of unmarried mothers to suffer from starvation</b></span>. While no action was taken by the Government to protect the children in Bethany Home, which was a Protestant run home, the State did force the home to cease admitting Catholic mothers and babies. What does that say about the State, its orientation and actions?</blockquote><blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b> Dáil Éireann debate – Tuesday, 10 Dec 2013 <span style="color: red;">Bethany Home</span>: Motion [Private Members</b>] </h3></blockquote><blockquote><b><i>Deputy Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin)</i></b><br />Evidence in the public domain and records held by Departments tell us this, yet the Minister of State will table an amendment to the Sinn Féin motion that is beyond a distortion of the truth. She has underpinned her amendment with an argument set out in the same vein as that used by the State’s deputy chief medical adviser in the 1930s. He was of the view that children born outside of marriage were prone to starvation and, judging by the amendment before us, it appears the Government shares this view.<br /><br />In 1939, the State’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer visited Bethany and attributed the ill health of children – rickets, scalding and purulent conjunctivitis – in the home to <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">the fact that they were “illegitimate” and, therefore, “delicate” and prone to starvation</span></b>. Are the Minister of State and the Government supporting that view in 2013?<br /><br />The State colluded. In 1939, for example, the deputy chief medical adviser, Dr. Winslow Sterling Berry, dismissed public concerns and even the concerns of his own health inspectors, by claiming that it was <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“well known that illegitimate children are delicate and marasmic” – in other words, that they suffered from starvation.</span></b></blockquote></span><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Deputy Niall Collins (Fianna Fáil)</i></b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Records reveal that 54 of the children had died from convulsions, 41 from heart failure and <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">26 from marasmus, a form of malnutrition.</span></b></span> </div></blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></h3><blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dáil Éireann debate – Tuesday, 26 Feb 2013 <span style="color: red;">Magdalen Laundries Report</span>: Statements (Resumed)</span> </h3></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Deputy Robert Dowds (Labour Party)</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sterling Berry, in 1939. In his report, Berry reported that it was well recognised that <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">a large number of illegitimate children were delicate and marasmic, which means they were suffering the effects of starvation</span></b>. I stress that this is from the report of an inspection of the home by the State. Was the State involved, was it indifferent to their plight and did the State fail them? The answer is obviously “<i>Yes</i>”.</span></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Deputy Seán Crowe (Sinn Féin)</i></b><br />The big question that arises during this debate, when one steps back from the apology, is why <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">it took the State so long to accept that it played a central and crucial part in supplying the women who were enslaved, starved, ill-treated, abused and treated with cold contempt</span></b>. </span><br /><br /></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dáil Éireann debate – Tuesday, 10 Jun 2014</span> </h3></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Sinn Féin) </i></b></span></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Cemetery records indicate that the causes of death included 54 from convulsions, 41 from heart failure, <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">26 from starvation</span></b> and seven from pneumonia.</span> </div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">[NOTE: the death certs record marasmus <b><i>not </i></b>starvation]</span></div></blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></h3><blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dáil Éireann debate – Wednesday, 11 Jun 2014 </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Death and Burial of Children in <span style="color: red;">Mother and Baby Homes</span>: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]</span> </h3></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Deputy Seamus Healy (Independent)</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">State inspection reports described children as being fragile, pot-bellied and emaciated. <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Cause of death was regularly recorded as starvation</span></b>. [NO marasmus]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b><i>Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett (Solidarity–People Before Profit)</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Children died of starvation</span></b> or were used as guinea pigs, while families were ripped apart. It is an appalling stain on our history.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b><i>Deputy Ciara Conway (Labour Party)</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Young women were forcibly separated first from their communities, then from any sense of pride or self worth and then from their babies. <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Their babies were neglected and starved, with illnesses untreated.</span></b> They were seen as worthless and buried, ultimately, in unmarked graves, left in the end without even an identity.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b><i>Deputy Seán Crowe (Sinn Féin)</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Women’s children were starved</span></b> and disease, including TB, was rampant. The child mortality rate was massively higher in these institutions than among the general public and the State allowed this to go on. </span></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></h3><blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Seanad Éireann debate – Tuesday, 27 Jan 2015 <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Commission of Investigation into <span style="color: red;">Mother and Baby Homes</span>: Motion</span> </h3></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Senator Marie Moloney (Labour)</i></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">State inspection reports described children as being fragile, emaciated and pot-bellied. <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Cause of death was often recorded as starvation</span></b>. [NO: marasmus]</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></h3></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dáil Éireann debate – Thursday, 9 Mar 2017: Commission of Investigation Announcement on <span style="color: red;">Tuam Mother and Baby Home</span>: Statements</span> </h3></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Deputy Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fáil)</i></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">What was uncovered in Tuam is only the tip of the iceberg. We do not know exactly how these babies died and it seems likely they were<b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> left to starve or die in the cold</span></b>, as the mortality rate is too high to suggest otherwise.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Sinn Féin)</i></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In Sean Ross Abbey, the death register lists a total of 269 deaths between 1934 and 1967, but some of those buried in the plot there are not listed on the register. It is also deeply shocking and appalling to learn that the main cause of death in the case of some 20% of the deaths in Bessborough <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">was marasmus or severe malnutrition – in other words, death by hunger</span></b> was happening in the 1940s and 1950s in Cork. At a minimum, we need to expand drastically the terms of reference of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Deputy Mick Barry (Irish Solidarity–People Before Profit)</i></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">According to a former chief medical officer of the State, James Deeny, in his autobiography, <i>To Cure and to Care</i>, in one year alone, of the 180 children born in the home 100 died. One in five of those who died in the 1934 to 1953 period <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">died of marasmus, that is, severe malnutrition.</span></b></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></h3></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Seanad Éireann debate – Thursday, 9 Mar 2017 <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Commission of Investigation Announcement on<span style="color: red;"> Tuam Mother and Baby Home</span>: Statements</span></h3></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><i>Senator Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent)</i> </span><i>[Daughter of President Michael D Higgins] </i></span></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There were 472 deaths in 19 years in the Bessborough home. <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Some 80 of those children were suffering from marasmus, which means severe malnutrition</span></b>, including babies who have in many cases been taken away from the arms of their mothers, who have not been allowed to breast-feed them. <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Children suffering from malnutrition – an issue which is easy to control, deal with and address</span></b> – represent almost 20% of known deaths in a short period in the Bessborough home alone, as we heard in the story earlier.</span></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Senator Catherine Noone (Fine Gael)</i></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Women were starved</span></b>, neglected and hidden from society. They suffered horrendous abuse. It is imperative that we now respond with sensitivity and respect to what has been unearthed.</span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dáil Éireann debate – Tuesday, 7 Mar 2017: Leaders’ Questions</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>The Taoiseach (Enda Kenny, Fine Gael)</i></b><br />We gave them up because of our perverse, in fact, morbid relationship with what is called respectability. Indeed, for a while it seemed as if in Ireland our women had the amazing capacity to self-impregnate. For their trouble, we took their babies and gifted them, sold them, trafficked them, <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>starved them</b></span>, neglected them or denied them <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">to the point of their disappearance</span></b> from our hearts, our sight, our country and, in the case of Tuam and possibly other places, <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">from life itself.</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dáil Éireann debate – Wednesday, 22 Mar 2017: Commission of Investigation Announcement on <span style="color: red;">Tuam Mother and Baby Home</span>: Statements (Resumed)</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Deputy Seán Crowe (Sinn Fein)</i></b><br />They have come up to me and started telling the story of what they went through – the <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>starvation, abuse, malnutrition</b></span> and the fact their spirit was broken. That is what we did. We stripped people and took their clothes away. We took their identity, beat them and<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b> starved them</b></span>. This was all done for what was supposed to be the greater good of some individuals or idea.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dáil Éireann debate – Thursday, 18 Jan 2018: </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Report of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Statements (Resumed)</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Deputy Kate O’Connell (Fine Gael)</i></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b>We murdered them in their hundreds through neglect and hate, brutalised them in the name of salvation and enslaved them in the name of redemption.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>My Comment</b>: Most of this hysteria is coming from Sinn Fein, Labour and Independent Deputies - precisely the people who re likely to form a Government following the next General Election in Ireland. However they are ably backed by Fine Gael including former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny and the craziest comment of all comes from former Fine Gael Deputy Kate O'Connell. If Sinn Fein come to power and try to use <i>undemocratic</i> methods to implement populist but unviable economic polices, Fine Gael don't have the moral courage to stop them. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(B) The Ravings of Junior Minister John Halligan - AND the Media</span></span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Some</i> of the above can be (partly) explained by confusion concerning the meaning of the term "<b><i>Marasmus</i></b>" - that does <i>not</i> indicate deliberate starvation by nuns, or anyone else. However a more generic kind of hysteria is also loose in this country. Fine Gael Deputy Kate O'Connell exemplifies it (last quote above) as does former Junior Minister (for Training and Skills) John Halligan. See Irish Times article dated 11 March 2017 <b>"<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/death-rates-in-mother-and-baby-homes-similar-to-concentration-camps-1.3007096">Death Rates in Mother and Baby Homes similar to Concentration Camps</a></b>’" subtitled "<span style="color: #2b00fe;">Minister of State John Halligan says Old Age should not Diminish Responsibility for a Crime</span>"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote><div>Independent Alliance minister John Halligan has compared child mortality rates in mother and baby homes to Nazi concentration camps. The Waterford TD also said religious orders found guilty of criminal neglect should have their assets seized. The Minister of State for Training and Skills said elderly nuns who worked in the homes should be interviewed as part of expected criminal investigations to be conducted by gardaí.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>Old age should not diminish accountability for any crime or alleged crime. If you bear in mind that the child mortality rate at Bessborough in 1943 was approaching 70 per cent, sure that’s similar to concentration camps</i>,” he said. “<i>Are we seriously saying that because somebody is ill or aged that we shouldn’t at least interview them? If you look at what’s happened at Belsen, Auschwitz, Dachau, even up to last year individuals who are alleged to have carried out horrendous crimes in their 80s and 90s were interviewed</i>.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Mr Halligan was speaking to RTÉ Radio on Saturday in the wake of confirmation last week from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission that “<i>significant quantities</i>” of human remains found at a mother and baby home in Tuam run by the Bon Secours Sisters belonged to young infants. Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone is said to be considering broadening the commission of inquiry’s remit to include other homes beyond Tuam, and will examine her options over the coming weeks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Referring to State grants paid to the Bon Secours order for maintenance of children in its care as well as sums received through the sale of children to foster parents in the US, Mr Halligan said monies should be seized if significant wrongdoing is established. <i>“I think there has to be an investigation, everybody has to be interviewed, and if it is found that they’re guilty of neglect, well their assets should be seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau</i>, ” he said.</div><div></div></blockquote><div>Much of this hysteria was whipped up by the media with politicians jumping on the band-wagon to get votes (although I doubt if people like John Halligan and Kate O'Connell needed any encouragement). I wrote about the media background in "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2021/01/open-letter-to-archbishop-michael-neary.html">Open Letter to Archbishop Michael Neary regarding Tuam Home</a>" It includes an article by Emer O'Kelly in the Sunday Independent on 8 June 2014 "<a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/tuam-babies-cry-not-for-justice-but-for-vengeance-30337370.html">Tuam Babies Cry Not For Justice But For Vengeance</a>" that opens with the following:</div></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote><i>Seventy years ago, on the orders of a maniac, little children and babies were herded into barren camps in Germany and occupied Poland by men in black uniforms. They were starved to death in those camps; sometimes they had hideous medical experiments carried out upon them while alive, so hideous the silence of death was probably merciful. And when they died, their little bodies were thrown into huge pits. Because they were scum: Jewish scum</i>.</blockquote></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">During the course of the article Emer O'Kelly trice denounces the Good Shepherd Sisters i.e. the wrong nuns! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The demonising of the nuns is not confined to bigoted anti-clerics: "<i>Progressive</i>" priests who like to make themselves popular with the media also get in on the act. On 1 June 2014 Fr Brian D’Arcy had an article in the Sunday World entitled “<a href="http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2014/05_06/2014_06_11_Fr_World_Fr_greatest.htm">Fr Brian: Baby Graves are Our Greatest Crime</a>” that begins as follows:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote>“<i>When I first heard the news that more than 800 babies were buried in what was formerly a septic tank I was astonished – because initially I thought it happened in some famine-stricken country today. Then I thought I was hearing about Nazi Germany</i>…..” </blockquote></span></div></div></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It's in no way surprising that four weeks later the same same Sunday World carried an article subtitled “<span style="color: #2b00fe;">Councillor Seeking Justice For ‘Murder’ of Babies</span>" It includes THIS:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>I saw a baby in a nun’s arms and blood dripping along the floor. I saw another nun standing with a shovel in her hand. I was a 12 year old. I knew they were going out to do something, or dig a hole for that child but nobody would listen to me</i>.</span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The claims of child murder (and dumping babies in a cess pit) are complete lunacy comparable to the 19th century hysteria in Canada over the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Monk">Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk</a>" that also involved claims of infanticide by nuns in Montreal. As per the Wikipedia article on Maria Monk: "<i>If the sexual union produced a baby, it was baptized and then strangled and dumped into a lime pit in the basement</i>." Of course all Catholic priests and bishops denounced the allegations and supported the nuns at the time. "<i>Progressive</i>" priests and Bishops (like <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/09/cancellation-of-seminar-on-tuam.html">recently retired Archbishop Diarmuid Martin</a>) who <i>endorse</i> secular anti-clericalism are a modern phenomena! </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(C) Commission Acknowledges Existence of False Allegations!</span></h3><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Mother and Baby Homes Commission actually acknowledges that some allegations of abuse are false! This is a surprise to me given that the <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-20173020.html">Ryan Commission (to which I gave evidence</a>) did no such thing. An article in the Irish Times by Patsy McGarry dated 14 January 2021 headed "</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/commission-dealt-with-1-3m-documents-and-held-195-hearings-1.4458658?fbclid=IwAR24GuSHX1ahxHtRJhqh0U_4E1PFBxWnfh1PkHlme7pnfEwHa8--bqnK29Y">Commission dealt with 1.3m documents and held 195 hearings</a>" has as its subheading "<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>Report from body states that its conclusions ‘may not accord with prevailing narrative</i>’</b></span>" and begins</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote>The Mother and Baby Homes Commission states in bold type in its report that “t<i>he conclusions it reaches may not always accord with the prevailing narrative</i>”. As well as adhering to its terms of reference, it says: “<i>It must look at all the available evidence and reach conclusions based on that evidence. It must be objective, rigorous and thorough</i>........”<br /><br />The confidential committee report “<i>outlines the experiences of those who chose to recount their experiences. They are not a representative sample of the residents of the institutions under investigation</i>,” it said. And while there was “<i>no doubt that the witnesses recounted their experiences as honestly as possible</i>”, it had “<i>concerns about the contamination of some evidence. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>A number of witnesses gave evidence that was clearly incorrect. This contamination probably occurred because of meetings with other residents and inaccurate media coverage</b></span></i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>,</b></span>” it said.</blockquote><p> </p></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div></div></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">(<span style="color: #2b00fe;">D) Bethany Mother and Baby Home - a PROTESTANT Institution</span></span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>I was slightly surprised to see that the Protestant Bethany Home was also the subject of false allegations of starving children - coming mainly (of course) from Sinn Fein but Deputy Niall Collins of Fianna Fail makes a contribution as well by referring to Marasmus as "<i>a form of malnutrition</i>"., This seems to be the <i>sole</i> Fianna Fail contribution to this brand of hysteria. It does indicate that irrational attacks on the Catholic Church have a way of spreading.</span>- and corrupting the entire society.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />However the Catholic Church was always the main focus of attack - as pointed out by David Quinn in article in the Irish Independent on 10 March 2017 <a href="https://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-quinn/harsh-victorian-morality-at-core-of-mother-and-baby-home-scandals-35517919.html">Harsh Victorian Morality at Core of Mother and Baby Home Scandals</a> He contrasts the attitude of politicians to the Tuam Home run by Bon Secours Sisters vis a vis the Bethany Home. First he quotes the words of the then <b>Fine Gael Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny</b> in the Dail (Irish Parliament) that week:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><blockquote> "<i>Tuam is not just a burial ground, it is a social and cultural sepulchre. That is what it is. As a society in the so-called 'good old days', we did not just hide away the dead bodies of tiny human beings, we dug deep and deeper still to bury our compassion, our mercy and our humanity itself. No nuns broke into our homes to kidnap our children. We gave them up to what we convinced ourselves was the nuns' care</i>."</blockquote></div><div>David Quinn points out that our Prime Minister's tone and his words contrasted very sharply with those of the <b>Labour Party's Kathleen Lynch</b> in 2013 when she addressed the Dáil about Bethany Home, which also housed unmarried mothers and their babies. Ms Lynch, then the <b>junior minister in the Department of Justice</b>, used much softer language than the Taoiseach, even though hundreds of babies also died in Bethany Home and were buried in an unmarked grave.</div><div><blockquote><div>Explaining the high death rate in the Protestant-run institution she said: "<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Unfortunately, poverty and disease were commonplace in Ireland up to the 1950s and this was reflected in infant mortality rates. Infant mortality rates in the 1940s were at a level that is hard to comprehend today, about 20 times higher than now and that figure applies across the entire population. For those who were malnourished and subject to disease and a lack of hygiene, the figures would have been higher still</span></i>."</div><div><br /></div><div>Responding to critics of the home, she said: "<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Our Constitution demands we respect the rules of natural justice. People are entitled to a fair hearing and an opportunity to protect their good name…it seems to have been accepted at the time that Bethany Home was run by people with charitable motives</span></i>."</div></blockquote><p> <b><i>It's clear that different moral standards are being applied to Catholic and non-Catholic institutions and personnel. However it seems to me that the differences are lessening now as society becomes more secular and ALL forms of Christianity are coming under attack from politicians who stand for nothing and therefore concentrate on spewing hatred at their religious adversaries!</i></b></p><p><b><i><br /></i></b></p></div></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(E) My Conclusion - Blood Libel Forever?</span></h3><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(i) </b>This hysteria can be said to have <b>begun in 1997</b> with an article in The Mirror (by their Irish editor Neil Leslie) entitled <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/accusers/christine-buckley/hotpoker-wasused-11oct97.php">HOT POKER WAS USED ON LITTLE MARION.. NO CASH WILL GET HER BACK; I THINK MY BABY WAS MURDERED AT THE ORPHANAGE, SAYS PAYOUT MUM.</a> concerning the death of baby Marion Howe in 1955 i.e. 42 years previously. THAT libel was aimed at the Sisters of Mercy and specifically at the late Sister Xavieria Lally. However in subsequent years the MAIN targets were the Christian Brothers. Leaders of <b>four</b> "Victim" groups were quoted in the media as claiming that the Brothers had killed boys in their care, especially in Artane and Letterfrack industrial schools. A number of these allegations related to periods when no boy died of ANY cause (!) so I coined the phrases "<i>Murder of the Undead</i>" and "<i>Victimless Murders</i>". For <i>obvious</i> reasons accusers did not normally state the names of the killer Brothers! The initial phase of our Blood Libel hysteria may be said to have <b>ended in 2009/10</b> with a Garda investigation into claims that the Catholic Church colluded with Garda authorities in the case of the unsolved murder of schoolgirl Bernadette Connolly in 1970. The immediate targets of the child murder claim were members of the Passionist Order but the suggestion was that Archbishop John Charles McQuaid intervened to stop the Garda investigation.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I summarised <b>this</b> phase of our witch-hunt in my article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html">"<b>Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews</b>!</a>"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(ii)</b> Over the years I thought on a few occasions, that the Blood Libel hysteria was played out. The above article was based on one I submitted to the Sunday Tribune in 2006; this related mainly to the Christian Brothers and the <i>Murder of the Undead</i> claims. I had to update it following the manufactured hysteria in 2009 concerning the death of Bernadette Connolly, four decades previously - and for a time I thought THAT was the end! I once wrote that Blood Libel in Ireland followed a logical trajectory in that </span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">it began in 1997 with an allegation that related to the death of a REAL baby - because Blood Libel was new in Ireland and needed the appearance of credibility</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">it came to an end in 2010 with reference to the unsolved murder of a REAL child - because several claims had been refuted and credibility was <i>again</i> a factor BUT</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">between these two dates, anti-clerical Hysteria reigned supreme and journalists thought they could get away with anything including "<i>Murder of the Undead</i>" allegations!</span></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Even THAT cynical analysis now looks too hopeful with allegations that nuns starved babies in the Mother and Baby Homes. The fact that the Report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes refuted those claims, won't put a stop to our anti-clerical hysteria, if the history of the last quarter-century is anything to go by.</span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>(iii)</b> The <i>chief</i> proponents of the death by starvation narrative were Sinn Fein (including leader Mary Lou McDonald) and other left-wing Deputies and Senators -- <span style="color: #2b00fe;">including Senator Alice-Mary Higgins (Ind) the daughter of President Michael D Higgins</span>. These are the people who are likely to form a Government after the next General Election (given that we are now governed by a coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Greens). <b><i>However the anti-clerical hysteria promoted by Sinn Fein was echoed by Fine Gael</i></b> - including their former leader and Taoiseach Enda Kenny. The most grotesque comment of all was actually made by then Fine Gael Deputy Kate O'Connell: </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"></span></i></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>We murdered them in their hundreds through neglect and hate, brutalised them in the name of salvation and enslaved them in the name of redemption.</b> </span></i></span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>What sort of Opposition are Fine Gael going to provide to a Government dominated by Sinn Fein? If Sinn Fein try to pass dubious legislation, is President Michael D going to refer it to the Supreme Court (given his expressed admiration for Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez)?</i></b> I have written about this issue at the end of my article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/12/eu-commissioner-phil-hogan-forced-to.html">EU Commissioner Phil Hogan Forced to Resign...</a>." - section <span style="color: #2b00fe;">(F) "Conclusion: Sinn Fein and Antifa"</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: arial;">(iv)</b><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><b style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Forthcoming Book by Eugene Jordan "The Irish Attack on Christianity - The Case for the Defence"</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In March 2021 a book by Eugene Jordan with the above title is due to be published. He writes that Irish Christianity has been under attack for more than seven decades now. The attacks increased in ferocity in the second decade of the twenty-first century and reached an extraordinary level of frenzy when Christian-run Mother and Baby homes were accused of starving and murdering children in their care. These allegations are lies, the evidence to disprove the falsehoods is abundant and simple to understand, yet the Irish political establishment and media have chosen to ignore it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The book essentially tells the story of how the Irish came to hate the Irish - especially the Catholic Church - and thrashes out the causes at the court of reason.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As Ireland enters the third decade of the twenty-first century, it stands at the most embarrassing moment in its intellectual history. The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes finished and published its final report, which has again been subject to biased misreporting. The commission has rubbished many of the scandal propagators’ notorious claims to their credit but has made several significant errors of its own. </span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><div><div><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div></div></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-3786453095201806322021-01-12T10:16:00.004+00:002021-01-13T20:28:33.693+00:00Open Letter to Archbishop Michael Neary regarding Tuam Home<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwL1ueKrKBy_rCXFnNXujujdcxc1aECDTRLwHakM_cmRLVvT1tpyTKTpSHfTxZ8KUkFFZ-E59MMdhHmFBy-k3E736vHP4FIEs0GzTn-BxesxnhnqWReB2gdRiksf9_4JCpT3CvxCWUmP6I/s620/Archbishop_MichaelNeary.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary" border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="620" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwL1ueKrKBy_rCXFnNXujujdcxc1aECDTRLwHakM_cmRLVvT1tpyTKTpSHfTxZ8KUkFFZ-E59MMdhHmFBy-k3E736vHP4FIEs0GzTn-BxesxnhnqWReB2gdRiksf9_4JCpT3CvxCWUmP6I/w640-h341/Archbishop_MichaelNeary.jpg" title="Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><b>Most Reverend Michael Neary, Archbishop of Tuam</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In a sermon in the Cathedral of the Assumption, Tuam on 11 March 2017 you asked - in relation to the women and children of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam: <b>“</b><i>How could the culture of Irish society, which purported to be defined by Christian values, have allowed itself to behave in such a manner towards our most vulnerable?</i><b>”</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> I responded at the time. To understand my response in context you will need to read my article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-tuam-babies-and-bon-secours-nuns-3.html">The Tuam Babies and the Bon Secours Nuns [3]</a><br /><blockquote>I would answer the Archbishop as follows: The late <b>Pablo McCabe</b> was a homeless schizophrenic man who presumably qualified as one of “<i>our most vulnerable</i>” and former Sister of Mercy <b>Nora Wall</b> was hardly a member of high society. McCabe had no money but prior to 1999 no woman had ever been convicted of rape so McCabe was accused to make the allegation appear more plausible. The leaders of the Sisters of Mercy betrayed both of them and sided with the accusers. <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i>Archbishop what makes you think that the current accusers are more plausible?</i></b></span> Do you really find it acceptable that a Government Minister [John Halligan] should refer to Nazis and talk about Belsen, Auschwitz and Dachau? Archbishop, <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>if a Garda investigation into the Tuam Home produces no evidence to support such claims will you do or say anything at all? Or will you remain silent like the current leaders of the Sisters of Mercy</i></span>?</blockquote>My response to you forms part of Comment <b>53</b> in the article (Don't worry - I don't include <i>all </i>the comments!). The preceding Comment <b>52</b> summaries the scandal surrounding the wrongful convictions of Pablo McCabe and former Sister of Mercy Nora Wall AND also the paranoid utterances of former Junior Minister John Halligan. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">History Seminar on Tuam Mother and Babies Home</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There have been a lot of developments since 2017 not least our <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/10/seminar-on-tuam-childrens-home-online.html">Seminar on Tuam Children's Home</a> that we held in Galway on 4 October 2020. We had to transfer it from Dublin because <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/09/cancellation-of-seminar-on-tuam.html">your colleague Diarmuid Martin cancelled our Dublin venue</a> at the last moment - supposedly on health grounds although we had been approved by the health authorities!<br /><br />In my talk I referred to an article by Emer O'Kelly in the Sunday Independent on 8 June 2014 "<a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/tuam-babies-cry-not-for-justice-but-for-vengeance-30337370.html">Tuam Babies Cry Not For Justice But For Vengeance</a>" that opens with the following</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><blockquote>Seventy years ago, on the orders of a maniac, little children and babies were herded into barren camps in Germany and occupied Poland by men in black uniforms. They were starved to death in those camps; sometimes they had hideous medical experiments carried out upon them while alive, so hideous the silence of death was probably merciful. And when they died, their little bodies were thrown into huge pits. Because they were scum: Jewish scum.</blockquote></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b style="font-style: italic;">During the course of the article Emer O'Kelly trice denounces the Good Shepherd Sisters i.e. the wrong nuns!</b> <b>(</b></span><span><b>NOTE [1] )</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Thus It's hardly surprising to read in a recent article in the Irish Times by Stephanie Walsh a retired teacher who specialised in Relationships and Sexuality Education. <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/good-work-of-religious-in-aiding-single-mothers-now-largely-forgotten-1.4449787"> Good work of religious in aiding single mothers now largely forgotten</a> (subtitle "<i>In the 1970s church people provided more assistance to women in need than secular society</i>")</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div></div><blockquote><div>Some years ago I met a <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Good Shepherd Sister</span> who had placed women with us. I asked why the Sisters hadn’t publicly defended the important role they had played in improving the lives of single pregnant women. She answered that it was impossible to get a fair hearing in the media that had demonised all religious involved in that work.</div><div><br /></div><div>In my experience, church women and men provided more assistance to women in need in the 70s than did the secular community. Most of the social workers who contacted our family were religious Sisters; many of the women in trouble were referred by priests.</div></blockquote><p>The demonising of the nuns is not confined to bigoted anti-clerics: "Progressive" priests who like to make themselves popular with the media also get in on the act. In June 2014 Fr Brian D’Arcy had an article in the Sunday World entitled “<b><i>Fr Brian: Baby Graves are Our Greatest Crime</i></b>” that includes the following:</p><p></p><blockquote>“<i>When I first heard the news that more than 800 babies were buried in what was formerly a septic tank I was astonished – because initially I thought it happened in some famine-stricken country today. Then I thought I was hearing about Nazi Germany</i>…..” etc </blockquote><p></p><p>Unfortunately Fr Brian's Sunday World article is no longer online but a shorter version is available in the Irish Examiner dated 5 June 2014 entitled <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30632610.html">Disposal of babies' bodies in Tuam 'as bad as Nazi Germany': Fr Brian Darcy</a> </p><p></p><blockquote><p>Well-known cleric Fr Brian Darcy has said the discovery of almost 800 babies bodies next to a Galway mother and baby home is as bad as anything that happened in Nazi Germany. The Government has today confirmed that a "<i>scoping exercise</i>" is underway to determine whether other mass graves such as that found in Tuam exist in other parts of the country.</p><p>Fr Brian Darcy said he thought previous scandals involving the Church had left him "<i>unshockable</i>", but that this was a shocking as something that happened in Germany during World War II. He added that people needed to be brought to justice for "<i>sinful crimes</i>". "<i>I think if the facts are as bad as they seem to be, and I have no reason to doubt that, I think this will cause a massive revolution about the kind of country that we had and the kind of country that we're all children of</i>."</p><p>(Helpful key words after the article include "<i>Nazi Germany</i>" and "<i>World War II</i>") (<b>NOTE [2]</b> )</p></blockquote><p>In contrast with this you have Irish atheist and editor of the SpikedOnLine magazine Brendan O'Neill who wrote an article on 9 June 2014 “<a href="https://www.spiked-online.com/2014/06/09/the-tuam-tank-another-myth-about-evil-ireland/#.U9muh9J4xjs"><b>The Tuam Tank: Another Myth about Evil Ireland</b></a>” with subtitle “<b><i>The obsession with Ireland’s dark past has officially become unhinged</i></b>.” He quotes some of the world-wide headlines:</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><i>Bodies of 800 babies, long-dead, found in septic tank at former Irish home for unwed mothers</i>’, declared the Washington Post. ‘<i>800 skeletons of babies found inside tank at former Irish home for unwed mothers</i>’, said the New York Daily News. ‘<i>Galway historian finds 800 babies in septic tank grave</i>’, said the Boston Globe. ‘<i>The bodies of 800 babies were found in the septic tank of a former home for unwed mothers in Ireland</i>’, cried Buzzfeed. ......The blogosphere and Twitter hordes went even further than the mainstream media, with whispers about the 800 babies having been murdered by the nuns and demands for the UN to investigate ‘<i>crimes against humanity</i>’ in Tuam.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><p> Unlike Fr Brian, Brendan O'Neill believes it is nonsense. However it certainly wasn't just "<i>Twitter hordes</i>" that suggested the nuns murdered babies. The Sunday World - for which Fr Brian has written for many years - had a story on 29 June 2014 subtitled “<b><i>Councillor Seeking Justice For ‘Murder’ of Babies</i></b>” about then People Before Profit councillor Deirdre Wadding. The following is an extract:</p></span><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">Deirdre said that what was happening to single mothers in Ireland even in the 1980s was a form of “<i>torture</i>”. “<i>In later years, there was brutality, what you would call torture</i>,” she said, describing the babies bodies found in the septic tank in Tuam as “<i>nothing short of murder</i>”. “<i>Children seem to have been allowed to die. No doubt the cracks will uncover as time goes on and we can be sure if it happened in Tuam it happened elsewhere. We have to seek justice. Somebody has to be responsible for this. ……If that means individuals being brought to court, jail sentences, whatever it means, we cannot hold back</i>”.</span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Another woman describes a “<i>sinister scene</i>” in the <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Good Shepherd</span> convent in New Ross in 1964.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>I saw a baby in a nun’s arms and blood dripping along the floor. I saw another nun standing with a shovel in her hand. I was a 12 year old. I knew they were going out to do something, or dig a hole for that child but nobody would listen to me</i>.</span></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The claims of child murder and dumping babies in a cess pit are complete lunacy comparable to the 19th century hysteria in Canada over the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Monk">"Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk</a>" that also involved claims of infanticide by nuns in Montreal. </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The difference is that <b><i>then</i></b>, Catholic Bishops and clergy stood firmly in support of the nuns whereas now you are silent when not actively throwing them to the wolves!</span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">To answer your question</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So to answer your question: <i>How could the culture of Irish society, which purported to be defined by Christian values, have allowed itself to behave in such a manner towards our most vulnerable?</i><b>” </b>Before you respond to the publication of the Report on Mother and Babies Homes today,<b> </b>perhaps you will take time to consider just WHO are the "<i>vulnerable</i>" ones here? Is it the "<i>Survivors</i>" backed by all the power of Media and State <b> </b>or the nuns in general, and the Bon Secours Sisters in particular, who have been subjected to obscene abuse - up to and including Blood Libel?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Yours sincerely,</span></div><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Rory Connor</span></b></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>PS </b>You are well aware of the lie spread worldwide by the media a few years ago that the Catholic Church refused to baptise the children of unmarried mothers and the apology issued by Associated Press at the behest of the Jesuit Magazine "America": </span><a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/10/tuam-babies-and-associated-press.html" style="font-family: arial;">Tuam Babies and Associated Press Apology to Bon Secours Sisters</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> It was a lie directed at your own predecessors more than at the Bon Secours Sisters but most journalists were probably too ignorant to realise this! It doesn't measure up to the Nazi Nun claims but it is important because it can be PROVEN false - even 60 years after the Tuam Home closed. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>NOTES</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[1] </b>And<b> </b>THIS<b> </b>is Emer O'Kelly writing about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Wall">Nora Wall</a> (extract from the Wikipedia article on Nora). It's clear that her rant against the Bon Secours/Good Shepherd nuns was <i>not</i> an aberration!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>On 28 November 1999, the Sunday Independent published an article entitled "<a href="https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/judge-reflects-a-nations-outrage-26261896.html">Judge reflects a nation's outrage</a>" by columnist Emer O'Kelly. The title refers to the sentencing by Judge Anthony Murphy of a Brother of Charity to 36 years imprisonment for the physical and sexual abuse of children. However the article contains these words about the Nora Wall case:</div><div><blockquote><i>When the former Mercy nun Nora Wall was vindicated, and an announcement was made that she was not to be retried for rape, there was an outcry from some members of the public about the way she had been vilified before her conviction was set aside. The horrible reality of our society is that so many appalling crimes of abuse of children by Catholic religious have been proved in the courts that <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>many people are inclined to believe that no cleric, man or woman, accused of such crimes can possibly be innocent.</b> <b>And that is not the fault of public opinion.</b></span> It is in large measure the fault of the religious authorities who seem more concerned with limiting the damage to their own reputations and standing than in acknowledging their collective guilt and active negligence</i>.</blockquote></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[ </b>Emer O'Kelly has, of course, nothing to say about Nora's co-accused, homeless schizophrenic Pablo McCabe who was accused solely in order to make Ireland's first rape allegation against a <i>woman,</i> look more plausible! <b>RC ]</b> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[2] </b>An article in the Irish Independent on 5 June 2014 gives a slightly different perspective on Fr Brian's views:<a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/fr-brian-darcy-tuam-mass-baby-grave-an-incredible-awful-unchristian-and-unsocial-thing-30332378.html"> Fr Brian D'Arcy: Tuam mass baby grave 'an incredible, awful, unchristian and unsocial thing'</a> Instead of Nazi Germany, he refers to "<i>a bad regime</i>" and then there is THIS:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote><div>He has called for those responsible to be brought to justice.</div><div><br /></div><div>“<i>It’s not just a sinful approach to life it’s also a serious crime. This seems to have been self-imposed and cruel and ruthless and therefore needs investigated. I presume some of the people from that era are still alive and need to be brought to justice for that. We cannot claim to be pro-life and allow that to happen to children. We need to establish the facts of what did happen but it seems to me that over a short period of life over 800 people weren’t even given recorded deaths, some of whom seem to have died from starvation</i>."</div></blockquote><div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p><br /></p><p></p></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-17816464719396897442021-01-08T23:35:00.003+00:002021-01-12T05:57:40.350+00:00My Submission to The Independent "Future of Media" Commission<p style="text-align: left;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuQ6W-Fx_HPBN6l6FgTDihPecQdSvGGyECLLp751OYcsGAwmK8p59BAD6LkBkmWTakDiQW6LdNdlk4hUIBhyphenhyphenkhXHJ1n72o6cFU5NLEFKdpCOZFXOZa-c-IQQzy8Lm0HwMGbosqfH1cBx6s/s800/Professor_Brian_MacCraith_FutureofMedia.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Professor Brian MacCraith" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="754" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuQ6W-Fx_HPBN6l6FgTDihPecQdSvGGyECLLp751OYcsGAwmK8p59BAD6LkBkmWTakDiQW6LdNdlk4hUIBhyphenhyphenkhXHJ1n72o6cFU5NLEFKdpCOZFXOZa-c-IQQzy8Lm0HwMGbosqfH1cBx6s/w377-h400/Professor_Brian_MacCraith_FutureofMedia.png" title="Professor Brian MacCraith" width="377" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Professor Brian MacCraith, Chair of the Independent Future of Media Commission</b></span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A newly-established Future of Media Commission intends to “chart a pathway” for <b><i>public service broadcasting</i></b> and independent media in Ireland. [My emphasis]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In September 2020, t</span><span style="font-family: arial;">he Irish government announced the new Future of Media Commission, which will examine how “<i>public service objectives</i>” can be funded in a sustainable way, with independent editorial oversight and value for money. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The Commission will then make a recommendation on its findings to the government.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">As an initial step, the Commission is conducting a public consultation by inviting the views of the public on the key questions to be addressed in its work. The closing date for receipt of public submissions was today Friday 8 January 2020 so (as is my habit) I got mine in at the last minute and here it is.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: arial;">.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Question 1</b>. <b><i>How should Government develop and support the concept and role of public service media and what should its role in relation to public service content in the wider media be?</i></b></span></span></h3></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">You ask "<b><i>What can be learned from the evolution of public service media over the last decade</i></b>?"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2004 I made an official complaint to Broadcasting Complaints Commission (I think it was then) re RTE's broadcast of the 2002 film "<i>Song for a Raggy Boy</i>" AND RTE notice afterwards inviting people who had been affected by the film to ring a dedicated phone number to voice their pain. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I cannot locate my submission now BUT I referred to it in my Blog article '<a href=" https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/02/recovered-memory-and-allegations-of.html">Recovered Memory' in Ireland and Allegations of Child Abuse</a>" <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">specifically in the last sections <i>"Patrick Galvin, 'Song for a Raggy Boy' and 'Recovered Memory</i>' " and the <i>Conclusion</i>. The culminating scene in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_for_a_Raggy_Boy#:~:text=Song%20for%20a%20Raggy%20Boy%20is%20an%202003%20Irish%20historical,is%20based%20on%20true%20events.">FILM</a> features a boy being kicked to death by a "Brother in Christ" (Christian Brother backwards). There is no such scene in the 1991 autobiographical BOOK by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Galvin">Patrick Galvin</a> on which the film is supposed to be based, nor of sex abuse either. The murder and sex abuse scenes were added to spice up the film! </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When this sort of thing is done to Jews - in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jud_S%C3%BC%C3%9F">Nazi film Jew Suss</a> that I referred to in my complaint to BCC - it is called Blood Libel. (The 1925 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jud_S%C3%BC%C3%9F_(Feuchtwanger_novel)">BOOK "Jew Suss</a>" did not include Suss raping or killing anyone.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The Christian Brothers had to issue a statement saying that Patrick Galvin was never in any institution run by them. However BCC rejected my complaint saying "<i>RTE point out that the film is a work of fiction based on a memoir of actual events. Allowing for dramatic licence therefore, everything depicted in the film does not have to be fully accurate</i>." Indeed you could say the same about the Nazi version of Jew Suss compared to the original! WHY did RTE provide a phone number for members of the public who were inspired by events in the film?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">This was OVER 10 years ago but RTE continued in the same vein over the last decade. In 2011 they libelled <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Reynolds_(priest)">Fr Kevin Reynolds</a> on Prime Time's "<i>Mission to Prey</i>" as having father a child by raping an underage girl. Instead of a normal investigation of the grotesque claim, they door-stopped him after a First Communion service. They then ignored his offer to take a DNA test and broadcast the libel anyway. A NORMAL conman - motivated by desire for money or fame - would have drawn back at the priest's offer of a DNA test but RTE were blinded by an anti-Clerical hatred no better than the anti-Semite variety! </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2014 RTE libelled John Waters, Breda O'Brien and other members of the Iona Institute by describing them as Homophobes. It doesn't compare to their previous child rape and murder lies but it stands out because the RTE presenter INVITED "Miss Panti Bliss" to make the comment. To that extent it was well up to RTE's standard! I should also point out that following the libel settlement the then Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte expressed his desire to change the law in order to make it more difficult to sue RTE. If one of his own ideological allies had been libelled, Minister Rabbitte would have said the opposite! I have written about this in "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/06/sex-scandals-rock-catholic-church-and.html">The Role of Pat Rabbitte</a>" </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2017 RTE libelled Kevin Myers - well known strong supporter of Israel - as a Holocaust-denier following similar libels by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald. It took RTE 2 years to apologise even after the Broadcasting Authority had ruled the claim was false. Kevin Myers said he had feared having to sell his house if he lost the libel case - but of course RTE faced no risk at all. I wrote about this in <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/10/kevin-myers-and-age-of-de-valera-and.html">"Kevin Myers and the Age of de Valera and McQuaid</a>"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">It is no co-incidence that Kevin Myers is the ONLY journalist to have defended former Sister of Mercy Nora Wall when she was wrongly convicted of rape in 1999. RTE will NEVER libel a "<i>progressive</i>" journalist!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Given THAT background, there's nothing strange about RTE's recent skit featuring God raping Mary and broadcasting it during the Christmas season on the eve of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on 1st January. There is NO way they would broadcast a skit featuring Muhammed raping a 9 year old girl and do so during Ramadan on the eve of Eid. Just as they wouldn't libel a Muslim cleric with an accusation of fathering a child by raping a girl.<b><i> I referred above to RTE being motivated by anti-Clerical Hatred BUT Muslims have clerics as well so anti-Catholic hatred is a better description of their attitude! </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Question 2. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">How should public service media be financed sustainably?</span></span></b></h3></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="font-family: arial;">You ask "<b><i>What is the best model for future funding of public service media in Ireland? What approach best supports independent editorial oversight while achieving value for money and delivering on public service aims?</i></b>" </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">RTE should be defunded. I read that it receives €180 million from the taxpayer each year. I also see that "<i>public service aims</i>" includes "<i>to ensure that the public has access to high quality, impartial, independent journalism, reporting .. in a balanced way and which contributes to democratic discourse</i>". </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In the interests of "<i>balance</i>" would RTE consider broadcasting the film "<i>Jew Suss</i>"? It may be as vile as "<i>Song for a Raggy Boy</i>" and includes scenes not depicted in the (somewhat) more realistic BOOK but at least RTE could say "<i>we're not favouring one side over another</i>". </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I was told by a member of Nora Wall's defence team that she was convicted in a climate of hysteria created by the media and SPECIFICALLY by Mary Raftery's States of Fear series, broadcast by RTE just before the trial in 1999! In 2005 I corresponded with then editor of the Irish Times Geraldine Kennedy regarding this issue (among other) and published the exchange on my Blog here: <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2019/06/mary-raftery-and-blood-libel.html">"Mary Raftery and Blood Libel"</a><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This kind of thing has been going on for over 20 years now and I don't believe there is ANY possibility of RTE reforming themselves and delivering "<i>impartial, independent journalism</i>" that "<i>contributes to democratic discourse</i>". In other words, they cannot act as a Public Service Broadcaster and should NOT receive public funds! </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Question 3. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">How should media be governed and regulated?</span></span></h3></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">You ask "<b><i>Are current legislative and regulatory controls for public service media adequate</i></b>?" </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In my answer to Question 1, I pointed out that, following RTE's libel settlement with John Waters and others in 2014, the then Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte expressed his desire to change the law in order to make it more difficult to sue RTE!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Even before being appointed Minister, Pat Rabbitte had a well-earned reputation as an anti-Catholic bigot especially due to his role in bringing down the Reynolds Government in 1994. In relation to THAT episode, historian Diarmaid Ferriter wrote "<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Some became angry that when Harry Whelehan was questioned and denied the existence of a Catholic conspiracy within the Attorney-General's office, he felt the need to defend his right to be a practicing Catholic</span></i>." </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">If someone like Pat Rabbitte can be appointed Minister for Communications then NO conceivable "<i>legislative and regulatory controls</i>" will force RTE to carry out their duty to act as a Public Service Broadcaster. They should be denied public funding and obliged to to fund themselves by advertisements and subscriptions like other media! </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Thank you. Your submission has been received</i>!<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">. </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-77539458477156209642020-12-29T21:02:00.017+00:002021-02-19T08:28:55.613+00:00EU Commissioner Phil Hogan Forced to Resign re "Golfgate", as Supreme Court Judge Seamus Woulfe Refuses <p> </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaTfSI0E85YvNrXsFGCKONZz8Jfgi_OHHWkGhHZ3xnFMvUqOLZlQ21nd4pdTldzRMw9py6kkgWd79HaWNOqfN_thGV8LgOLE0VzjF2DHqdlMf469yJ9HloD-wiTb9IYUzEESyMOGuPNgwZ/s640/SeamusWoulfe___PhilHogan.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Phil Hogan and Supreme Court Judge Seamus Woulfe" border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="640" height="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaTfSI0E85YvNrXsFGCKONZz8Jfgi_OHHWkGhHZ3xnFMvUqOLZlQ21nd4pdTldzRMw9py6kkgWd79HaWNOqfN_thGV8LgOLE0VzjF2DHqdlMf469yJ9HloD-wiTb9IYUzEESyMOGuPNgwZ/w640-h405/SeamusWoulfe___PhilHogan.jpg" title="Phil Hogan and Supreme Court Judge Seamus Woulfe" width="640" /></a></div></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Justice Seamus Woulfe (right) pictured with Phil Hogan, who resigned from his role as EU Commissioner for Trade after Golfgate</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>We have a corrupt media and political establishment that goes into hysterics over a minor issue like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oireachtas_Golf_Society_scandal">Golfgate</a> . Meanwhile people who have done great wrong have been promoted to high office and then demoted for ludicrous reasons - as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Hogan">Phil Hogan</a> became Minister and then EU Commissioner after libelling <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Wall">Nora Wall</a> in 2002 and then loses his job over nonsense about attending a gathering of the Oireachtas Golf Society the day after Government health regulations changed! </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>Phil Hogan was Chair of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party in April 2002 when he used Parliamentary Privilege to libel former nun Nora Wall <i><b>and</b></i> an <i>unnamed</i> senior official in Department of Education whose offence was to give a good report to the Sister of Mercy Home that Nora managed. The official "i<i>s the golden thread weaving through a number of centres where children were in some cases tortured and forced to have sex with animals</i>" said Phil. Our anti-clerical media reported what he had said - see section <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>(B)</b></span> below - but there was no follow-up i.e. they <i>knew</i> he was talking nonsense! </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>In 2009 - following publication of the Ryan Report that denounced the Religious Orders - Fine Gael Justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan <b><i>again</i></b> used Parliamentary Privilege to repeat Hogan's libels against Nora Wall and the<i> still-unnamed</i> Dept. of Education official and added one against the Cistercian monks of Mount Melleray (but for some reason, did <b><i>not</i></b> include the bit about nuns forcing children to have sex with animals). Again the media just reported the allegations but <i>without</i> demanding that such grotesque claims be investigated - see section <span style="color: #2b00fe; font-weight: bold;">(C). </span>I understand that media reports of Parliamentary proceedings are <i>also</i> privileged but taking them seriously - e.g. by naming the Dept of Education official and demanding he be prosecuted - would leave them open to a libel suit. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>Charlie Flanagan was lucky not to be forced to resign as Minister for Justice during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garda_whistleblower_scandal">Maurice McCabe scandal</a>. His two predecessors Frances Fitzgerald and Alan Shatter both had to resign on bogus grounds in the midst of media hysteria and even our out-of-control media may have balked at forcing the resignation of a third Minister for Justice! <b><i>Phil Hogan was not so lucky but both of them had sowed the wind that created the whirlwind!</i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">(A) "Golfgate", Covid and Public Hysteria </span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>On 13 December 2020 there was a story in Sunday Independent by Eilis O'Hanlon </span><span style="text-align: center;"><span><a href="https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/covidiots-are-being-eaten-by-a-monster-they-created-39857144.html">'Covidiots' Are Being Eaten by a Monster They Created</a> . The immediate story concerns Labour leader Alan Kelly going maskless on public transport and Sky broadcaster Kay Burnley bringing friends back to her house after her birthday party thus breaking Covid regulations. Both escaped rather lightly. She mentions others who did not: . </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i><blockquote style="text-align: left;">Former Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary was left with no choice but to resign after attending a dinner for 80 in Galway organised by the Oireachtas Golf Society. Jerry Buttimer, who was deputy chair of the Seanad, also stood down, as did Ireland's EU Commissioner <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Hogan">Phil Hogan</a>.</blockquote></i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span>Phil Hogan's fall was the greatest of all. EU Commission for Trade when he was forced to resign on 20 August 2020 due to media </span></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span>hysteria regarding "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oireachtas_Golf_Society_scandal">Golfgate</a>", he had previously been Minister for the Environment in the Irish Government and before that Chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party. Curiously enough he achieved his first (Junior) Ministerial post in the Rainbow Coalition formed in December 1994 - after <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/06/sex-scandals-rock-catholic-church-and.html">Pat Rabbitte</a> brought down the Fianna Fail government with his bogus claims concerning Fr Brendan Smyth.<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> Phil Hogan's Ministerial career was launched with a bogus media/political scandal targeting the Catholic Church and - in all likelihood - has ended with an out of control media whipping up hysteria against male authority figures in general! </span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Eilis O'Hanlon continues </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span><i>A culture of public shaming has been forged in which wrongdoers are put in the stocks for the righteous to pelt with rotten fruit </i>and she</span></span><span style="text-align: center;"><i> </i>concludes: </span><i style="text-align: center;">If Alan Kelly and Kay Burley have fallen foul of a ravenous beast of public censoriousness, it's one they helped to create. Monsters always eat their own children.</i></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i style="text-align: center;"></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i>BUT this "culture of public shaming" commenced long before the Covid crisis and Phil Hogan himself did a great deal to create it!</i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">(B) 2002: Phil Hogan Libels Nora Wall and Senior Dept of Education Official</span></span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In April 2002 he used Dail (Parliamentary) Privilege to libel Nora Wall and a senior official in Department of Education.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: left;">This is the text of the Irish Times article dated 25 April 2002 entitled</div><div style="text-align: left;">"<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/td-cites-retired-official-in-child-sex-abuse-allegations-1.1086360">TD Cites Retired Official in Child Sex Abuse Allegations</a>"</div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">Details were given in the Dáil last night about a retired senior official in the Department of Education who is alleged to have been involved in a Dublin-based child sex ring. At the time he was supposed to be investigating alleged child sex abuse.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Fine Gael chairman Mr Phil Hogan gave details last night about the official, who retired some years ago and who "<i>has been implicated by a victim in a rent-a-boy sex ring with convicted killer Malcolm McArthur"</i>. He referred to "<i>astonishing revelations of a perceived and systematic cover-up of rape, gross indecency and abuse of children from 1978 to 1990</i>". The official "<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">is the golden thread weaving through a number of centres where children were in some cases tortured and forced to have sex with animals</span></i>".</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Mr Hogan condemned the Department for its failure to take action about the official and said it was not good enough to say it was voluntarily disclosing documents to the Laffoy commission on child abuse. "<i>This man has never come to the attention of gardaí</i>," he said, but "<i>his name keeps coming up with journalists speaking to health board officials</i>". Mr Hogan asked, "<i>Does anyone really care within the Department about what happened to these poor youngsters who were put in the care of the State and then abused?</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The [Fianna Fail] Minister for Education, Dr Woods</b>, said: <i>"I care very much, the secretary-general of my Department cares</i>". He added that they would give any information they could, and would co-operate fully.<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> He said, however, that his Department had no information on any cases which compared to newspaper reports.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Mr Hogan said the official was linked to investigations into sexual abuse in residential centres in Kilkenny city, Cappoquin, Co Waterford, and Clonmel. He was named by a male abuse victim who said he had sex with the man. The victim said he was 17 years old and working as a prostitute at the time.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The official was alleged to have been with convicted murderer Malcolm McArthur when the two picked up the rent boy on the Quays in Dublin. Malcolm McArthur has served 20 years for the murder of a nurse in the Phoenix Park and another man, and was later found in the home of the then Attorney-General.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The prostitute recognised the Department official. He had met him while a resident of St Joseph's school in Clonmel, when the man was a Department inspector. Mr Hogan, referring to the story which appeared in the Ireland on Sunday newspaper last week, said the official also investigated sex abuse by convicted paedophiles and "<i>gave one of the worst offenders a clean bill of health</i>".</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">He said it was alleged that all of the abuse took place at the time the centre was managed by Nora Wall, a former Sister of Mercy nun whose conviction for rape of a 10-year-old child was quashed by the court of criminal appeal in 1999.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The official was guilty of "<i>gross incompetency at the very least and at very worst there was something very dark and dirty behind him hidden from public view</i>", Mr Hogan added.</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"></div></span></span></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">(C) 2009: Charlie Flanagan Libels Nora Wall, Cistercian Monks AND Dept of Education Official</span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: left;">This is the text of the Irish Times article by Marie O'Halloran dated 9 July 2009 entitled "<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/fg-deputy-seeks-new-investigation-into-former-nun-1.695986">Fine Gael Deputy seeks New Investigation into Former Nun</a>"</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">A CALL has been made for the reopening of an investigation into former nun Nora Wall, resident manager in the 1980s of St Michael’s Child Care Centre in Cappoquin, Co Waterford.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan</b> said she “<i>exposed the children in her care to unacceptable risks by allowing male outsiders to stay overnight at the Cappoquin care home centre in Waterford</i>”. He said: “<i>It has been suggested that there were frequent visits to the Cappoquin home by some clergy from Mount Melleray Abbey. Access to children may have been a key motivation for these visits</i>. <i>We must bear in mind that that very abbey, Mount Melleray, was selected by the notorious paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth as a holiday destination or a haven to escape when he was on the run from the authorities in Northern Ireland. This issue needs to be revisited</i>.”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Mr Flanagan</b> was speaking during the second night of the Dáil debate on the Labour party Private Members’ Institutional Child Abuse Bill which provides that no abuse victim should be denied justice through the redress board. The Bill also removes any record for children incarcerated in reformatory schools by criminal conviction. It was rejected by the Government but the Labour Party did not call a vote last night on the Bill.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[Fianna Fail] Minister of State [for Children] <b>Barry Andrews</b> said the Bill contained a number of good measures and there was some valid criticism of the speed with which the indemnity deal was concluded. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Fine Gael spokesman</b> also said “<i>there are issues in relation to the charging and release of Nora Wall that need to be revisited by way of investigation</i>. <i>And it is a matter of some concern that reports about interference with witnesses and attempts to buy their silence have been made,” </i>he added. <i>“I believe this particular aspect needs to be fully investigated because any secret payments made by religious institutions to individuals need to be fully probed and examined</i>.”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Deputy Flanagan</b> also called for the Education Finance Board, which has a budget of €12.7 million, to appear before the Public Accounts Committee. “<i>The board administers a very large budget. Concerns have been brought to my attention in respect of what some considered to be rather ad hoc and casual approach to awarding money</i>.”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ms Wall had a conviction in 1999 for the rape of a 12-year-old girl in her care declared a miscarriage of justice. Mr Flanagan said the Ryan commission report into child abuse described her management of children in her care as “<i>alarming</i>”, “<i>disastrous</i>” “<i>inappropriate and dangerous</i>”.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">He said: “<i>One particularly worrying aspect of the Ryan report refers to an incident where a resident of the home with an intellectual disability was sexually assaulted by a colleague in a hotel where he worked part-time. The parents of the boy went to the gardaí. They confronted the abuser, who admitted the abuse. The boy later told the house parent that he did not want to pursue the matter. It was later noted that the boy had a new radio. He told her that Nora Wall had given him a new radio and a new bicycle. This is quite a sinister revelation that needs to be probed further</i>.”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Mr Flanagan</b> referred to the alleged involvement of a senior departmental official in a Dublin-based child sex ring “<i>at a time he was supposed to have been investigating child abuse</i>. <i>That individual had investigated the home run by Nora Wall and given it a clean bill of health at a time when there were serious problems at the home as now identified in the Ryan report</i>,” Mr Flanagan said.</span></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">The Irish Times doesn't mention it, but Charlie Flanagan was referring explicitly to Phil Hogan'<i>s</i> previous allegations. According to the<a href="https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2009-07-08/32/"> Dail Eireann Debates record for 8 July 2009</a><i>: My colleague, Deputy Phil Hogan, highlighted in this House in April 2002 the alleged involvement of a senior departmental official in a Dublin-based child sex ring at a time he was supposed to have been investigating child abuse. That individual had investigated the home run by Nora Wall and gave it a clean bill of health at a time when there were serious problems at the home, as identified by the Ryan report.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">Did Charlie Flanagan seriously believe that the Gardai had <b>ignored</b> this claim for the previous 7 years? WHY didn't he repeat Hogan's 2002 allegation that "<i>The official "is the golden thread weaving through a number of centres where children were in some cases tortured and forced to have sex with animals</i>" ?</p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;">(<span>D) Libelling the Laity (and non-Catholics) to Get the Church!</span></span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Matt Russell (<i>and</i> Harry Whelehan and Albert Reynolds)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">It is clear that both Phil Hogan and Charlie Flanagan libelled the Department of Education official because he had given a good report to the Sister of Mercy Home that Nora Wall managed. This wasn't the first time that politicians trashed the reputation of innocent laymen in their desire to demonise the Catholic Church. In my article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/06/sex-scandals-rock-catholic-church-and.html">Sex Scandals Rock the Catholic Church - and the Role of Pat Rabbitte</a>" I describe how in 1994 the then Democratic Left TD, invented a conspiracy between Cardinal Cahal Daly and Catholic Attorney General Harry Whelehan to protect Fr Brendan Smyth. Regarding this bogus scandal, historian Diarmaid Ferriter wrote "<i>Some became angry that when Harry Whelehan was questioned and denied the existence of a Catholic conspiracy within the Attorney-General's office, he felt the need to defend his right to be a practicing Catholic.</i>" However senior civil servant Matt Russell was probably NOT a "<i>practising Catholic</i>" but was forced to resign anyway as a result of the athmosphere of public hysteria created by Rabbitte. (See Appendix 3 to the preceding article: "<i>The Dismissal of Matt Russell</i>")</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Pablo McCabe</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Moreover Nora Wall's co-accused Pablo (Paul) McCabe was a homeless schizophrenic man, who was obviously penniless but was accused because - prior to 1999 - no <i>woman</i> had been convicted of rape in Ireland. McCabe was branded as the main rapist - with Nora Wall as his helper - in order to make the rape allegations seem more plausible. The two accusers then planned to sue the Sisters of Mercy for a fortune. <i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Their vile antics were a street level version of the behaviour of Rabbitte, Hogan and Flanagan</span></i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The only detailed account of the tragedy of Pablo McCabe is in an article by Breda O'Brien in the Jesuit Review <i>Studies</i> in Winter 2006: "<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/irish-controversies/the-passion-of%20nora-wall-1999/miscarriageofjustice-winter06.php">Miscarriage of Justice: Paul McCabe and Nora Wall</a>" </div><p style="text-align: left;">She begins with a quote from Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman"</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>I don't say he's a great man... His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Kevin Myers<br /></b>Although the Irish Times account of Charlie Flanagan's attack on Nora Wall in 2009 doesn't mention it, Deputy Flanagan <i>also</i> criticised journalist Kevin Myers - <i>because</i> he had defended her. See my article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/09/justice-minister-charlie-flanagan.html">Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, George Hook and Nora Wall [1]</a><br /><i>Since her conviction was overturned, she has been portrayed as an heroic martyr in many quarters with references to witch hunts and witch trials abounding. Six weeks ago, the columnist Kevin Myers wrote in a national newspaper: "The liberal-left lynch mob that went after poor Nora Wall a decade ago was prepared to destroy her life on the basis of lies."</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">It is therefore not really surprising that in 2017 Kevin Myers himself was libelled - as an anti-Semite! - by then Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, his Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, a former Deputy PM Joan Burton <b>and</b> by State Broadcaster RTE. It was a series of events unprecedented in the history of this State and probably of a<i>ny</i> democracy! I write about it here:<br /><a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/10/kevin-myers-and-age-of-de-valera-and.html">Kevin Myers and the Age of de Valera and McQuaid</a></p><p style="text-align: left;">There was no <i>direct</i> connection between the 2017 libels and Kevin Myers defence of Nora Wall in 1999 but a link certainly exists. There is NO possibility that our "liberal" politicians or RTE would libel "progressive" journalists - like Myers former colleagues in the Irish Times. Kevin Myers was libelled for reasons of ideological hatred - very similar to the motives of racial or religious hatred that inspire extreme Right-wing ideologues!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Ruairi Quinn libels Dept of Education Civil Servants<br /></b>In 1994 Labour Party TD Ruairi Quinn had been an enthusiastic exponent of the hysterical claims that caused the collapse of the Fianna Fail-Labour Coalition headed by Albert Reynolds. He told Reynolds "<i>We've come for a head. Yours or Harry's [Whelehan], and we are not going to get Harry's</i>." He boasted about his role in his 2005 autobiography "<a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/ruairi-quinn/straight-left/9780340832974/">Straight Left</a>" written long after it was clear that neither Reynolds nor Whelehan had done anything wrong. </p><p style="text-align: left;">In June 2009 Quinn, then Labour Spokesman for Education said in the Dail that <i>"Either officials in the department [of Education] are members of secret societies, such as the Knights of St Columbanus and Opus Dei, and have taken it upon themselves to protect the interests of these clerical orders at this point in time. . . or, alternatively, the [Fianna Fail] minister is politically incompetent and incapable of managing the department</i>"</p><p style="text-align: left;">Ruairi Quinn's slander of Education officials was not as vile as that of Fine Gael's Phil Hogan or Charlie Flanagan but it was made in June 2009 at the same time that the latter was accusing a former official of being a member of a paedophile ring. It also echoes Richard Webster's observation about the events of 1994 precipitated by Deputy Pat Rabbitte when "<i>the Fianna Fail government of Albert Reynolds fell, amidst talk of a dark conspiracy involving politicians, members of Opus Dei, the Knights of Columbus and others.</i>" </p><p style="text-align: left;">Ruairi Quinn was leader of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2002 - prior to voicing his fantasies about Opus Dei in Education - and went on to become Minister for Education himself from 2011 to 2014. Now in retirement, Quinn gave an interview to Kathy Sheridan of the Irish Times which was published on 22 February 2016, entitled "<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/not-retiring-quietly-ruair%C3%AD-quinn-has-harsh-words-for-critics-1.2544462">Not retiring quietly, Ruairi Quinn has harsh words for critics</a>" </p><p style="text-align: left;">....<i>There is no shouting now either, more a deep frustration, disappointment and the sadness of a man first elected nearly 40 years ago, now facing into retirement amid unprecedented levels of abuse and venom. He blames media coverage and intolerance, and a general drop in standards. “<b>People feel they can blackguard each other</b></i>. ..... [my emphasis]</p><p style="text-align: left;">Irony is definitely not the former Education Minister's strong point. There is no hint that Quinn's <b><i>own</i></b> brand of thuggish rhetoric had anything to do with the "<i>unprecedented levels of abuse and venom</i>" in public discourse!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Charlie Flanagan vs Civil Servants in Department of Justice<br /></b>I wrote about this issue in a number of previous articles including "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/12/justice-ministers-kevin-ohiggins-to.html">Justice Ministers Kevin O'Higgins to Charlie Flanagan: from Decency to Decadence</a>". Two successive Secretary Generals in Department of Justice were forced to resign as on the basis of groundless allegations in relation to the Garda Whistle-blower scandals - and received no support from Justice Ministers Frances Fitzgerald or Charlie Flanagan who were preoccupied with saving their own their own political skins. Civil servants cannot defend themselves against media assault; they depend on their Minister to do so but our current politicians will not stand for justice when faced with a mob. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Secretary General <b>Brian Purcell</b> stood aside in July 2014 after then Justice minister Frances Fitzgerald published the Toland Report on the Department, which identified a "<i>closed, secretive and silo-driven culture</i>" supposedly prevalent there. He was the third senior Justice figure forced to resign - after Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Noel Waters</b> served as acting secretary general of Department of Justice after Mr. Purcell's departure. He was appointed on a permanent basis in October 2016. He had planned to retire in February 2018 but instead resigned on 28 November 2017 while issuing a statement that those working in Justice had been "<i>subjected to a barrage of unwarranted criticism</i>". </p><p style="text-align: left;">Originally Noel Waters had intended to run the Department for a few weeks while a permanent successor was found but this proved impossible! See article by Fiach Kelly in Irish Times on 30 November 2017 <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/the-job-nobody-wants-secretary-general-of-the-department-of-justice-1.3310091">The job nobody wants: secretary-general of the Department of Justice </a></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote style="text-align: left;">Justice is seen as one of the big beast departments, alongside the Departments of the Taoiseach, Finance, Public Expenditure, and Foreign Affairs, and should be one of the most attractive. Yet the process that led to Mr Waters’s eventual appointment took two years, and some who were informally approached turned down the opportunity to interview for the job. “<i>We couldn’t get anyone to apply for it</i>,” said one figure involved in the process.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">Secretary Generals usually remain in place for 7 years but Noel Waters stepped down in November 2017 a few hours after former Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald resigned as Tanaiste (Deputy Prime Minister). He made a statement to colleagues that is probably unprecedented in the history of the civil service:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">As he departed, he strongly defended the department - which he said had been “<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">subject to a barrage of unwarranted criticism</span></i>” - in an email to colleagues. “<i>I want to assure you that, in so far as is humanly possible, this Department has sought at all times to act appropriately, upholding the law and the institutions of the State</i>,” he wrote. “<i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Many of the claims about how the Department has acted that have been made in the media and in the Dáil are not true.</span> The Department makes an important contribution to Irish society, a contribution that more often than not goes unseen and unnoticed</i>,” he added, urging staff not to “<i>not lose sight of your contribution to public service and continue to give your best. Through the years I have worked with truly talented and honourable people and each and every one of you work to make Ireland a safe, fair and inclusive place to live and work</i>.”</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">The authors of the "<i>barrage of unwarranted criticism</i>" and the "<i>untruthful claims</i>" included Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan.<a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/justice-in-crisis-secretary-general-announces-immediate-retirement-as-minister-charlie-flanagan-apologises-to-dail-36361192.html"> Leo Varadkar said</a> the events of recent days “<i>again exposed major problems within a dysfunctional Department of Justice, including the way important emails were not found and therefore not sent on to the Charleton Tribunal during discovery</i>”. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Charlie Flanagan: “<i>I want to record my thanks to Deputy Kelly for his PQs which led to the unearthing of an email that had not been sent to the Tribunal.</i>” The minister poured blame on officials at the Department of Justice, saying it has been “<i>a major challenge at every step to obtain complete information in a timely manner, indeed, on a few occasions recently, information has been provided to me, to the Taoiseach, and then to this House, which has proven subsequently to be inaccurate</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">In contrast Leo Varadkar defended Frances Fitzgerald who had been forced to resign as Tanaiste in the course of the same fake scandal. <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/a-good-woman-is-leaving-office-without-a-full-or-fair-hearing-varadkar-addresses-dail-following-fitzgeralds-resignation-as-tanaiste-36360146.html">A good woman is leaving office without a full or fair hearing' - Varadkar addresses Dáil following Fitzgerald's resignation as Tanáiste</a> (Both Leo and Frances had joined in libelling Kevin Myers earlier in 2017!) </p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Charlie Flanagan, who libelled Nora Wall and Leo Varadkar who libelled Kevin Myers, are prepared to trash the reputations of their civil servants. When they attack those in Department of Justice they are directly undermining the security of the State</span></i></b>. </p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;">(E) Supreme Court Justice Seamus Woulfe Refuses to Resign in "Golfgate"</span></h2><p style="text-align: left;">On 26 August 2020 the BBC did quite a good summary report of Golfgate as it then stood: <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53881363">What is GolfGate and why is it causing Ireland problems?</a></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote style="text-align: left;">Last Thursday night, a story broke about a dinner at a hotel in the west of Ireland that has thrown the country's government into turmoil. First reported in the Irish Examiner, it emerged that more than 80 people had attended an Irish parliamentary golf society event in Clifden, County Galway. Included on the guest list were a host of high-profile figures from Irish political life.<b><i> But the event came just one day after Irish authorities tightened Covid-19 restrictions on gatherings. Gardaí (Irish police) are investigating the event for possible breaches of the regulations.</i></b> A week later, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">three politicians, including a government minister and EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan, have resigned their posts. Mr Hogan - who would have been leading the EU's post-Brexit free trade negotiations with the UK - had been facing calls to quit for days before he fell on his sword on Wednesday night</span>. ... James Sweeney, from the Station House Hotel where the event was held, told Irish broadcaster RTÉ he had checked with the Irish Hotels Federation to ensure the event complied with regulations. He said he was told it would be, if the guests were in two separate rooms, with fewer than 50 people in each.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">As a result of this preposterous media-created "scandal" Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary resigned as did Jerry Buttimer, the deputy chairman of the Irish Senate. They did so without creating a fuss and no doubt their careers won't be permanently affected. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">The same cannot be said about Phil Hogan, the man who used Dail Privilege to libel Nora Wall and an unnamed senior official in Dept of Education.</span> He strongly resisted his downfall - and rightly so - but it hard to imagine him ever rising again to the dizzy heights he once scaled. In addition Ireland is seen as having undermined its own reputation in the EU. Of course we lost the very important Trade Commissioner post and our replacement Commissioner Mairead McGuinness has been allocated <i>part</i> of the portfolio once held by Valdis Dombrovskis - the man who was <i>promoted</i> to take over from Phil Hogan! </p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>But fellow-attendee at the golf society dinner, Justice Seamus Woulfe who had only been appointed to the Supreme Court in July 2020, refuses to resign!</i></span> The Supreme Court requested its former Chief Justice, Susan Denham, to report on Woulfe's attendance at the dinner. <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/s%C3%A9amus-woulfe-did-nothing-involving-impropriety-to-justify-resignation-denham-report-finds-1.4369595">Denham's report was published on 1 October 2020.</a> She concluded that in the circumstances Woulfe should not have attended the dinner, but she observed that he did not break the law or Covid guidelines. She said that a resignation would be "<i>unjust and disproportionate</i>" - a perfectly sensible observation amidst the hysteria! Ms Justice Denham said she was “<i>of the opinion that it would be open to the Chief Justice </i>[Frank Clarke] <i>to deal with this matter by way of informal resolution</i>.” The Supreme Court initially accepted Denham's Report but media and political hysteria continued and Woulfe criticised same in a private meeting with colleagues. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Frank Clarke met with Woulfe as part of the "<i>informal resolution</i>" on 5 November 2020 where he read the contents of a draft letter to Woulfe. Clarke said that all of the judges of the Supreme Court, including the Presidents of the Court of Appeal and the High Court, believed that Woulfe's actions had caused "<i>significant and irreparable</i>" damage to the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice said that in his "<i>personal opinion</i>" Woulfe should resign. He referred to developments since the report was published doubting Woulfe's understanding of "<i>genuine public concern</i>" and questioning Woulfe's critical remarks of the Taoiseach, the government, and his judicial colleagues. On 9 November, contrary to the wishes of Woulfe, Chief Justice Clarke published the correspondence in which reprimanded Woulfe for his response to the scandal and stated that it was his opinion that Woulfe should resign in order to avoid continuing serious damage to the judiciary</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Justice Seamus Woulfe faced down public hysteria generated by the media and endorsed by his own colleagues and refused to resign</span>. Under the Constitution a judge may be removed from office only for "<i>stated misbehaviour or incapacity</i>" and only if a joint resolution is adopted by both houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament). No judge has been removed from office under this procedure since the foundation of the state in 1922. At attempt was made by a few far-left TDs to invoke the impeachment procedure but received no support from the main political parties. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">The latter would have liked Justice Woulfe to relieve them of responsible by resigning but had no appetite for a fight against a determined opponent! On 17 November 2020, Taoiseach (PM) Michael Martin said the government would not pursue any further action against Woulfe</span>.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;">(F) Conclusion </span><b style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sinn Fein and Antifa</span></b></h2><p style="text-align: left;">Since Ireland's three main political parties are in coalition now, Sinn Fein are the main opposition and are likely to come to power in Ireland's next general election. In my article about the <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2019/12/free-speech-vs-anti-racism-rallies-and.html">Free Speech Vs Anti-Racism Rallies in December 2019</a>, I wrote about how those of us who opposed Charlie Flanagan's Hate Speech proposals were attacked by Antifa. The attackers were held back by the Gardai (police) and by their own stewards. I have little interest in politics myself but I was told the stewards were from Sinn Fein. But what will happen when Sinn Fein are in power? Will they appoint a new Garda Commissioner and instruct him not to intervene in those circumstances? Will they continue to restrain the street fighting thugs - OR use them as their own enforcers of political orthodoxy? </p><p style="text-align: left;">One thing is clear. Politicians like Charlie Flanagan and <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/10/kevin-myers-and-age-of-de-valera-and.html">Leo Varadkar</a> (and former ones like Phil Hogan, <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html">Alan Shatter</a> (<b>NOTE [1]</b> ) Ruairi Quinn and <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/06/sex-scandals-rock-catholic-church-and.html">Pat Rabbitte</a>) have gutted their integrity - much more so than democratic politicians in the Weimar Republic whom historians see as mediocrities rather than morally corrupt. (Supreme Court Judges - including Chief Justice Frank Clarke - have also demonstrated their weakness in the face of popular hysteria.) Weimar "<i>decadence</i>" was more in evidence among the intelligentsia than the political class. It's certainly evident among Irish intellectuals who express no objection to <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html">bogus allegations of child rape and murder being directed at Catholic clergy</a>. However our political class for certain - and perhaps our judges - are similarly decadent and equally incapable of standing up to the barbarians at the gates! </p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>NOTES</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>[1]</b> See <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html">Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews!</a> for former Justice Minister Alan Shatter's contribution to the debate on Separation of Church and State in Ireland!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"></div></span></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-62080226468310825072020-12-01T03:15:00.013+00:002021-02-02T09:04:51.170+00:00Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the Simpsons and Our Insect Overlords<p> </p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKY2SyaT5jssdsrJK0E55datzUKdDRk2CCQJpOlTTZ6qFNgdf2SJ2JECesPGxmCd1Hrm7H_aSZKrSwku2NCl-LIYEZT4VjN0N4mJ8s2sqekdaQrctvvfkS-Beyw88l2dccjpoUgVtVZEGj/s810/Archbishop_DiarmuidMartin.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Archbishop Diarmuid Martin" border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="810" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKY2SyaT5jssdsrJK0E55datzUKdDRk2CCQJpOlTTZ6qFNgdf2SJ2JECesPGxmCd1Hrm7H_aSZKrSwku2NCl-LIYEZT4VjN0N4mJ8s2sqekdaQrctvvfkS-Beyw88l2dccjpoUgVtVZEGj/w640-h426/Archbishop_DiarmuidMartin.jpg" title="Archbishop Diarmuid Martin" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><b>Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin</b></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="417" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W4jWAwUb63c" width="502" youtube-src-id="W4jWAwUb63c"></iframe></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Archbishop Diarmuid AKA Kent Brockman welcoming our Insect Overlords</b></span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(A) Former Catholic Ireland and our New Secular (Insect) Overlords</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Ladies and Gentlemen .....The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over, 'conquered' if you will, by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive Earthmen or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them</span> as a trusted TV personality, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.</span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>And from the other side - Adolf Hitler</b><i>: "The final state must be: in St Peter's Chair, a senile officiant; facing him, a few sinister old women, <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-apologies-of-sisters-of-mercy-and.html">as gaga and poor in spirit as anyone could wish</a>. The young and healthy are on our side". </i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I have a previous article on <i>this</i> Blog <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-decadence-of-sisters-of-mercy.html">The Decadence of the Sisters of Mercy</a> describing nuns whose current mental and moral status isn't far removed from that described by Hitler. I have an article on <a href="http://irishsalem.com/individuals/Politicians%20and%20Others/archbishop-martin/index.php">Archbishop Diarmuid Martin</a> on my old <i>website</i> <a href="http://IrishSalem.com">IrishSalem.com</a> Unfortunately <b><i>his </i></b>antics cannot be explained or excused by Senility!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This current article is, in part, a response to one by the Religious Affairs correspondent of the Irish Times Patsy McGarry on the Archbishop's forthcoming retirement - "<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/diarmuid-martin-s-successor-must-be-cut-from-the-same-cloth-1.4419101">Diarmuid Martin’s Successor Must be Cut From the Same Cloth</a>" (subtitle <span style="color: #2b00fe;">"Fears Rome will impose an archbishop more interested in protecting its own interests</span>") What our secular elite (or Insect Overlords) require is a prelate with minimal concern for the rights of falsely accused priests like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Reynolds_(priest)">Fr Kevin Reynolds</a> or laity like <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/john-waters-has-no-regrets-for-taking-legal-action-against-rte-30214757.html">John Waters</a> BOTH libelled by State broadcaster RTE - as child abuser and homophobe respectively. Or indeed for the rights of a family - including four children - driven out of their home on 4 occasions by mobs. I write about the latter case in <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Section (E)</span></b> below <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">.</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(B) Archbishop Diarmuid and I</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I have had a few run ins with Archbishop Diarmuid over the years. More than a decade ago when I was still (relatively) young and innocent, I sent him two emails regarding false allegations of child abuse against Catholic clergy. I can't locate them just now but they would have been an early version of my article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/07/seven-falsely-accused-bishops-and.html">Eight Falsely Accused Bishops (and Archbishops) in Ireland</a> No reply - not even an acknowledgement . A few weeks later I attended the Easter ceremonies in the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin which was my usual annual habit at the time (I have since changed it) and ran into his secretary there. I mentioned it to him and he suggested that I put the emails in writing and send them by post. I did so and again - of course - there was no reply. Some time later I spoke about this episode during a public meeting and said I assumed it was because the Archbishop is a "Liberal" and doesn't communicate with Reactionaries like myself. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">A <b><i>very</i></b> liberal priest there assured me that he had the same problem getting a response and that our Archbishop only communicates with VIPs</span>! (Note <b>[1] and [2]</b> )</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I describe my most recent run-in with the Archbishop in my article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/09/cancellation-of-seminar-on-tuam.html">Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Cancellation of Seminar on Tuam Children’s Home</a>" The health authorities had approved our History Seminar - to be held in Newman University Church, Dublin on 30 August 2020 with maximum attendance of 50 - as complying with Covid Regulations. However the Archbishop insisted that the event be cancelled. We had to relocate to Galway on 4 October. See "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/10/seminar-on-tuam-childrens-home-online.html">Seminar on Tuam Children's Home (Online) - Transferred to Galway</a>"</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">My article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/11/irish-antifa-attacks-protesters-liberal.html">Irish "Antifa" Attacks Protesters - "Liberal" Irish Media Don't Mind</a> includes a description of an <i>indirect</i> run in with the Archbishop - see section on "<b><i>The Decadence of Archbishop Diarmuid</i></b>". I have been at <i>three</i> demonstrations (in favour of Free Speech and opposing the Covid lockdown regulations) at which we were violently attacked by Antifa types - and I barely missed a <i>fourth</i> one which turned out to be the <i>most</i> violent. The Archbishop appears to have said nothing about the attackers but he condemns those of us who were targeted by the thugs. Weimar style decadence!<br /><br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(C) The Archbishop and Miss Panti Bliss</span></h3><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I</span>n February 2014 Irish State broadcaster RTE agreed to pay libel damages to six members of the <a href="https://ionainstitute.ie/about-the-iona-institute/">Iona Institute (for Religion and Society)</a> after a TV broadcast on the Saturday Night Show in which <b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">drag queen Rory O'Neill - alias Miss Panti Bliss</span></i></b> - described them as Homophobes. It was <b><i>not</i></b> a spontaneous act - he was invited by RTE presenter Brendan O'Connor to name names! Irish Times columnist<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/taoiseach-dismisses-call-to-make-rt%C3%A9-answerable-to-the-d%C3%A1il-1.1680214"> Breda O’Brien told the Irish Times</a> that she and other members of the Iona Institute only sought libel damages after RTÉ refused to apologise over the claim of homophobia.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ms O’Brien said she was not “<i>remotely interested in money</i>”, but agreed to accept damages because “<i>people don’t take you seriously unless there is some sort of settlement. The key issue here is that RTÉ walked itself into a defamation case and then offered a completely inadequate response which is a right of reply</i>”. She maintained that Saturday Night Show presenter Brendan O’Connor should never have asked Mr O’Neill to name names. “<i>All we wanted was an apology and was offered a completely inadequate response which was a right of reply. It is not up to you to defend yourself. It is up to the organisation that defamed you</i>."</div><div><br /></div><div>The six Iona members - including another Irish Times journalist John Waters - accepted a modest total amount of €85,000 but there were furious objections in the Irish Parliament and media to <b><i>any</i></b> payment. It was necessary for RTÉ’s head of television Glen Killane to explain that the €85,000 payout saved the broadcaster “<i>an absolute multiple</i>” in the long term. Mr Killane said it would have been “<i>absolutely reckless</i>” of RTÉ not to settle the case. He told RTÉ Radio’s News at One programme the broadcaster was faced with six different defamation actions and was told by “<i>very senior counse</i>l” that it was unlikely it would be able to defend any defamation action in court.</div><div><br /></div><div>So how did the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin react to the libelling by our national broadcaster of what <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona_Institute">Wikipedia describes</a> as "<i>a socially conservative Roman Catholic advocacy group</i>"? Well naturally he had no objection! According to <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/irish-drag-queen-panti-bliss-impassioned-eloquent-speech-on-anti-gay-prejudice-is-a-youtube-sensation">a report in The National Post (Canada)</a> </div><div><blockquote>The Catholic Church’s senior official in Dublin, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, conceded that the church did harbour people with hostile and un-Christian attitudes toward gays. “<i>Anybody who doesn’t show love towards gay and lesbian people is insulting God</i>,” Martin said. “<i>They are not just homophobic if they do that. They are actually God-ophobic, because God loves every one of those people</i>.” </blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #2b00fe;">O’Neill, as is his style, had a quip to capture the absurdity of his situation. “<i>I love the fact that the archbishop has essentially come out for Team Panti</i>,</span>” he told the AP.</blockquote><p> </p><h3 style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(D) The Archbishop and the Sisters of Mercy</span></h3><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>"..a senile officiant; facing him, a few sinister old women, as gaga and poor in spirit as anyone could wish..." </i>Adolf Hitler predicts future of Catholic Church</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: arial;">A few years ago I was told an extra-ordinary story about the Sisters of Mercy and Archbishop Diarmuid. Apparently the Sisters were deeply shocked when the Archbishop threw them to the wolves in the aftermath of the publication of the Ryan Report on industrial schools in May 2009. So the nuns who cheerfully betrayed their own innocent colleagues in a desperate attempt to make themselves popular with "<i>victims</i>", were surprised when the Archbishop did the same to them. Obviously there's no honour among thieves!</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: arial;">I have an article on the <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/religious-congregations/sisters-of-mercy/index.php">Sisters of Mercy</a> in my old website (<i>not</i> Blog) <a href="http://IrishSalem.com">IrishSalem.com</a> This story may be related to the following extract from that article:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b></span></p><blockquote style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Finally and In Conclusion<br /></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/Politicians%20and%20Others/bishop-willie-walsh/index.php">Bishop Willie Walsh</a> was quoted by Patsy McGarry in the Irish Times on 14 November 2009:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">He had been speaking recently to the leadership team of the Mercy congregation’s southern province, “<i>women who have given their lives in the service of the church</i>”, and who were “<i>very broken, very sad</i>”. They felt “<i>let down by us, the bishops</i>”.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So that explains nearly a decade and a half of self-degradation by the Sisters of Mercy - and other female religious. It was the Bishops that made them do it!</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p></blockquote><p> </p></div></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">(E) Is Archbishop Diarmuid Martin a Saviour of the Irish Church? (Politics.ie discussion)</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The following is an extract from a discussion on Politics.ie mainly in 2011-12 on the topic "<a href="https://politics.ie/threads/archbishop-martin-a-saviour-of-the-church.178105/">Archbishop Martin - a Saviour of the Church</a>"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-weight: bold;">Corelli </span><i>Dec 18 2011</i><b>:</b> <i>He is liked and disliked in equal measure in Rome, one hears. Liked because he is the only bishop who has handled the clerical abuse issue properly. Disliked because, for the Roman church, he is an extreme liberal, which to most mortals, would make him a mild conservative.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry [Myself]</span> </b><i>Dec 19 2011</i>: I have a long article on the Archbishop on my website and part of it refers to a discussion on Politics.ie over a year ago [i.e. in 2010].</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://irishsalem.com/individuals/Politicians%20and%20Others/archbishop-martin/index.php"></a></span></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://irishsalem.com/individuals/Politicians%20and%20Others/archbishop-martin/index.php">Archbishop Diarmuid Martin</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>The Archbishop and Mob Hysteria<br /></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I</span><i><span style="font-family: arial;">n June/ July 2010 in Co. Wicklow, a family comprising parents and four children were driven out of their homes on four occasions by mobs. On the last occasion the mob burned down their home in Ashford. The reason for the hyteria was that 18 years previously (in 1992) the husband had been convicted of a sex offence against a minor and got a suspended sentence of six months. There was a discussion on the Politics.ie website entitled "Labour Councillors Join Mob Harassment of Innocent Family" and I wrote (among other things}:</span></i><a href="https://politics.ie/threads/labour-councillors-join-mob-harrassment-of-innocent-family.133155/" style="font-family: arial;">Labour Councillors Join Mob Harrassment of Innocent Family</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - Page 18 </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The family have been hounded out of Kilcoole, Redcross, Rathnew and Ashford. I think they are all in the Archdiocese of Dublin which covers most of Co. Wicklow as well. Ashford certainlly is and that is where their house was burned down. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has become a great hero of the liberal media because of the way he has dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse. He cannot make a speech without denouncing the evils of abuse and apologising for the way the Church dealt with them in the past. He even put pressure on Bishop Martin Drennan to resign even though NO criticism had been made of him in the Murphy Report. (Like the Wicklow mob, the Archbishop seems to believe in guilt by association.) ......</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><b>Would it be too much to ask the Archbishop to condemn the behaviour of the people who hound an innocent mother and her four children? The mob are abusing these innocents. Moreover the hysteria and fanaticism generated by the mob will rebound on real victims of child sexual abuse in the future. Cynicism is what normally follows after Hysteria.</b></i></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">MY CURRENT COMMENT [Dec 2011]: Archbishop Martin likes to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds. He has no intention of raising issues that might bother Irish "<i>liberals</i>" - for example why did Labour Councillors on Co Wicklow back up the actions of those mobs?</span></p><p><b style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">NotAnotherPolitician</span></b><span style="font-family: arial;"> said: </span><span style="font-family: arial;">How come he could spend €94,000 on a kitchen for his palace if he is all you make him out to be</span><i style="font-family: arial;">?</i></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry [Myself] - reply to NotAnotherPolitician</span></b> <i>Dec 19 2011 </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The fact that he kept his mouth shut when mobs in his diocese drove a family (including 4 children) out of their home on four occasions and burnt the house the last time, is rather more important that what he spends on his kitchen. So is the following from my article </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://irishsalem.com/individuals/Politicians%20and%20Others/archbishop-martin/index.php">Archbishop Diarmuid Martin</a>, </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i></i></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><b>The Archbishop and Auxiliary Bishops of Dublin </b></i></span><i style="font-family: arial;">The most egregious example is the Archbishop's treatment of retired auxiliary Bishop Dermot O'Mahony. The Archbishop removed Bishop O'Mahony from his position as director of the archdiocese's pilgrimage to Lourdes on the basis that “I regret that you did not express any public clarification or remorse or apology” (letter dated 2 December 2009). However Bishop O’Mahony had sent a statement to the Archbishop’s Director of Communications Annette O’Donnell on 27 October 2009 which concluded : “I profoundly regret that any action or inaction of mine should have contributed to the suffering of even a single child. I want to apologise for my failures from the bottom of my heart”. The statement was not published by the Communications Office but Annette O'Donnell confirmed that the Archbishop had seen it. He made no apology to Dermot O'Mahony and indeed continued to criticise him. ....</i></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Martin told lies about one of his own auxiliary bishops. Presumably he thought he could get away with it because after all, what could Bishop O'Mahony do about it? Well Bishop O'Mahony passed on the correspondence to the Irish Catholic and from there it got to the rest of the media. This was unprecedented in the history of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Martin's treatment of Bishop O'Mahony is one of the major reasons why the Archbishop is disliked and indeed despised by his own priests and by the rest of the hierarchy. The fact that anti-clerics love him goes without saying!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">borntorum</span></b>: The fact that you dislike him only raises my opinion of the man</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-weight: bold;">Kilbarry-reply to borntorum </span><i>Dec 20 2011</i>: In general do you approve of telling lies - or is it only when a "liberal" slanders a "reactionary"? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">On a related issue do you think the Archbishop - as a self-proclaimed defender of abused children - should have condemned the Wicklow mobs last year especially the mob that burned children out of their home? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Herren</span></b> said: </span><span style="font-family: arial;">There is no doubting this man's ability or compassion. Pity he wasting so much of these qualities preaching and practicing mumbo jumbo.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry -reply to The Herren </span></b><i>Dec 20 2011:</i> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">I will repeat the second part of a previous post:</span><span style="font-family: arial;">...<i>"On a related issue do you think the Archbishop - as a self-proclaimed defender of abused children - should have condemned the Wicklow mobs last year especially the mob that burned children out of their home</i>?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The mobs were attacking the home and family of a man who had got a suspended sentence in 1992 for the indecent assault of a minor. The man had four children who were driven out of 4 successive houses by thugs who claimed (like the Archbishop) to be acting in defence of children. These were not the kind of children that our beloved Archbishop wanted to be seen defending. He is interested only in Politically Correct causes and these were NOT PC children!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Kilbarry </b></span><i>Feb 27 2012</i>: </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The following letter appeared in the Irish Times today. In fact there IS a connection between the Archbishop's unwillingness to support falsely accused priests AND his unwillingness to condemn mobs in his Archdiocese who drove a family out of their homes on four successive occasions and burned down the home the fourth time. The protection of children is not the issue here - or at any rate it's not what motives our beloved Archbishop!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/a-fear-among-priests-1.471326">The Irish Times - Readers Letters and Feedback</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>A fear among priests</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Sir</b>, Breda O'Brien (<i>Opinion, February 11th</i>), in writing about the possibility of complacency regarding child abuse, says: "<i>There is also the very real fear among priests that things have moved so far in the opposite direction that any priest is presumed "guilty as charged". There are some bishops . . . who believe it is impossible for a priest to return to ministry even when it is clear that a priest was falsely accused</i>."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The implications of these attitudes for the working relationship between bishop and priest are far-reaching. The promise of respect on behalf of the priest was to be honoured by the bishop with a duty of care. In the past the exaggeration of respect and honour led to a culture of clericalism but their absence now as a result of the abuse crisis has created a vacuum in which trust has been replaced by suspicion on both sides.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Gathering around the bishop as a sign of unity has lost its meaning since I, and many priests like me, on being summoned to Archbishop's House on any issue would not attend unless accompanied by a witness, if not a solicitor. Yours, etc,</span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Fr GREGORY O'BRIEN PP,<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">St Jude the Apostle,<br />W</span><span style="font-family: arial;">illington,<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Templeogue,<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Dublin 6W.</span></b></p></blockquote><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><p><b style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Warrior of Destiny</span></b><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Feb 27 2012</i><span style="font-family: arial;">: If Diarmuid Martin became Pope tomorrow he'd be the FDR of the Vatican.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry</span></b> <i>Feb 27 2012</i>: Does that mean you approve of his silence when a Wicklow mob burned a family - including four children - out of their home because the father had got a suspended sentence 20 years before? And what about the Labour Councillors in Wicklow who endorsed the action of the mob and voted that anyone who "<i>associated with</i>" a sex offender should be denied housing by the Council. They were referring to the wife and children of this man. Diarmuid Martin had no words of criticism for the mob-endorsing politicians either. That's the way FDR behaved is it?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Des Quirell </span></b>: I was silent on that issue too. What does that say about me? </span><span style="font-family: arial;">If he is to comment on every arising issue he'll be damned as in interfering fool.</span></p><p><b style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry-Reply to Des Quirell</span></b><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Feb 27 2012</i><span style="font-family: arial;">: </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Martin specialises in denouncing child abuse. The four homes attacked by the mob were in his Archdiocese. There was political support for the mobsters from the Labour Party. The mobs claimed to be acting to protect children from the father of the family. This is the issue that has defined Martin's role as Archbishop - but the problem is that the victims were the wife and children of a man who had been convicted of a sex offense 20 years previously. THAT is why Martin kept his mouth shut.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">LamportsEdge</span></b> That's a dangerous title to have in the catholic pantheon of the magisterium ('<i>saviou</i>r') ... Martin would want to stay away from Calvary-like hills and run like hell should he spot Shatter looking at him quare like...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry</span></b> <i>Feb 27 2012</i>: Martin is regarded as a liberal hero for much the same reason that the [Anglican] "<i>Red Dean</i>" of Canterbury the Rev Hewlett Johnson was similarly regarded half a century ago. The Rev. Johnson denounced the evils of capitalism while proclaiming the "<i>authentic</i>" Christian virtues of Comrade Stalin. He was secretly despised by his progressive friends who regarded him as the greatest "<i>Useful Idiot</i>" of them all.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">After Prime Time's case against Fr Kevin Reynolds collapsed, Martin denied that the Irish media in general have any special animus against the Catholic Church. ("<i>Mission to Prey</i>" was just an unfortunate exception it seems.) While I cannot swear that Patsy McGarry and John Cooney see our Archbishop as the CURRENT Most Useful Idiot, I strongly suspect it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">LamportsEdge</span>:</b> Seeing as he has now twice been passed over for a red hat despite being hotly tipped for one I'd say that there is as much evidence for the current Opus vatican to see him as the Useful Idiot in the welter of degeneracy of the Irish church. He was a financial expert seconded to the UN in Geneva and his career was mostly around high finance rather than ideology or ministry- it is possible he was regarded as '<i>unsoundly libera</i>l' some time ago by the Opus contingent and given the poisoned chalice of an Archbishopric in Ireland to keep him out of the college of cardinals.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry - reply to LamportsEdge</span></b> <i>Feb 27 2012:</i> I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here. My impression is that Martin is widely distrusted and despised by his own priests as a hack who will say anything to make himself popular with the media. The Vatican are certainly aware of this opinion and one solution might be to kick Martin upstairs by making him a Cardinal and giving him a role in "<i>high finance</i>" or whatever. The trouble is that this will be represented by the media as the Vatican going soft on child abuse by removing our journalists own fake hero (and real clown). There is no easy way out of this dilemma but I favour the "<i>kick him upstairs</i>" approach myself.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Corelli:</span></b> There is to be about 13 more vacancies in the College of Cardinals in the next 12 months with most of the vacant Cardinatial See's having being filled at the last one. Therefore, if Martin is to get the Red Hat within the life time of this present Pope, there is about another 12 months to do it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There are a number of factors in play. </span><b style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">The rumor amongst the Catholic bloggers and papers, is that Martin, actually, has a very good personal relationship with the Pope, and within the Vatican, has still very good relationships within the Curia, having worked there for so long. </b><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>There is a suggestion that if the Eucharistic Congress is not a disaster he might get one as reward next time</i></b>. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">[</span><span style="font-family: arial;">Emphasis</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> mine, RC] </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">However, there is ONE HUGE fly in the ointment. Geography. There presently is a living and serving Irish Cardinal, namely that twit Brady, who, with the best will in the world, has not sufficient intellect, charm or influence to be still in the job. The only way Martin could get one in that situation is to get one of the Vatican which automatically gets the Red Hat. Now Martin would, I am sure, like to be back in the Vatican, but there are limited jobs going and he would not like a token appointment in the Curia which would give him title but no power and totally scupper his chances of the "big" job.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry - reply to Corelli</span></b> <i>Feb 27 2012</i>: I am definitely not an insider where these issues are concerned. However, between talking to my few contacts and what was published in the media, I did ascertain one important fact. The two auxiliary bishops of Dublin Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field understood that they had the support of Archbishop Martin for their initial refusal to resign after the publication of the Murphy Report in November 2009. <b><i>Then suddenly to their amazement and without warning, Martin indicated in a Prime Time programme in December 09,that he did NOT support them.</i></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b> </b>So they felt that they had no alternative but to tender their resignations to Pope Benedict. However they both wrote personal letters to the Pope saying the SOLE reason for tendering their resignations was Martin's public repudiation of them! Thus Pope Benedict refused to accept their resignations.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">If that is the case - and I have good reason to believe that it is - I cannot see how Martin can possibly have a good working relationship with the Pope. I suspect that the door is being left open for him to return to a high-sounding post in the Curia where he can do a lot less harm than as Archbishop of Dublin. That may account for the impression that he is in good odour with the Vatican. In other words it IS a question of kicking him upstairs as soon as it is possible to do so!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry -continued:</span></b> And the following extract from an Irish Times article dated 21 December 2009 tends to support my view. It quotes Eddie Shaw who worked in the Dublin Archdiocese Communications Office in 2002-03:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://irishsalem.com/individuals/Politicians%20and%20Others/archbishop-martin/archbishop-response-criticised.php">Archbishop's Response Criticised</a> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Irish Times, Dec 21, 2009 by Patsy McGarry</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Eddie Shaw, .... said communications strategy by the archdiocese following publication of the Murphy report had been "<i>catastrophic . . . absolutely catastrophic</i>"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Marian Finucane programme yesterday, he said: <i>"I think, Marian, it's wrong, the way it was done is wrong. Communicating with people who are your auxiliaries through the Prime Time programme in the way it was done - that was wrong</i>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i>What's going on now this weekend in the papers, with the Archbishop in Rome saying close this matter down until I return to it again in the New Year</i>" , he said. "<i>I will talk specifically for the two men I worked with, Bishop Éamonn Walsh, Bishop Ray Field in particular</i>", he continued. .......</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">He asked: "<i>How much preparation do you need to prepare for something like this when you know what's coming down the track? How much preparation do you need to be informed, to be advised to have a communications strategy? Can somebody show me where the evidence is of a communications strategy that is based on a church that has a mission to its people</i>?" .......</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Asked about Archbishop Martin saying on the same Prime Time programme that since publication of the Murphy report the previous week only two bishops had called him offering support, Mr Shaw said: "<i>I actually don't understand that comment . . . Is that a reflection on the gap that has opened up between one bishop and his brother bishops?</i> <i>Is that a reflection on the way some bishops thought about the way he communicated? I don't know. I can't answer that</i>." ......</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i><b>Why not have the people in, talk to them one to one, tell them this is going to happen. Why would you communicate that for the first time, as apparently it was done, across the airwaves on Prime Time</b></i>?"</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Good question and the answer may be that Martin likes the sound of his own voice on TV and just decided - on the spur of the moment - to badmouth his colleagues and his auxiliary Bishops. Nothing would surprise me about that clown!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Toland</span></b> <i>Feb 28 2012</i>: He seems to me at least a normal, decent human being. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">In the company he keeps that makes him look like a saint.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry - reply to Toland</span></b> <i>Feb 28 2012</i>: Martin told lies about his auxiliary Bishop Dermot O'Mahony and he tried to get Bishop Drennan of Galway (former auxiliary in Dublin) to resign even though NO criticism of him was made in the Murphy Report. The man is a liar and a vicious clown. (In comparison to him the "Red Dean" of Canterbury was at least innocent, although a complete fool!) See in </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://irishsalem.com/individuals/Politicians%20and%20Others/archbishop-martin/index.php">Archbishop Diarmuid Martin </a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>The Archbishop and Auxiliary Bishops of Dublin<br /></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The most egregious example is the Archbishop's treatment of retired auxiliary Bishop Dermot O'Mahony. The Archbishop removed Bishop O'Mahony from his position as director of the archdiocese's pilgrimage to Lourdes on the basis that </span><i style="font-family: arial;">"I regret that you did not express any public clarification or remorse or apology</i><span style="font-family: arial;">" (letter dated 2 December 2009). However Bishop O'Mahony had sent a statement to the Archbishop's Director of Communications Annette ODonnell on 27 October 2009 which concluded : "</span><i style="font-family: arial;">I profoundly regret that any action or inaction of mine should have contributed to the suffering of even a single child. I want to apologise for my failures from the bottom of my heart</i><span style="font-family: arial;">". The statement was not published by the Communications Office but Annette O'Donnell confirmed that the Archbishop had seen it. He made no apology to Dermot O'Mahony and indeed continued to criticise him.</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In November 2009 the Archbishop invited the Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan who had previously been an auxiliary Bishop of Dublin to "<i>consider his position</i>" after the publication of the Murphy Report. While the Report mentions Bishop Drennan, it makes no criticism whatsoever of his conduct! In order to consolidate his status as a media hero, does the Archbishop want to hand the media as many heads as possible on a platter?</span></p></blockquote><p> </p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I did a brief reprise of the subject in January 2016 when I published an article on this Blog: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><b style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry</span> - </b><i style="font-family: arial;">Jan 16 2016</i></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Archbishop Diarmuid - Sins of Omission re Child Sex Abuse</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There is an article on Archbishop Diarmuid Martin here - based on a Politics.ie discussion in 2010. A family with 4 children had been driven out of their homes on four occasions by mobs in Co. Wicklow when the mobs discoverer that the father had a conviction for sexual contact with a minor nearly 20 years previously. (He got a 6 months suspended sentence which gives some indication of how grave the offence was.) On the FOURTH occasions the woman promised to separate from her husband so naturally the mob reacted differently this time around; they burned the house down with all the family's possessions inside! Wicklow County Council then passed a motion saying that anyone who "consorted with" a sex offender should not be housed by the Council!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So what did Archbishop Diarmuid do - this "<i>Saviour of the Church</i>", this champion of abused children? Why nothing at all. The 4 children of a man convicted of a sex offence almost 20 years before, merited no word of sympathy from the Archbishop.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Anyway here here is the article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2016/01/labour-councillors-join-mob-harrasment.html">Labour Councillors Join Mob Harrasment of Innocent Family - CONTINUED</a></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Karloff</span> </b>: Shocking story. Only thirty years ago these kinds of communities were following moving statues.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />I believe (aside from issues relating to the ongoing safety of children) that once any offender serves their sentence then they have served their sentence. In times like this people rely on authority to protect them from the mob as a last line of defence, those political whores in that council are the mob themselves.</span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-weight: bold;">Kilbarry </span><i>Jan 16 2016</i><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-weight: bold;"><i>:</i> </span>Two Labour Party Councillors were responsible for the motions that denied housing to people who "consorted with" sex offenders and thereby supported the actions of the mob. However the motions were passed unanimously by Wicklow County Council in June 2010. Presumably the councilors from other parties were afraid to vote against, because public opinion was on the side of the lynch mob! However an article in the Sunday Independent on 4 July 2010 pointed out that one man DID protest:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>One lonely figure stands out as the voice of reason and fairness: Michael Nicholson, the director of services with Wicklow County Council, who called what happened an example of mob mentality, and stands over that remark.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Now all praise to Michael Nicholson, but note that he was a civil servant and NOT a politician and so his job didn't depend on the mob.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">However there was one other person who could have intervened with complete safety. This was Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the cleric who is a hero to nearly all ANTI-clerics in Ireland! The Archbishop can hardly give a speech without apologising for the (real or imagined) sins of the Church against children. [And when I say "imagined" I refer to his attempt to get Bishop Drennan to resign even though NO criticism had been made of him in the Murphy report.] If any OTHER cleric had denounced the Wicklow mobs, he would have been shouted down as a defender of paedophiles but our caring and compassionate Archbishop could have done so - or, at the very least, he could have expressed sympathy for the four children of the family. Archbishop Diarmuid said nothing because he is a fraud whose only concern is to present himself as a hero in the eyes of our "liberal" journalists.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>I have a gut feeling that they despise him!</i></b></span></p><p><b style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kilbarry</span></b><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Feb 29 2020</i><span style="font-family: arial;">: I believe Archbishop Martin is due to retire shortly and there may not be the usual year long extension either. For some reason his period in office and his crawling before the secular power remind me of a classic episode in The Simpsons "</span><b style="font-family: arial;"><i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLTI9bja4So">Deep Space Homer</a></i></b><span style="font-family: arial;">" [see video at beginning of article]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And a great job Diarmuid made of it. However I get the impression that even his anti-clerical admirers are getting just a little bit tired of the guy - one might even say they are bored with his endless speaking pious platitudes to power!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Rory Connor</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>30 November 2020, amended 2 December 2020 </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>NOTES:</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[1] </b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b> "</b><i>A very liberal priest there assured me that he had the same problem getting a response and that our Archbishop only communicates with VIPs!"</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">So why didn't <b>I</b> think of that? Perhaps because I had heard of Archbishop McQuaid's effort to reply personally to every letter he received. See for example Colum Kenny's article "<a href="https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/my-hour-alone-with-john-charles-mcquaid-26261706.html">My Hour Alone with John Charles McQuaid</a>" (when he was a schoolboy)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"> <i>I remember the archbishop later sighing about the amount of correspondence he received from people. He waved a hand across the papers on his desk and muttered: ``They write to me about the system. What system? There are only people''; or words to that effec</i>t.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">John Charles current successor, Archbishop Diarmuid gets over THAT problem by ignoring correspondence from <b>non</b>-VIPs!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[2]</b> Extract from Phoenix Magazine article on "<b>Patricia Casey</b>" 25 January 2013. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote><div>She has a particular disdain for that experienced media operator and career Church diplomat, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin. Following Martin's description of the latest crop of young priests as "<i>traditional</i>" (conservative) and "<i>fragile</i>", <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-20202339.html">she dissed the Archbishop in vociferous terms</a> in the the Irish Examiner last July [2012]. Querying with ill-disguised sarcasm whether Martin had access to 'f<i>ragile</i>' priests psychological assessments, Casey accused Martin of being unwilling to put forward positive solutions to the crisis in the Church. This she argued is because Martin is afraid of what "<i>critics of the church and of religion might say at any given moment</i>", a fear she describes as "<i>crippling</i>". By critics Casey meant the IT [Irish Times] and other liberal pundits whom she believes - not without foundation - Martin is in thrall to.</div><div><br /></div><div>The astute Casey also believes - again with justification - that amongst among its priests, Martin is the most unpopular prelate to head the Dublin archdiocese for many years. This is partly because of his willingness to suspend any priest against whom an abuse allegation is made pending inquiries but also because of an apparent distain both for lowly clerics and for traditional Catholic mores. In short he is a liberal sheep in Bishop's vestments. Casey's broadside on young priests stung Martin as evidenced by his riposte defending his choice of language about newly ordained priests. When it comes to the crisis engendered by sex abuse in the Church, Casey has been stern and censorious in her description of clerics' deviant behaviour and what must be done. However, she is also critical of those in the Church, like Martin, whom she believes are on the run from aggressive secularists."</div></blockquote><div></div><div>Nice to see my own views confirmed!</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-7060401369890275432020-11-04T20:42:00.005+00:002020-12-10T19:17:00.021+00:00Irish "Antifa" Attacks Protesters - "Liberal" Irish Media Don't Mind<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So far I have been at <b><i>three</i></b> demonstrations in Dublin that have been attacked by Antifa types. The first two were outside Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament) protesting the Irish Government's proposed new Hate Speech Law and I have an article about the initial demonstration and attack by Antifa HERE - <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2019/12/free-speech-vs-anti-racism-rallies-and.html">Free Speech Vs Anti-Racism Rallies and My Response to Department of Justice</a> The third was a protest outside the Custom House against the Government's Covid restrictions. (As it was a <i>different</i> topic I wondered on Twitter if Antifa would attack but they did!) </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Brenda Power had an excellent article in the Sunday Times recently concerning a different demonstration outside Dail Eireann on 10 October where the Antifa attackers seem to have been even more aggressive than anything I had experienced. (<i>I learned about it very late and decided not to go - if I had known what was going to transpire, I would certainly have gone along to show my support</i>). <b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">It seems that political violence is becoming a feature of Irish life, it </span></i></b></span><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">is getting worse with time,</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b> is coming almost exclusively from the Left but THAT fact is being played down by the Irish media that prefers to talk about clashes between groups - as if both are equally to blame!</b></span></span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Most of Brenda Power's article is behind a paywall. I have used my two free articles a month privilege to reproduce her article dated 18 October 2020. </span></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYA2CvDXx7daardHHcNO5UwsEbmqbol0fTnMjWal5nTrBqd2sKtIig3gjBwom_xWQdVpkuosbMUw-O0Rhz_ds1YTYxpDYT3-toCoymCIvSCdo_UHYMuMGdsOiIMbAhs_P-c-Eh5sTxqswh/s620/NationalPartyProtest_10Oct2020.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="620" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYA2CvDXx7daardHHcNO5UwsEbmqbol0fTnMjWal5nTrBqd2sKtIig3gjBwom_xWQdVpkuosbMUw-O0Rhz_ds1YTYxpDYT3-toCoymCIvSCdo_UHYMuMGdsOiIMbAhs_P-c-Eh5sTxqswh/w458-h258/NationalPartyProtest_10Oct2020.jpg" width="458" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Antifa counter-demonstrators (left) attack demonstrators outside Dail Eireann</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br /><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brenda-power-left-wing-acitivism-flies-under-the-extremism-radar-v2xk60hcr?t=ie"><b>Brenda Power: Left-Wing Activism Flies Under the Extremism Radar</b></a><br /><br /><b><i>The Sunday Times October 18 2020 by Brenda Power</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />A group of people opposed to lockdown, in the belief that the Covid-19 threat is exaggerated, organised a protest last weekend to air their views outside Leinster House. As they stood peaceably at the gates, they were set upon by a violent group of masked hooligans. Footage from the event shows this mob aggressively confronting gardai as officers attempt to protect the 150 or so people behind the riot barriers.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The original crowd of protesters was not belligerent, was not physically threatening anyone and, because they don’t believe in the things, for the most part the campaigners’ identities were not conveniently concealed behind face masks. And with a gathering smaller than you’d find around a decent Hozier tribute act on Grafton Street, they didn’t pose any immediate threat to the stability or security of the state. They were just a bunch of people, in a country that constitutionally guarantees free speech, trying to express an unpopular opinion. The other crowd was a gang of sinister thugs trying to beat them up.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />At least, so it might appear to a disinterested observer, perhaps a news reporter: peaceable group versus violent thugs. No problem figuring out the bad guys in that equation, right? Well, wrong, actually — at least not from the perspective favoured by the majority of the liberal Irish media. Because the peaceable protesters, led by the National Party, have been filed under the all-purpose heading “<i>far right</i>” and so, as far as the prevailing narrative has it, they are always, always going to be the ones in the wrong.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Even when they’re being physically attacked for expressing their views. Even when a Dublin hotel is forced, as in 2016, to cancel the National Party launch because of <i>“public safety fears</i>”. Even when it is clear that the only danger to public safety, then and last Saturday week, came from the people assailing them. But because this shower style themselves “<i>left wing</i>”, then they are always, always going to be the good guys.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The centre of Ireland’s political gravity has moved steadily to the left over the past 20 years. We have a “socialist” president who, up to recently, was also a landlord. President Michael D Higgins once lauded the murderous tyrant Fidel Castro as “<i>a giant among global leaders</i>”. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">The media is dominated by socialists with typewriters who are acutely attuned to the dog whistles of the right but entirely deaf to the growing rumble of left-leaning menace.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The violence at that Dail fracas came almost entirely from the self-styled protectors of liberty, equality and harmony on the militant far left, but most such clashes illustrate an obvious flaw in the left-versus-right model. It is not a straight line from the good guys on the far left to the bad guys on the far right, but rather a tight horseshoe, with the two extremes separated only by the width of a riot shield.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />When The Irish Times dared to publish a glossary of far-right terms a few years ago, the most vocal liberals lost their reason. The very people who had paraded under the <i>Je Suis Charlie</i> banner after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, defending the French newspaper’s right to insult Muslims in vile terms as an exercise in free speech, were having none of that free speech lark when it came to their own cherished views. Their pious excuse was that they were fighting against “<i>fascism</i>” — mostly just people with different opinions — and that’s the same justification employed by those thugs outside the Dail, who will defend to the death, literally if necessary, your right to agree with them. Better dead than, er, not red.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />You’ll find lots of definitions of fascism online but, as Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty observed, words can mean what you want them to mean. Yet most agree that, in essence, fascism is characterised by dictatorial power, the strong regimentation of society, and the forcible suppression of opposition: you know, being compelled to hold exactly the same views, which some unelected cabal has decreed are the correct ones, with dissenting opinion being punished by threats to your job, your reputation, your personal freedom, even your physical safety.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />If you’re of the liberal left, that’s a hypothetical scenario which must be averted at all costs. If you’re right wing, it’s basically Twitter.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">NPHET’s Death Toll in Doubt, But Debate is Off Limits</span></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />On June 16, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Public_Health_Emergency_Team_(2020)">NPHET</a> [National Public Health Emergency Team] announced that the national death toll from Covid-19 over the previous three months had reached 1,709. Yet on July 3, <a href="https://www.hiqa.ie/">HIQA </a>[Health Information and Quality Authority] released a statement questioning this figure. In the previous three months, HIQA calculated, there were about 1,200 deaths more than usual, and therefore 500 supposed Covid fatalities were not directly due to the virus.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The explanation was that the reported number of Covid deaths “<i>may have included people who were infected with coronavirus but whose deaths may have been predominantly due to other causes</i>”. NPHET has not revised its figures; the current death toll is predicated on that June figure being correct, despite HIQA saying it was not.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Last week a full-page advertisement addressed “<i>to our leaders</i>” appeared in The Irish Times. Citing “<i>facts from Irish government websites</i>”, it questioned the lockdown model, and linked to the recent Great Barrington declaration by leading epidemiologists which denounced the approach.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The ad also claimed that younger folk had a greater chance of being killed by a car than by Covid-19, and yet we may still drive. It said the median age of death from the virus was still 18 months greater than our average life expectancy, and pointed out that the Covid statistics included those who died with, rather than of, the virus. That was exactly as HIQA said in July. Yet the mere publication of these claims was then decried as irresponsible.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />We cannot, it seems, even debate this subject.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />brenda.power@sunday-times.ie</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">We Have a Decadent Ruling Class That Won't Stand against Terrorism (or Sinn Fein)</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The author of our new proposed Hate Speech Law is former Minister for Justice and Equality <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Charlie Flanagan</b></span> - the guy who used Parliamentary Privilege to libel Sister of Mercy Nora Wall - see my article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/09/justice-minister-charlie-flanagan.html">Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, George Hook and Nora Wall [1]</a> During his Dail speech, Charlie also denounced Kevin Myers - the <b><i>only</i></b> journalist who defended Nora when she was convicted of rape - and he did so <i>because</i> Myers had defended Nora. Our journalists barely reported Charlie's libel at the time. They were aware that it was false and that Nora had successfully sued the Sunday World for libel in 2002!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Kevin Myers - a strong supporter of Israel - was subsequently libelled <i><b>as an anti-Semite (!)</b></i> by our <b><i>Prime Minister, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Leo Varadkar</span>, his then Deputy <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Frances Fitzgerald</span> and a former Deputy PM <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Joan Burton</span>.</i></b> See my article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/10/kevin-myers-and-age-of-de-valera-and.html">Kevin Myers and the Age of de Valera and McQuaid</a>. It's pleasant to note that Frances Fitzgerald - who was <i>also</i> a former Minister for Justice - was forced to resign as Deputy PM in an "<i>unrelated</i>" bogus scandal (but it <i>was</i> related to the athmosphere of hysteria she had helped to foster). However Leo survived unscathed. Even when the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland said the allegation against Myers was false, no journalist asked our Prime Minister if he would apologise.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Before Francis Fitzgerald was Minister for Justice and Equality, the role was held by <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Alan Shatter</span></b>. - a man who plays a prominent role in my article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html">Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews</a> In 2009 Shatter demanded - and got - a year long Garda (police) inquiry into claims that the Catholic Church had been involved in the unsolved murder of a young girl Bernadette Connolly in 1970 - nearly 40 years before. A few months after the Gardai reported there was no evidence of any Catholic collusion. the Government fell and Shatter was promoted to the ;post of Minister for Justice and Equality. No journalist questioned his fitness for the role - just as they raised no objection to Charlie Flanagan's promotion to the same role in 2017.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">As per Wikipedia "<i>On 7 May 2014, Shatter resigned as Minister for Justice and Equality and as Minister for Defence following receipt by the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, of the report of Seán Guerin into allegations made by Garda Sergeant Maurice McCabe</i>." It was a bogus scandal and a subsequent inquiry established that Shatter had done nothing wrong - nor had Fitzgerald Fitzgerald also forced to resign in 2017 - but both were victims of the athmosphere of public hysteria they had conspired to create!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I have an article dated January 2018 <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-maurice-mccabe-affair-six-top-level.html">The Maurice McCabe Affair - Six Top Level Resignations To Date (and More to Come?)</a> that relates inter alia, to Alan Shatter, Frances Fitzgerald and Charlie Flanagan. There were media calls for the latter to resign also in relation to the Maurice McCabe Affair. He was likely saved by the fact that both his predecessors had been forced out of office and the appetites of our brave investigative journalists were sated! However my prediction of "<i>More to Come</i>" has been fulfilled by the recent forced resignation of Ireland's EU Commissioner for Trade,<a href="Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan and Former FG Chair Phil Hogan Vs George Hook and Nora Wall"> Phil Hogan - a man who <b><i>also</i></b> used Parliamentary Privilege to libel Nora Wall</a>! Phil Hogan was forced out in the preposterous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oireachtas_Golf_Society_scandal">Golfgate Scandal</a> - <span style="color: #2b00fe;">another legacy of the public hysteria he and has fellow politicians had thought useful as long as it could be directed against the Catholic Church!</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Decadence of Archbishop Diarmuid</span></span></h4><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin had something to say on this topic and naturally he condemned the <b><i>victims</i></b> of the assault! There was an article in the Irish Examiner on Friday 16 October (by Cormac O'Keefe) that should be compared to the above-mentioned article by Brenda Power on the following Sunday <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40066094.html">Diarmuid Martin Warns Anti-Mask Protestors are 'Dangerous Influence' on Young People</a> and I quote:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><div></div><blockquote><div>Catholic archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has warned that organisers of ‘<i>anti-mask</i>’ protests could be a dangerous influence on young people by denying the Covid-19 pandemic. He said some of the people who have taken part in anti-mask rallies are the same groups that attempted to “overturn” his car when he attended an Islamic gathering in Croke Park. This is thought to refer to an historic prayer service on the pitch to mark the holy festival of Eid al-Adha, which he attended last July.</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny show, Dr Martin said the people who set up anti-mask rallies are very organised and he is worried they might have an influence on young people.<b style="font-style: italic;"> He noted that elsewhere in Europe young people are being influenced by neo-Nazis. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>A number of 'anti-mask' protests have taken place in Dublin the most recent on October 3 seeing several hundred demonstrators packed onto Grafton Street and staging a sit down. <b><i>This was followed a week later by a so-called "End the Lockdown" rally outside the Dáil, which was organised by the far-right National Party and saw clashes with counter-protestors</i></b>. [My emphasis]</div></blockquote><div></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Compare this to Brenda Power's </span> </span>"<i><span style="font-family: arial;">As they stood peaceably at the gates, they were set upon by a violent group of masked hooligans.....</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>They were just a bunch of people, in a country that constitutionally guarantees free speech, trying to express an unpopular opinion. The other crowd was a gang of sinister thugs trying to beat them up</i>." </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>But the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin will only condemn those <i>attacked </i>by the gang of sinister thugs</b></span>!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Sinn Fein and Antifa</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Since Ireland's three main political parties are in coalition now, Sinn Fein are the main opposition and are likely to come to power in Ireland's next general election. I referred above to the <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2019/12/free-speech-vs-anti-racism-rallies-and.html">Free Speech Vs Anti-Racism Rallies</a> last December where those of us who opposed Charlie Flanagan's <i>Hate Speech</i> proposals were attacked by Antifa. The attackers were held back by the Gardai (police) and by their own stewards. I have little interest in politics myself but I was told the stewards were from Sinn Fein. But what will happen when Sinn Fein are in power? Will they appoint a new Garda Commissioner and instruct him <b><i>not</i></b> to intervene in those circumstances? Will they continue to restrain the street fighting thugs - OR use them as their own enforcers of political orthodoxy? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">One thing is clear. Politicians like Charlie Flanagan and Leo Varadkar have gutted their integrity - much more so than democratic politicians in the Weimar Republic whom historians see as mediocrities rather than morally corrupt. Weimar "decadence" was more in evidence among the intelligentsia than the political class. It's certainly evident among Irish intellectuals who express no objection to bogus allegations of child rape and murder being directed at Catholic clergy. However our political class are similarly decadent and equally incapable of standing up to the barbarians at the gates! </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">[See also article <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/12/justice-ministers-kevin-ohiggins-to.html">Justice Ministers Kevin O'Higgins to Charlie Flanagan: from Decency to Decadence" </a> Not all my predictions came true but I think the essence still applies - including politicians who are prepared to betray senior civil servants in order to save their own skins.]</span></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-43308648807062544442020-10-20T19:02:00.038+01:002020-12-01T18:40:02.805+00:00Seminar on Tuam Children's Home (Online) - Transferred to Galway<p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is a follow up to my article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/09/cancellation-of-seminar-on-tuam.html">Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Cancellation of Seminar on Tuam Children’s Home</a>" The Seminar originally scheduled for Dublin University Church on 30th August was cancelled by Archbishop Martin and eventually held in Galway on 4 October. I had intended to do an article on the subject but <a href="http://www.CatholicArena.com">www.CatholicArena.com</a> have done so much better than I could. This is a link to their article <a href="https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/tuam">IRELAND'S MOTHER AND BABY HOMES: THE REAL STORY</a> (After several postponements, Judge Yvonne Murphy is due to present the Report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes to Government on 30 October 2020).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">At the conference in Galway, three historians (including my amateur self), Brian Nugent, Eugene Jordan and Rory Connor discussed the various inconsistencies in the prevailing public narratives of this period of Irish history. </span></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="398" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CmNmjX-DLp8" width="479" youtube-src-id="CmNmjX-DLp8"></iframe></div><br /><h2 style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Brian Nugent: Did Home Rule equals Rome Rule in Independent Ireland?</span></yt-formatted-string></h2><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">SUMMARY</span>:</b> Brian Nugent (author of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32154689-tuambabies"><i>@Tuam Babies: A Critical look at the Tuam Children's Home Scandal</i>)</a> spoke on the topic “<i>Did Home Rule equal Rome Rule in Independent Ireland</i>?” He endeavoured to show that the frequently repeated claim of a kind of Catholic dictatorship in Ireland can be shown to be false. Firstly by examining the attitude of the Taoisigh [Prime Ministers] of Ireland in those years, then from the pattern seen in a number of other important institutions, such as the Judiciary, Presidency, and Lord Mayoralties of Dublin, and sectors like healthcare and especially education, and finally by raising the surprising subject of anti-Catholic discrimination in the South of Ireland in those years</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>W.T. Cosgrove</i></b> was effectively the first Taoiseach (Prime Minster) of independent Ireland - from 1922 to 1932. He was indeed very religious and a close friend of Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion of Mary. However in a letter to Archbishop Gilmartin of Tuam on 11 March 1931 he wrote (in relation to a dispute about the appointment of a Protestant librarian in Co Mayo):</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>"As I explained to Your Grace at our interview, to discriminate against any citizen - or to exercise a preference for a citizen - on account of religious belief, would be to conflict with some of the fundamental principles on which this State is founded."</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A look at the career of <b><i>Eamon de Valera</i></b> (first became Taoiseach in 1932) throws up three issues which are infrequently brought up: <b><i>i)</i></b> his excommunication, along with all the anti-Treaty side, during the Civil War. He and his colleagues didn’t modify their behaviour to accommodate the Bishops admonitions then, so surely that proves their independence in political matters from the latter? <b><i>ii)</i></b> The angry reaction from many important Catholics to the lack of recognition of that religion in his constitution, including to a degree from the Pope and certainly from influential clerics like Fr Edward Cahill S.J. and Fr Denis Fahey C.S.Sp, who campaigned vigorously against his constitution on those grounds for many years.<b> iii)</b> The surprising fact, thrown up by modern research in archives in Dublin and Rome, that de Valera himself seemed to be most responsible for the appointment of Michael Browne to the Bishopric of Galway, and Dr McQuaid to Dublin. The State also influenced the Church as well as the other way around!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Sean Lemass</i></b> (Taoiseach 1959-66 and de Valera's Deputy since 1932)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Extract from his taped Memoirs:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> "<i>I think there was a political advantage in having a certain anti-clerical tinge</i>.......<i>The only time in my life that I ever got an enormous vote, the highest vote ever accorded to any candidate in a general election was when I was having a full-scale row with the bishop of Galway </i>[Dr Michael Browne in 1944]<i> and this was dominating the political scene and I found this on other occasions too – that having a good row with the bishop is quite a political asset and you do not suffer politically for it because there is an anti-clericalism in the Irish people</i>."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>First Four Presidents of Ireland</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1. Douglas Hyde<b> </b>(1938 - 45) <span> <span> <span> </span></span></span>Protestant</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Sean T. O'Kelly (1945 - 59)<span> <span> </span><span> <span> <span> </span></span></span>Catholic</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>3. Eamon de Valera (1959 - 73)<span> </span><span> <span> <span> </span></span>Catholic</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span>4. Erskine Childers (1973 - 74)<span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> <span> </span></span>Protestant </span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><span><b>Lord Mayors of Dublin</b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Robert Briscoe (1956-57 and 1961-62)<span> Jewish</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Maurice Dockrell (1960-61)<span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> Protestant</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><b>Judiciary</b></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span>From the biography of Timothy Sullivan, first President of the Irish High Court (1924-36):</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span>"<i>Throughout his tenure Sullivan presided over a high court whose membership of six was equally divided between judges of a nationalist and unionist background</i>."</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span>Examples of non-Catholic judges of the time include:</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span> <i>T. C. Kingsmill Moore</i>, son of a Protestant Minister, a Senator 1943-47, he was a High Court judge 1947-51 and on the Supreme Court 1951-66.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><i>James Creed Meredith</i>, President of Dail Supreme Court 1920-22, judge of the High Court 1924-37, on the Supreme Court and for a time President of it, 1937-42.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><i>Gerald Fitzgibbon</i> T.D. 1921-23, judge on the Supreme Court 1924-38.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><b>Healthcare: Some Dublin Hospitals in 1959</b> <i>(amalgamation was being considered)</i></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span>The hospitals concerned are Sir Patrick Dun's; Mercers; the National Children's Hospital, Harcourt St; the Meath; Baggot St; Steevens and the Adelaide. With the exception of the Meath, they could all be referred to as Protestant Hospitals, controlled by Protestants and largely staffed by Protestant doctors.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span><b>Rotunda Hospital</b></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Rotunda Hospital, Dublin was founded in 1745 as a Maternity Training Hospital, the first of its kind. It got its first <i>Catholic</i> Master in 1995!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Education (</b>1964 quote from Irish Senator<b>)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>"</b><i>We in Ireland are justly proud of our school system</i>, he continu<i>ed.</i> <i>Scrupulous care is taken that Catholicism, Protestantism or Atheism are not imposed on any pupil against his will</i>. <i>Any denominational group can, at any time, set up its own school and the corresponding State support is immediately made available on the basis of the number of pupils in attendance</i>"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">At Independence in 1921, the new Irish State took over the education system set up by the British in the 19th century without making any major changes. There had been furious controversy between the Bishops and the British Government in regard to the setting up of the National Schools (primary) system and the Queens Colleges (university) system. This was largely settled in the 1870s when the British agreed that all religious denominations in Ireland could build and run their own schools, while the State would pay the salaries of the teachers. The curricula for the Primary Certificate, Intermediate Certificate and University entrance examinations were set by the State but apart from that, the school managers could create their own study programmes for Religion, History etc. The Catholic Church and all major Protestant Churches established their own schools on that basis. A Jewish Primary School was set up in south Dublin in the 1930s and later a a Jewish Secondary School.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In more modern times Educate Together (or atheist) schools were set up on the same basis from about 1979 and a Muslim school in 1990.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Trinity College</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> Ireland's first university established by the British Government in 1592 appointed its first <i>Catholic</i> Provost in 1991. Its reputation as a Protestant/Unionist stronghold was such that until 1970, Catholic students were not permitted to attend without permission from the Archbishop of Dublin. After 1921 it continued to be subsidised by the State on the same basis as the other universities. Under the terms of the 1937 Constitution, graduates of Trinity College elect three Senators to Seanad Eireann. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Guinness </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i>It (Guinness) had no qualms about selling drink to Catholics but it did everything it could to avoid employing them until the 1960s ...the blatant discrimination continued far longer than it should have</i>" </span><span style="font-family: arial;">(Irish Independent, 17 June 2013)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Bank of Ireland</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Founded in 1783, the Bank of Ireland got its first Catholic Chief Executive Officer in 1991.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Irish Times</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Founded in 1859, the Irish Times appointed its first Catholic editor in 1986</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Brian Nugent stated that it is nonsense to talk about some kind of Catholic dictatorship and <b><i>Home Rule did NOT equal Rome Rule in Independent Ireland!</i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="421" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ke7DhSQOYjE" width="506" youtube-src-id="ke7DhSQOYjE"></iframe></div><p></p><h2 style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Eugene Jordan:'Tuam Children's Home Story & Failure of Modern Irish Historiography<span style="font-weight: 400;">'</span></span></yt-formatted-string></h2><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">SUMMARY</span></b>: Eugene Jordan, recently the President of the <a href="https://gahs.ie/">Galway Archaeological and Historical Society</a>, spoke on the question: “<i>The Tuam Children’s Home story, a failure of modern Irish Historiography</i>”. He described a lamentable pattern of how modern Irish historiography – the history of history – unfairly runs down the Catholic Church, and frequently the good work of Irish people in general in the recent past. He spoke about the inferiority complex that seems very prevalent among Irish people in modern times, and to a degree among modern historians, and questioned the sometimes intimidatory atmosphere created by feminism over some of these issues.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Regarding the limitations of Historiography in general (<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>and the claim that the Catholic Church is hostile to Science</b></span>) Eugene presented us with names of famous scientists few members of the public are aware of:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><i>Lazzaro Spallanzani</i>: First person to perform In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) in 1786 meaning in the glass as opposed to in utero, in the womb. Pioneer into the study of echo location in bats. </div></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><i>Eugenio Barsant</i>i: Inventor of the first practical internal combustion engine. </div></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><i>Giovanni Castelli</i>: Inventor of the Fax machine </div></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><i>Jean Antoine Nollet</i>: Discovered the osmosis of membranes </div></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><i>Giovanni Battista Venturi</i>: The Venturi Effect is named after him </div></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><i>René Just Haüy</i>: Father of Crystallography</div></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>Georges Lemaître: One of the most famous scientists in the world you have never heard of. First person to come up with the Big Bang Theory<br /></div></span></li></ul><div><b style="font-style: italic;">All were Catholic priests! .......... </b>So indeed was the anatomist <i>Gabriele Falloppio</i>, for whom the Fallopian Tubes and other anatomical structures are named. So feminists who talk about the female sexual organs are invoking the name of a priest!</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><b><i>Deaths at the Tuam Children's</i></b> <b><i>Home</i></b> have been compared to a "<i>Holocaus</i>t" and explicit references have been made to the Nazis. So let's compare the statistics for the 36 year period from 1925 to 1960 inclusive) when the Home was open to a recent 36-year period from 1982 to 2017. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>The number of births between the two 36 year periods is remarkably similar with a figure of close to 2.2 million</i>. <b><i>Points to note</i></b>. A mere 12,632 infants (less than one year old) died in the 1982 to 2017 period representing a massive drop from the 145,818 infant deaths in the earlier period. This means that 4,166 babies died on average in Ireland each year in which the Tuam Home was open. That figure has dropped in recent decades to an average of 361 infant deaths per year - or less than one tenth the number. This is in line with the drop in infant mortality that has taken place over the developed world - although the drop in Ireland lagged behind the rest of the world for a few years due to the continuing economic deprivation.</div><div><br /></div><div>There were 64,290 illegitimate children born in Ireland between 1925 and 1960 of which 13,431 children died but that figure is dwarfed by the deaths of 132,387 legitimate children, a figure nearly 10 times greater. Nearly all of these infants and children died from birth defects and diseases, which could not be inoculated against and were incurable at the time.</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Compare Deaths by Age Groups THEN and NOW</i></b>. According to a CSO graph (that compared 1916 to the present day), in 1916 slightly over 8,000 children under the age of 5 died in Ireland - compared to a few hundred in 2014. However in 2014 a little over 8,000 people died in the Age Group 75 - 84 i.e. similar to the number of infants in 1916! Where children are concerned the pattern of deaths has to an extent been reversed in the last century! This can also be seen in the age group 5 to 14 where close to 2,000 children died in 1916 compared to a tiny number in 2014</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLB-cq8FNj-XVUzOwoLWIZWk1X7z2Qir_RLK9Id26QZqbigg4Qz4Jp-FcuaO5aDmCvc47K_pv29I0WLksZRUSJiec6Ag2XqM-inuxnNmgI65V4i5OV9Onz4BPFCnC0Ja0bH9IYbo2m16RX/s909/TuamBabies_1916Deaths.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="909" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLB-cq8FNj-XVUzOwoLWIZWk1X7z2Qir_RLK9Id26QZqbigg4Qz4Jp-FcuaO5aDmCvc47K_pv29I0WLksZRUSJiec6Ag2XqM-inuxnNmgI65V4i5OV9Onz4BPFCnC0Ja0bH9IYbo2m16RX/w544-h297/TuamBabies_1916Deaths.jpg" width="544" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Eugene stresses the connection between poverty and childhood death rates, that continues to the present day - and not just in the Third World. He quotes a Newsweek headline from May 2015 "<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/washington-global-infant-maternal-mortality-328148#:~:text=Washington's%20Poorest%20Infants%20Are%20Ten%20Times%20More%20Likely%20to%20Die%20Than%20Richest,-By%20Lucy%20Westcott&text=Updated%20%7C%20Washington%2C%20D.C.%2C%20is,world%2C%20according%20to%20new%20study.">Washington's Poorest Infants are Ten Times More Likely to Die Than Richest</a>" He discusses the claim that Catholic nuns (and the Protestant women who ran <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethany_Home">Bethany Home</a>) allowed children to starve to death. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"The primary evidence put forward for abuse and starvation is the appearance of the word <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/313185#what-is-marasmus">Marasmus</a>. Marasmus found on Death Certificates is what is chiefly used to accuse the nuns and the Protestant women of murder. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Only 14 out of 796 death certificates from the Tuam home record the cause of death as being due to marasmus (10 as the primary cause) with a further 156 recording debility as the primary and contributory cause of death. It would appear that the journalists sensationalising the murder claims could not find the term debility associated with starvation on Wikipedia, even though it was classified alongside marasmus as ‘<i>wasting disease</i>’ thus they missed the opportunity to increase the number of ‘<i>starved to death</i>’ by tenfold!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"Looking at an extract from the Registrar General's Report for 1919, you can see what the medical profession think Marasmus is.<b><i> It's a developmental and wasting disease and the three of them are there Atrophy, Debility and Marasmus</i></b>. THIS is significant. Marasmus was also a killer of infants in Maternity Hospitals <i>outside of</i> Mother and Baby Homes. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"Here is a Certificate with Marasmus on it. It's from the Adelaide Protestant Hospital (now amalgamated with Tallaght Hospital). Here we have evidence of Murder, Slaughter! <i>[3 month old infant died of Marasmus 25 July 1935</i>]</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Here we have Marasmus again. It's at Temple St Children's Hospital - murder taking place there! [<i>10 week old infant died of Marasmus 21 May 1942</i>] </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Here is another case of Marasmus where the child died at home and death has been certified by a medical professional. A doctor visited the home, certified that a child suffered from Marasmus and subsequently when the child died of Marasmus.[<i>6 months old child, died of Marasmus, 26 November 1942, Ashtown</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"Here is the famous Rotunda Hospital. Two cases of Murder there as well! <i>[One infant died on 13 May 1942 aged 15 days and the second on 14 May 1942 aged 7 weeks, both from Marasmus</i>]</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"Here is an advertisement entitled "<b><i>CURE OF MARASMUS: At seven months, she weighed under nine pounds</i></b>". If Marasmus is Starvation as they are trying to make out, why is there a cure for it? Surely it's food or adequate food? [The Evening Herald, 3 March 1902]</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"Here is a newspaper article from 1925 headed <i>Death of Nurse Child</i>. It states that<i> </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Death from Marasmus</i> was the verdict returned at an inquest held at Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital on the body of a 9 months old nurse child of Thorncastle St., Ringsend. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The coroner said that because of the condition of the child when it was brought to the hospital, the house surgeon was of the opinion that it had died from starvation but the post mortem showed that death was due to natural causes. The child had been under treatment for six months in the Children’s Hospital, Harcourt St. and did not seem to improve.<b><i> </i></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Dr. Hogan, house surgeon, stated death was due to marasmus, the child not being able to assimilate the nourishment given it</i></b>. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The jury found in accordance with the evidence."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">i.e. the child did <b><i>not</i></b> die from starvation!</span></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="378" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HXC8pRJvh6g" width="499" youtube-src-id="HXC8pRJvh6g"></iframe></div></span></yt-formatted-string></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Rory Connor: False Allegations of Child Abuse Against the Catholic Church, including Homicide</span></h2><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">SUMMARY</span></b>: My talk is based on my Blog article "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html">Blood Libel in Ireland - Directed Against Catholics not Jews!</a>". I had originally intended to make limited reference to the Tuam Home itself BUT I had come to realise that it <b><i>also</i></b> included references to the Nazi Holocaust and claims that the <a href="http://www.bonsecourssisters.ie/">Bon Secours Sisters</a> had starved children to death (an issue highlighted by Eugene Jordan in his talk). Accordingly Tuam assumed a higher profile than I first thought necessary. In the above-mentioned article I assumed that Ireland's Blood Libel hysteria had come to an end in 2010 when the Gardai informed the then Minister for Justice that their year long inquiry into the murder of Bernadette Connolly in 1970, had disclosed NO evidence of involvement by the Catholic Church. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">But of course, anti-clerics - like anti-Semites - are immune to rational considerations and an article by Emer O'Kelly in the Sunday Independent on 8 June 2014 "<a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/tuam-babies-cry-not-for-justice-but-for-vengeance-30337370.html">Tuam Babies Cry Not For Justice But For Vengeance</a>" opens with the following:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><blockquote>Seventy years ago, on the orders of a maniac, little children and babies were herded into barren camps in Germany and occupied Poland by men in black uniforms. They were starved to death in those camps; sometimes they had hideous medical experiments carried out upon them while alive, so hideous the silence of death was probably merciful. And when they died, their little bodies were thrown into huge pits. Because they were scum: Jewish scum.</blockquote></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">[I could also have pointed out that Emer O'Kelly twice denounces the <a href="http://www.goodshepherdsisters.com/index.html">Good Shepherd Sisters</a> in her Sunday Independent article i.e. the <b><i>wrong</i></b> nuns!]</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I date the start of my present "<i>Crusade</i>" to 25 September 1999 when the<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/patsy-mcgarry/PatsyMcGarry-PatrickWalsh.php"> Irish Times published an article by Patsy McGarry</a> quoting a leading member of Survivors of Child Abuse Ireland who claimed he had attended the funerals of boys in Artane who died after being punched by a Christian Brother. <b><i>No boy died of ANY cause while this gentleman was in Artane Industrial School!</i></b> There were numerous such allegations published and broadcast between about 1997 and 2010. As indicated in "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html">Blood Libel in Ireland</a>" the first and last related to the deaths of <i>real </i>children - reinterpreted to blame the Catholic Church - but in between hysteria reigned in the media and there were a number of articles and broadcasts in which the Christian Brothers were accused of killing non-existent boys. I coined the phrases "<i>Murder of the Undead</i>" and "<i>Victimless Murders</i>" to describe the latter. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">About 2000 and again in 2001, I approached the Gardai (Irish police) about two of these <i>Murder of the Undead</i> claims (by the Irish Times and TV3 respectively) as I felt they must be in breach of the Prevention of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989. The Director of Public Prosecutions declined to prosecute - perhaps on the basis that false allegations of child killing do not PROVE that the media are motivated by hatred! In 2004 I approached the Irish Human Rights Commission who were no help at all. (One reason they gave me for refusing to look into the issue of false allegations of child murder, was that it wasn't in their Three Year Plan!) However my dealings with the IHRC inspired me to summarise the allegations of child murder against the Catholic Church into one document. The above-mentioned article "<b><i>Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews</i></b>" is an updated version of that 2004 document.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="393" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pYIsBuNgRSQ" width="473" youtube-src-id="pYIsBuNgRSQ"></iframe></div></span></yt-formatted-string><h2 style="text-align: left;"><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tuam Mother and Baby Home: The REAL Story (Brian Nugent)</span></span></yt-formatted-string></h2></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>SUMMARY:</b></span> The Tuam controversy alleges that babies were buried in a septic tank. This arises from no other source than the coincidence that the area of the current graveyard of the Children's Home, corresponds with old maps referring to a '<i>cesspool</i>' attached to the old workhouse, as discovered by Catherine Corless. But this can be easily disproved as insignificant, for example:</div><div><br /></div><div>- the cesspool corresponds to about a quarter of the area of the current graveyard, but that graveyard was condensed drastically around 1980 and was a much bigger area when the nuns were there which therefore makes it unlikely that they buried bodies at that exact spot;</div><div><br /></div><div>- the large old cesspool, was only an over ground structure where manure was temporarily placed before being sold off to use on farms, therefore it isn't very significant to say that the same area could be used for burials some 100 years later;</div><div><br /></div><div>- and it can be easily proved that the bones discovered by recent excavations are reburials by the County Council during c.1970-1981, creating a dedicated structure, an Ossuary, to house bones thrown up by their development of the site during that period. This of course is long after the nuns had left.</div></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><br /></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="414" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nUkj0-LlHdg" width="498" youtube-src-id="nUkj0-LlHdg"></iframe></div></span></yt-formatted-string><h2 style="text-align: left;"><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> A Discussion about Tuam and other topics</span></span></yt-formatted-string></h2></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></b></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">SUMMARY</span></b>: The seminar ended with a discussion among the three speakers. <b>Rory </b>described some of the atmosphere in the Irish religious orders and congregations when these scandals broke. <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-decadence-of-sisters-of-mercy.html">One congregation of nuns</a> went from naivete, in cooperating and apologising enthusiastically with sometimes unfair allegations, to terror, as they realised to what extent it was a witch hunt against the Catholic Church. Hence his blog is called irishsalem.blogspot.com (with reference to the original Salem Witch-hunt).</span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>[<i>I also spoke of my Novice Master in the De La Salle Brothers, <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-reason-why-brother-maurice-kirk-and.html">Brother Maurice Kirk</a>, a conservative who nonetheless invited the "radical priest" <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2019/01/father-michael-sweetman-sj.html">Fr Michael Sweetman SJ</a> to give us our 8-day Retreat at the end of the novitiate - August/September 1967. I suppose I am a relic of that long ago era that might have been a historical Turning Point - but History failed to turn and the world is as it is now!</i>]. </span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><b>Eugene</b> pointed out that when the Ryan Commission expanded its remit to include physical abuse, rather than just sexual, then any teacher – and maybe parent – of that time could have fallen foul of their criticisms because corporal punishment was widespread everywhere at the time, not just among the religious orders.</span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Meanwhile <b>Brian</b> pointed out the too trusting attitude that the modern Irish Church has to the State with respect to these inquiries. The Church overdoes its cooperation with the inquiries expecting justice, whereas some in the State see the advantage in discrediting the Church in the eyes of the populace, to assist in their various referenda campaigns etc</span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">My Conclusion</span> </span></span></yt-formatted-string></h2><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>An article by Alison O'Reilly in the Irish Daily Mail on 8 April 2017 is headed "<b><i>We Want Inquests Into All Deaths, Tuam Victims Tell Zappone</i></b>" and begins</span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><blockquote><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>The families of the children buried in a mass grave in Tuam have told the Minister for Children, '<i>We want an inquest into all the children's death</i>', the Irish Daily Mail can reveal.. It follows a two-hour meeting which took place yesterday between the Minister for Children Katherine Zappone and local Government Minister Simon Coveney as well as Kevin O'Kelly, chief executive of Galway County Council and survivors of the home as well as relatives....</span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><br /></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Those in attendance included local historian Catherine Corless who uncovered the names of the 796 children who died in the home, as well as Tuam resident John Rodgers, PJ Haverty, Walter Francis and and Michael O'Flaherty....During the meeting, Ms Zappone was given a brief submission by solicitor for some of the residents </span></span></yt-formatted-string><span style="font-family: arial;">Kevin Higgins. In it he</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> asked that the Government '</span><i style="font-family: arial;">act with urgency</i><span style="font-family: arial;">' and to hold a proper coroner's inquiry. The submission also said '<i>the failure of the Attorney General to invoke 24 of the Coroners Act as early as 2014 represented a serious failure of judgement</i>'. It also urged against carrying out inquests into '<i>unidentified infants</i>', and </span><b style="font-family: arial;"><i>sought individual post mortems for each body</i></b><span style="font-family: arial;">....</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Catherine Corless said: 'I am quite pleased, I expected an hour but they gave us a good bit of their time. It was good. They were fairly challenged and everyone got a chance to talk. <b><i>They need an inquest,</i></b> there's no point in moving them into a big grave.'.[my emphasis]</span></span></yt-formatted-string></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Regarding <a href="https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/death/sudden_or_unexplained_death/inquests.html">Inquests and Inquest reports</a>, Citizen's Information states that: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">If a person dies and <b><i>the death cannot be explained</i></b>, an inquest may be held to establish the facts of the death, such as where and how the death occurred. An inquest is an official, public enquiry, led by the Coroner (and in some cases involving a jury) into the cause of a <b style="font-style: italic;">sudden, unexplained or violent death. An inquest is not usually held if a post-mortem examination of the body can explain the cause of death. </b>[My emphasis]</span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> So it seems we are back where it all began more than 20 years ago with claims that Catholic nuns - i<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/accusers/christine-buckley/hotpoker-wasused-11oct97.php">n 1997 it was the Sisters of Mercy</a> - were criminally responsible for the deaths of children in their care. All deaths in the Tuam Home were certified by doctors appointed by Galway County Council so it is clear that the reputations of those doctors are <i>also</i> being trashed!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Perhaps Catholic activists like myself should respond in kind?</i></b> I noted above that a doctor at the Rotunda Maternity Hospital certified two infant deaths from Marasmus on consecutive days in May 1942. Compare the Tuam Home where doctors certified 14 Marasmus deaths over a period of 36 years (1925-1961)! Moreover the Rotunda, founded in 1745, did not get its first Catholic Master until 1995! <b><i>Is not this deeply suspicious</i></b>? Perhaps we should have a series of inquests on all <b><i>Catholic</i></b> children who died in the Rotunda from the foundation of the State until 1995. To reduce the size of the task, we could include only cases where the Death Certificate for a Catholic child was signed by a <b><i>Protestant</i></b> doctor! <span style="color: #2b00fe;">The resulting investigation should be of no greater size than holding inquests into the deaths of the 796 children who died in Tuam.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Rory Connor</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>30 October 2020</b></span></p><div><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span></span></span></yt-formatted-string></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-21294931151476235022020-10-03T04:22:00.004+01:002020-10-10T16:59:10.296+01:00Tuam Babies and Associated Press Apology to Bon Secours Sisters <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ91vFpV0TTq7YohtTpdrltjkLOIJ1VKWJTOM5J8y09jdNXgPtJzO7eNllgvsZ3NBRhEM_SDpzHXVj1lRfBLXEuyQ_Z2DszUQ5k-eKUPhhJjsAS-kOai6ByvZ5odgoakOZbrRhybSb83UL/s599/TuamBabies_BonSecoursSisters_ArchbishopWalsh.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="599" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ91vFpV0TTq7YohtTpdrltjkLOIJ1VKWJTOM5J8y09jdNXgPtJzO7eNllgvsZ3NBRhEM_SDpzHXVj1lRfBLXEuyQ_Z2DszUQ5k-eKUPhhJjsAS-kOai6ByvZ5odgoakOZbrRhybSb83UL/w549-h317/TuamBabies_BonSecoursSisters_ArchbishopWalsh.jpg" width="549" /></a></div><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">[1] America Magazine and Associated Press (AP) Apologies</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I previously wrote about the apology made by the Associated Press (AP) for the world-wide publication in June 2014 of a story that the Church had refused to baptise the children of unmarried mothers at the Tuam Home (see <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-tuam-babies-and-bon-secours-nuns-3.html">Part <b>[3]</b></a> ) It was the Jesuit <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/">America Magazine</a> that had successfully pressed AP to make their original apology on 20 June 2014 and I see that AP followed up on 23 June with a more detailed statement.<a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/ap-expands-corrections-tuam-babies-story"> </a></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/ap-expands-corrections-tuam-babies-story">AP Expands on Corrections of 'Tuam Babies' Story</a> is an article by Kevin Clarke in "<i>America</i>" on 24 June 2014.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In a report released June 23, the Associated Press expanded on the corrections it issued on June 20 after America asked an AP media representative to respond to apparent inaccuracies in its reporting on the scandal swirling around the disposition of deceased residents of a mothers and babies home in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland between 1925 and 1962.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">According to the AP:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Revelations this month that nuns had buried nearly 800 infants and young children in unmarked graves at an Irish orphanage during the last century caused stark headlines and stirred strong emotions and calls for investigation. Since then, however, a more sober picture has emerged that exposes how many of those headlines were wrong.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The case of the Tuam "<i>mother and baby home</i>" offers a study in how exaggeration can multiply in the news media, embellishing occurrences that should have been gripping enough on their own....The reports of unmarked graves shouldn't have come as a surprise to the Irish public, who for decades have known that some of the 10 defunct "<i>mother and baby homes</i>," which chiefly housed the children of unwed mothers, held grave sites filled with forgotten dead.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The religious orders' use of unmarked graves reflected the crippling poverty of the time, the infancy of most of the victims, and the lack of plots in cemeteries corresponding to the children's fractured families.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">It added:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">When Corless published her findings on a Facebook campaign page, and Irish media noticed, she speculated to reporters that the resting place of most, if not all, could be inside a disused septic tank on the site. By the time Irish and British tabloids went to print in early June, that speculation had become a certainty, the word "<i>disused</i>" had disappeared, and U.S. newspapers picked up the report, inserting more errors, including one that claimed the researcher had found all 796 remains in a septic tank.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Associated Press was among the media organizations that covered Corless and her findings,<b><i> repeating incorrect Irish news reports that suggested the babies who died had never been baptized and that Catholic Church teaching guided priests not to baptize the babies of unwed mothers or give to them Christian burials</i></b>. [my emphasis]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The reports of denial of baptism later were contradicted by the Tuam Archdiocese, which found a registry showing that the home had baptized more than 2,000 babies. The AP issued a corrective story on Friday after discovering its errors.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There was a brief discussion following the America article to which I contributed THIS comment:</span></p><p><b style="font-family: arial;">Rory Connor </b><span style="font-family: arial;">6 years 2 months ago</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">The following extract from an article in the Sunday Independent by Dr Maurice Gueret, editor of the "</span><i style="font-family: arial;">Irish Medical Directory</i><span style="font-family: arial;">" should finally dispose of the </span><i style="font-family: arial;">"babies bodies in a septic tank</i><span style="font-family: arial;">" obscenity:</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">"<b><i>We Need Less Outrage and More Home Truths about Tuam</i></b>" </span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">http://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/we-need-less-outrage-and-more-home-truths-about-tuam-30380889.html [link no longer works]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i></i></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The sight of politicians calling for declaration of crime scenes and a newspaper arranging radar examination of a graveyard does little to bring clarity to a complicated story. It was no secret that many children died young, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. They were dying all over Ireland from infectious diseases. Principal causes were TB, dysentery, diphtheria, meningitis, bacterial pneumonia, and complications of measles and polio. This was the pre-antibiotic era. You were considered lucky if all your children lived to adulthood.<b> Every year, the Galway Health Board would advertise a public contract in local newspapers for a supply of coffins to its Tuam children's home. They were to be made of white deal, one-inch thick, and supplied in three different sizes. Specifications included electro-brassed grips, breastplate and crucifixes.</b> It was no state secret that orphanages that looked after large numbers of vulnerable children, most under the age of five, had higher death rates than the community at large. </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;">[My Emphasis]</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">When the official tribunal produces its Report in a year or so, I predict that it will ignore the false atrocity stories in favour of a swinging denunciation of our grandparents "repressive" attitudes to unmarried mothers. Thus the journalists responsible for the current libel will feel virtuous and vindicated!</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">[2] Text of Advertisement for Coffins</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Here is what an advertisement in the Tuam Herald said in 1939:</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">"<i>Tender for coffins for Children's Home, plain and mounted, in three sizes, must be 1" thick, made of seasoned white deal, clean and free from knots and slits, pitched and strained in large, medium, small sizes. Mounting must be similar make, but mounted with Electro Brassed Grips, Breast and Crucifix.</i>"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">quoted by Bill Donohue , President of The Catholic League in "<a href="http://www.catholicleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/IRELANDS-MASS-GRAVE-HYSTERIA.pdf">Ireland's Mass Grave Hysteria"</a> </span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">[3] Original AP Apology dated 20 June 2014</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><b>Ireland-Children’s Mass Graves story DUBLIN (AP)</b> — In stories published June 3 and June 8 about young children buried in unmarked graves after dying at a former Irish orphanage for the children of unwed mothers, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that the children had not received Roman Catholic baptisms; documents show that many children at the orphanage were baptized. The AP also incorrectly reported that Catholic teaching at the time was to deny baptism and Christian burial to the children of unwed mothers; although that may have occurred in practice at times it was not church teaching. In addition, in the June 3 story, the AP quoted a researcher who said she believed that most of the remains of children who died there were interred in a disused septic tank; the researcher has since clarified that without excavation and forensic analysis it is impossible to know how many sets of remains the tank contains, if any. The June 3 story also contained an incorrect reference to the year that the orphanage opened; it was 1925, not 1926.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I quoted the above in Part [2] of my 3-Part series "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-tuam-babies-and-bon-secours-nuns-2_25.html">The Tuam Babies and the Bon Secours Nuns"</a> and also in the final part of <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/07/seven-falsely-accused-bishops-and.html">"</a></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/07/seven-falsely-accused-bishops-and.html">Eight Falsely Accused Bishops (and Archbishops) in Ireland</a>" . The people who invented that libel were aiming at the nuns but it would be a Bishop - in this case Archbishop of Tuam - who would make the exceptionally rare decision of this type.(It might conceivably happen, if parents made it clear that they had <b><i>no</i></b> intention of bringing up the child as a Catholic). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In their expanded apology on 23 June 2014, AP state that they had repeated <i>"incorrect <b>Irish</b> news reports that suggested the babies who died had never been baptized and that Catholic Church teaching guided priests not to baptize the babies of unwed mothers or give to them Christian burials</i>". I find it difficult to imagine that ANY Irish journalist seriously believed that the Catholic Church refused to baptise the babies of unmarried mothers or denied them Christian burials. <b><i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Will Judge Yvonne Murphy track down the source of these libels? Did the journalist(s) responsible publish/broadcast any other stories - of a type whose credibility cannot be established 60 years after the closure of the Tuam home - but at least the public should be made aware that the source is unreliable?</span></i></b></span></p><div><br /></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-26889522644969902002020-09-20T22:19:00.002+01:002020-12-05T11:32:48.872+00:00Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Cancellation of Seminar on Tuam Children’s Home <br />
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The Site of a Graveyard for Children who Died in the Tuam Mother and Babies Home, Co Galway, Ireland</span></h4>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Proposed History Seminar on Tuam Mother and Baby Home</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">On Sunday 30 August I was due to speak at a History Seminar </span><span style="font-family: arial;">arranged in the leadup to the presentation to Government of the final Report on Mother and Baby Homes - scheduled for 30 October 2020. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The seminar was due to be held </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> in the University Church on St Stephen's Green, Dublin. The particular focus of our talks is the Home operated by the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam, Co Galway from 1924 to 1961. The Tuam home is only one of 18 such being examined by the Commission of Investigation chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy BUT it was the world-wide publication of atrocity stories about the Bon Secours Sisters in 2014 that sparked the creation of the Commission. I have referred to these stories in the course of my <i><b>three</b></i> previous articles on <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-tuam-babies-and-bon-secours-nuns-3.html">The Tuam Babies and the Bon Secours Nuns</a> {link is to number [3]} One illustration will suffice here (from an article by Brendan O'Neill)</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote>A hysterical piece in the Irish Independent compared the Tuam home to the Nazi Holocaust, Rwanda and Srebrenica, saying that in all these settings people were killed ‘<i>because they were scum</i>’</blockquote>My own topic was to be “<i>False allegations of child abuse against the Catholic Church, including homicide</i>". This talk would be based on my June 2018 blog article<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/06/blood-libel-in-ireland-directed-against.html"> Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews!</a> but updated in line with the atrocity stories relating to Tuam. I <i>had</i> thought that Ireland's Blood Libel scandal had ended in 2010 when a Garda inquiry told the then Minister for Justice that there was <b><i>no </i></b>evidence to link the Catholic Church to the murder of the child Bernadette Connolly in 1970. <b><i>However it seems that I was premature!</i></b><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Cancellation of Seminar - by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin?</span></h3><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial;">At about 2.30 pm on Thursday 27th August, the person in charge of the booking arrangements for the University Church rang our own organiser Brian Nugent to inform him that the Church had cancelled the booking. This person did not say why or who exactly instructed him to do that. Brian told us that he was amazed that while</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial;">we, as the speakers and organisers, were not told anything very much about why the venue cancelled it was nonetheless prominently reported in the Irish Times on the same day (see below).<b><i> Brian told us that it is clear from the Irish Times report</i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial;"><b><i> that the Archdiocese cancelled it, maybe under pressure from the government, or maybe because the subject matter was disagreeable to them?</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial;">Brian went on to tell us that - as regards whether or not we are within government health guidelines - he had <i>twice</i>, cleared the event with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), via their helpline, which is the main Government information source on the Covid regulations. He tried but couldn't get that advice in writing. However he noticed that the Irish Times itself, on the front page of its edition the previous Saturday (22 August) stated in reference to the current in force guidelines</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial;"><blockquote><i>Since late June, indoor gatherings have been restricted to 50 people under the Government public health controls. Further restrictions announced this week identified only weddings and artistic and cultural events as being allowed to have groups of up to 50</i>.</blockquote></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial;">Our Seminar arrangements are clearly within that 50 limit, and that's what the HSE confirmed to Brian.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: arial;">So why on earth would Archbishop Diarmuid Martin insist on the cancellation of an event that was approved by the HSE and was defending the Catholic Church against false allegations of child abuse - up to and including Homicide? I have a detailed article on the Archbishop on my old website (not Blog) www.IrishSalem.com that may explain a lot! (He is the Irish Catholic equivalent of Hewlett Johnson the late unlamented "Red Dean" of Canterbury - but at least the latter never made it to Archbishop!)</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/Politicians%20and%20Others/archbishop-martin/index.php">Archbishop Diarmuid Martin</a></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;">Article in Irish Times by Patsy McGarry</span></h3><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/seminar-in-dublin-church-on-tuam-children-s-home-cancelled-due-to-covid-19-1.4340503">Seminar in Dublin Church on Tuam Children’s Home Cancelled due to Covid-19</a></b></span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i><b>Topics included ‘False allegations of child abuse against the Catholic Church, including homicide</b>’</i></span><br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>Irish Times 27 August 2020, by Patsy McGarry</i></span><br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A “h<i>istory semina</i>r” challenging findings of various Commissions of Inquiry into child abuse and planned for Dublin’s University Church on Stephen’s Green next Sunday has been cancelled.</span><br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Advertised as a history seminar “with particular reference to the Tuam Children’s Home” likely attendees had been advised to “<i>arrive early as numbers are restricted due to Government Covid-19 restrictions</i>.”</span><br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A spokeswoman for Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese said staff at the University Church had “<i>confirmed that the event due to take place this Sunday has been cancelled. Current Government guidance permitting people to gather at places of worship is for religious services only. No other gatherings are permitted</i>.”</span><br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The theme of the seminar was: “<b><i>Do modern Irish historians exaggerate the role of the Catholic Church in independent Ireland</i></b>” and speakers scheduled to take part included Brian Nugent, author of the book<b><i> @Tuambabies: A critical look at the Tuam Children’s Home Scandal</i></b>.</span><br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It challenges findings of local historian Catherine Corless concerning the Tuam Mother and Baby Home and those made there by the Mother and Baby Home Commission, published in its March 2017 interim report.</span><br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It found that “<i>significant quantities of human remains</i>” had been discovered there, in what appeared to be a sewage tank. The remains involved “<i>a number of individuals with age-at-death ranges from approximately 35 foetal weeks to two to three years</i>,” it said.</span><br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mr Nugent was to speak on “<b><i>Did home rule equal Rome rule in independent Ireland?</i></b>”</span><br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Another scheduled speaker was Eugene Jordan, author of <i>False History Underpinning the Irish Mother and Baby Home Scandals</i>. He was to give a talk on “<b><i>The Tuam Children’s Home story, a failure of modern Irish historiography.</i></b>”</span><br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The third scheduled speaker was Rory Connor, described as an “<i>expert on various Commissions and Inquiries</i>” as well as author of the irishsalem blogspot.com website. He was to speak on “<b><i>False allegations of child abuse against the Catholic Church, including homicide</i>”</b>.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #2b00fe;">Rescheduled Seminar</span></span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">We managed to hold the Seminar in Galway on 4 October 2020 with the help of <a href="http://www.CatholicArena">www.CatholicArena</a> . Links to videos of the talks are here "<a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/10/seminar-on-tuam-childrens-home-online.html">Seminar on Tuam Children's Home (Online) - Transferred to Galway</a>"</span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-size: 13px;" /></span></div></div></div></div></div>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-50785662686968814192020-09-10T23:42:00.000+01:002020-09-11T17:43:19.643+01:00CUTIES "a Provocative Powder-keg for an Age Terrified of Child Sexuality"<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I recently posted a 4 part series entitled "<b><i><a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/07/liberal-and-green-support-for.html">Liberal and Green Support for Paedophilia?</a></i></b>" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[link is to Part 1]. This could be Part [5]! This Film Review is from <b><i>The Telegraph</i></b> - the UK "<i>newspaper of record</i>" and "<i>one of the world's great titles</i>". I first thought it might be a Californian namesake!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">Netflix's advance publicity for Cuties caused an online furore CREDIT: Netflix</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">REVIEW</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/cuties-netflix-reviewa-provocative-powder-keg-age-terrified/">Cuties, Netflix review: a provocative powder-keg for an age terrified of child sexuality</a></span></h2>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Forget the moral panic – Netflix’s controversial French import is disturbing and risqué because that’s exactly what it aims to be</i></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Telegraph, b</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">y Tim Robey, FILM CRITIC </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">9 September 2020 </span></i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Dir</b>: <i>Maïmouna Doucouré;</i> <b>Cast:</b> <i>Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Maïmouna Gueye, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Myriam Hamma, Mbissine Therese Diop, Demba Diaw. 1</i>5 cert, 96 mins</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The tricky line between marketing and exploitation caused a ruckus in the case of Cuties, a wild feature debut from French-Senegalese Maïmouna Doucouré. It won the directing award at Sundance before being snapped up by Netflix. Then a poster happened to it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was an image cribbed from the film’s most openly provocative sequence – the finale – which, out of context, made everyone see red. It showed four pre-teen girls striking “<i>sexy</i>” poses on a dance stage, wearing shiny crop tops, knee pads and booty shorts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Netflix soon apologised for the poster, and switched to a different image of this quartet pouting to camera, but the damage was done. Doucouré received death threats on social media, and a petition to have the film banned has amassed over 340,000 signatures on change.org. Sight unseen – one can only presume – the originator of the latter Mary-Whitehouse-esque <b> (1) </b>screed calls the film “<i>disgusting</i>”, “<i>dangerous</i>” and made “<i>for the viewing pleasure of paedophiles</i>”. The Turkish broadcasting watchdog RTÜK seems to have agreed, ordering the film’s removal from Netflix in that country.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But enough of the moral panic. No one involved in demonising this film has paused at any stage – or watched it – to consider that its very subject is the disturbing, premature sexualisation of young girls in French society. Doucouré is hardly sly with her theme: by the end, she goes all out to make us squirm. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eleven-year-old Amy (Fathia Youssouf), a Senegalese Muslim, has recently moved to a Parisian housing estate with her mother (superb Maïmouna Gueye) and two younger brothers. Her father, who we never see, is about to take a second wife, and preparations for the dreaded wedding are underway. At school, a troupe of wannabe dancers called the “<i>mignonnes</i>” (“<i>cuties</i>”) catch Amy’s attention, but she feels too square and shy to fit in – at least until she pilfers a mobile phone from her uncle, and begins using it to take selfies, beautify herself and get tips from hip-hop twerking videos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Doucouré is blatantly pushing buttons here – never more so than in the ever-more-eye-widening dance sequences, where Amy quickly graduates from the rookie in this crew to the one schooling them in risqué, finger-biting choreography. If the pageant finale of Little Miss Sunshine often springs to mind, she functions in the story as Alan Arkin to her own Abigail Breslin. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The other girls want to pass as 14 to attract boyfriends, and with Amy’s phone, they have worrying access to everything the internet can show. Their licentiousness starts to float free of strict plausibility. Amy borrows skimpy T-shirts from her brother, swipes cash and takes them all on shopping sprees. Their make-up budget starts to look enormous. Essentially, they’re aping the gang from Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood, who were 16 going on 25. In letting this play out, Doucouré is underlining an obvious fantasy of pre-pubescence: to fast-forward towards being treated as desirable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The film is more an experiment in chutzpah than a slice of social realism. As the girls mess about recklessly and rehearse their moves, their lack of any supervision is odd, if semi-explained by the distracted chaos of Amy’s household. But they also know how their immaturity gives them a treacherous power, as we see when a security guard tries to hustle them out for trespassing and they brand him as a child molester. These certainly aren’t your neighbourhood’s average polite children. They’re twerking terrors of the pavement. <b>(2)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cuties (Mignonnes) is Maimouna Doucoure's first feature CREDIT: AFP</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Following some well-received shorts, Doucouré made this from a very personal place. The keenest parts explore the push/pull of her Muslim upbringing. Amy is acting out because of her father’s betrayal, and unwilling to follow her mother – who’s secretly devastated – down the path of demure submission to the patriarchy. Her rebellion is defiantly flaunting herself, and thanks to some brazen invites from the film’s camerawork, the routines she masterminds tend to make the male gaze curl up in horror. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is powder-keg provocation in an age so terrified of child sexuality. Thanks to the furore, it has blown up just as much in Doucouré’s face. But the film’s first hour is top-notch for a debut. The child performances are electric. The range of emotion she gets from Youssouf – not just the jaw-dropping cosmetic transformations – mark her out as a magician with actors. Gang leader Angelica – quite the failure for nominative determinism, there – is played with almost Larry Clark-esque attitude by Médina El Aidi-Azouni, another brilliant find.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How Doucouré achieved her joyous last shot, I don’t quite know. Imperfect as it is, this film deserves to launch a career, not end one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Cuties is available via Netflix now</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Telegraph Media Group Limited 2020</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>NOTES:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>(1) </b>Coincidentally villainess Mary Whitehouse features in <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/07/liberal-and-green-support-for_9.html">Part [2] </a>of my series "<i>Liberal and Green Support for Paedophilia ?</i>" (see paragraph 4A)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>(2)</b> As per Wikipedia: <i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twerking">Twerking</a> </b> is a type of dance that came out of the bounce music scene of New Orleans in the late 1980s. Individually-performed, <b>chiefly but not exclusively by women, dancers move by throwing or thrusting their hips back or shaking their buttocks, often in a low squatting stance</b>. Twerking is part of a larger set of characteristic moves unique to the New Orleans style of hip-hop known as "bounce".Moves include "mixing", "exercising", the "bend over", the "shoulder hustle", "clapping", "booty clapping", "booty poppin", and "the wild wood"— <b>all recognized as "booty shaking</b>" or "bounce" </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[My emphasis: when Wiki says "<i>chiefly but not exclusively by women</i>", I think they mean <i>men</i> sometimes perform the dance, <b><i>not</i></b> 11 year old girls!]</span>Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-75213032788804072242020-09-03T20:28:00.002+01:002020-09-04T00:38:45.250+01:00The Tuam Babies and the Bon Secours Nuns [3]<br />
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Babies taking the Air at a Mother and Baby Home</h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is the third in a projected series of three articles on "<b><i>The Tuam Babies and the Bon Secours Nuns</i></b>". These are links to <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-tuam-babies-and-bon-secour-nuns-1.html">Part [1]</a> and <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-tuam-babies-and-bon-secours-nuns-2_25.html">Part [2]</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In March 2017, the Association of Catholic Priests - that had originally expressed skepticism about Judge Yvonne Murphy's appointment to lead the <i>Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes - </i>seems<i> </i>to have accepted the secular consensus that awful things must have happened there. It should be noted that while the Commission's remit comprises 14 Mother and Baby Homes and 4 County Homes, it was the atrocity stories about Tuam that sparked the establishment of the Commission. These have been well described by Brendan O'Neill editor of the SpikedonLine website in an article "<a href="https://www.spiked-online.com/2014/06/09/the-tuam-tank-another-myth-about-evil-ireland/">The Tuam Tank: Another Myth about Evil Ireland</a>" subtitle<span style="color: blue; font-style: italic;"> The obsession with Ireland’s dark past has officially become unhinged. </span>[Sample quote: <i>A hysterical piece in the Irish Independent compared the Tuam home to the Nazi Holocaust, Rwanda and Srebrenica, saying that in all these settings people were killed ‘because they were scum</i>’.] </span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2017/03/statement-from-the-association-of-catholic-priests-acp-on-the-tuam-babies-revelations-and-the-resignation-of-marie-collins-from-the-vatican-commission-on-clerical-sex-abuse/">Statement from the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP)</a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2017/03/statement-from-the-association-of-catholic-priests-acp-on-the-tuam-babies-revelations-and-the-resignation-of-marie-collins-from-the-vatican-commission-on-clerical-sex-abuse/"> on the Tuam Babies revelations</a> and the resignation of Marie Collins from the Vatican Commission on Clerical Sex Abuse </span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The latest revelations about the burial of babies in the former Mother and Baby home in Tuam, though widely predicted, provoke a sense of both sadness and shame. Sadness, that the very precious, elemental relationship between mothers and their children could be so disrespected by institutions of Church and State in Ireland; and shame because as priests we are part of an institution that has played a central role in this sorry saga.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It will be argued, with some cause, that the Catholic Church was not totally to blame, as the whole culture of Ireland during that period made it acceptable for pregnant unmarried girls to be treated so shamefully. But the Church, because of its dominant position in the Ireland of the time, must take a large degree of responsibility for what happened. Also, we must acknowledge that individual priests in parishes, through the advice they gave to parents of unmarried pregnant women, and in some cases through public condemnation from pulpits, helped to limit to Mother and Baby homes the options available to parents.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The recent Tuam revelations, coinciding with the attitudes of Vatican officials which led to the resignation of Marie Collins from the Vatican Commission on Clerical Sex Abuse, serve to underline our conviction that Catholic sexual teaching and the attitudes that can underpin it need urgent renewal. There is still a long way to go before women are treated with equal respect and dignity in the Catholic Church.</span></blockquote>
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<h3>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are a total of 56 Comments after the article. The following are a selection:</span></h3>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Padraig McCarthy </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 4th, 2017 at 10:06 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nowadays we take it for granted that graves will be marked, but it has not been always so. I remember the first time I saw the Angels’ Plot in Glasnevin – it was a wilderness. It has now been enormously improved; but infants were buried there from maternity hospitals in a manner perhaps not as well as they did in Tuam. The same happened in many other locations around the country. I enquired of Glasnevin last year, and was told that about half of their graves are unmarked. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My mother’s parents are buried in Glasnevin; I tracked down the unmarked grave about 30 years ago while doing my family tree. It was only marked about four years ago by a cousin of mine. It’s certainly not that my mother and her brothers lacked respect for their parents; priorities were different in the first half of the 20th century, and finance was a factor. Many graves of children and adults were unmarked. As in the Murphy Report, it’s important that we do not judge the motives of people in former times and circumstances by the standards of what seems obligatory today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There’s an item of mine from last year, putting the Tuam babies question in historical and social context, and followed by a discussion, on the ACP website, which may be helpful:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2014/06/tuam-babies/">Tuam Babies </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> http://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2014/06/tuam-babies/.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Eddie Finnegan </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 5th, 2017 at 11:22 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>Also, we must acknowledge that individual priests in parishes, through the advice they gave to parents of unmarried pregnant women, and in some cases through public condemnation from pulpits, helped to limit to Mother and Baby homes the options available to parents.</i>”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So what should these “individual priests in parishes” have offered as an alternative option? A subsidized boat ticket from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead/London?</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Bro. Jude </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 6th, 2017 at 1:43 am </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thank you Padraig for your objective assessment. Given the verifiable facts of your demographic research, on infant mortality and the link to same, I would have expected the ACPI to have made a more factual and objective statement. A reading of René Girard on scapegoating would have helped the ACPI from joining in what can only called a ‘<i>group-think</i>’. ‘<i>Group-thin</i>k’ is not based on fact. Ironically, the same ‘group-think’ being the very people who have sacrificed innocent priests and religious to the mob. One needs to discern well before joining the group-think’ which the ACPI statement has now aligned itself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The ACPI statement has done a disservice to the innocent babies buried in Tuam. The statement of the ACPI on this tragedy is in sharp contrast to its demand for justice on other matters. It needs to amend its statement in the light of the national facts on infant mortality as outlined in Padraig’s findings. Anything less is merely joining in the emotional group-think. Groupthink makes good sound bites. Sound bites are not the same as the verifiable facts. They are the lowest form of journalism. I humbly suggest a reading of Girard.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Anne </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 6th, 2017 at 3:41 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This report on the Tuam Babies reminds me of the time when the Kerry Babies scandal happened. The newspapers had sensational stories every day and all sorts of wild theories were circulated . I actually bought the Offical Report from Government Publications and was amazed to find that the information in the report bore very little resemblance to what was in the newspapers at the time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I fell it would have been better to wait until the investigation was complete,with all the facts on the table about what happened to these children. Keyboard warriors are today’s version of mob rule.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I lived adjacent to a County Home in the fifties. I often went to Morning Mass in the Home with my mother . There was usually three or four rows of young women at Mass. Sadly they were considered to be fallen women(no fallen men take note) the women bore all the blame ,can’t be ruining a young mans prospects. The church seems to be bearing the brunt of the blame for what happened to these unfortunate women but from my recollection of that era families were terrified by how the would be judged by society as so called “<i>illegitimate</i>” children were shunned. Shot Gun marraiges were common too for the same reason.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hard to believe that today but that was the way it was. There were no marches or demonstrations by the general public to have these places shut down.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">13.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Pádraig McCarthy </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 6th, 2017 at 10:07 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Attached is a copy of a PDF document (in booklet form) which I sent to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission as a contribution to the social and historical context of the Investigation.</span><br />
<a href="https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MOTHER-AND-BABY-HOMES-ENQUIRY.pdf" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">MOTHER AND BABY HOMES INVESTIGATION Some Notes on Social History DOWNLOAD</a><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">17.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Sean O'Conaill </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 7th, 2017 at 1:07 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many thanks to Padraig McCarthy (<b><i>#13</i></b>) for that pdf contribution to contextualisation. Pending further development of that by the MAB commission we should not venture at this stage into summary judgement, especially of those who staffed these ‘homes’. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Social stigmatisation is a powerful and mysterious force, and the subsidence of the stigma surrounding unmarried pregnancy in Ireland has removed all of us from the psychic universe of that Tuam burial site. I can understand Paddy Ferry’s distress, but would counsel him to postpone despair until a far more detailed map is drawn of the international pattern of dealings with this issue. Every age has its own unquestionable ‘givens’ and every land has its own hidden secrets. That Ireland is an exception to the international pattern of management of this issue remains to be proven – and some of the current commentary is of a transparently opportunistic, axe-grinding and blinkered character.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why, for example, is horror over the historical Tuam story, not matched by equal horror over the current international reality of late-term abortion? What we choose to see and to ignore in any given era will probably always cause consternation decades later, so the abortion-tolerant of this time would do well to test the clarity of their own lenses before wallowing in righteously superior indignation over the blindness of past generations.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">19.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Eddie Finnegan </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 7th, 2017 at 4:13 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A sincere thanks to Sean O’Conaill </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>@17</i></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> for that thoughtful follow-through on Pádraig </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>@13</i></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. The past may indeed have been a somewhat different country, but many of us were there and so were our parents, and in some cases our aunts or sisters. I stood with an old Maynooth classmate outside the ‘luxury Dunboyne Castle Hotel & Spa’ in June 2013 (I think Brendan H was there the same evening) as we met to mark the group’s 45th ordination anniversary. Tom was a bit quiet and withdrawn for a while before he mentioned that, as a curate in the 1970s, he had accompanied girls and their parents to the hotel’s main building – from the 1950s to the 1990s it had been the Mother & Baby Home for the area, run by the Good Shepherd Sisters. Tom was one of those “</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">individual priests in parishes</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">” who, I have no doubt, supported those families compassionately through an experience none of them would have chosen – he certainly never ‘</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">read anyone off the altar</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">’. Our contraceptively enlightened and abortion-tolerant age may feel it has all the answers and the right to lacerate an earlier era. But, like one or two others, I feel that a breast-beating ACP should not join the mob.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">24.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Paddy Ferry </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 9th, 2017 at 8:51 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I did not fully understand the impact the most recent revelations from Tuam has had on the country until the last couple of days. I had not been in touch with anybody from home in the last week but, even if I had, they probably would not want to say much about it. However, watching and listening to an Taoiseach at Leaders Questions in the Dáil on Monday brought it home to me. He was excellent. ( link below for anybody who did not see it.) And, this ,remember, is a Taoiseach who takes his Catholic faith seriously. And, he reminded us –perhaps a little indelicately, but it definitely had to be said—that only the young women were condemned and punished. Werner Jeanrond’s “<i>cultural forces</i>” were obviously at work here as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">President Michael D, in his International Womens Day address yesterday was also excellent and quite rightly singled out Catherine Corless for special praise. What a great and brave woman she is! Donal Lynch, in last Sunday’s Sunday independent calls her the Erin Brockovich of the Tuam Babies scandal. I only got the paper over here on Tuesday but reading it through and realising that the horror and disgust that I was feeling was shared by just about everybody else, was somehow consoling. Sean @11, I agree, it is puzzling how the basic requirements of the Gospel did not affect the behaviour of the clergy at the time. I expect Lord Acton’s oft quoted remark about the corrupting effect of total power is ,once again,relevant here But, you are surely not telling us that we should save our despair until we learn how these situations were handled in other countries ! Surely not, Sean !! There have been some excellent contributions to this debate but I would especially like to commend Kevin for his gentle, thoughtful reflections.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am now more baffled than ever as to why anybody could challenge the judgement of the ACP in issuing their statement above. It was the very least that was required and anything less would have been unacceptable and a serious mistake. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">► VIDEO: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lRSAhT_Chk">Tuam babies: Taoiseach decries ‘social and cultural sepulchre’</a></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">25.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Eddie Finnegan </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 9th, 2017 at 9:42 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Keep it up, Paddy@24, 21, 15, but let’s also have a shout out for that atheist Brendan O’Neill’s excellent piece in this morning’s Irish Times: “</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Rush to moralise over Tuam has run ahead of the facts</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.” Alternative Facts, like the poor, will always be with us, I suppose. Meanwhile, praise to the Almighty for creating a few atheists to help us to think.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">26.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Rory Connor </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 9th, 2017 at 9:43 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"The latest revelations about the burial of babies in the former Mother and Baby home in "Tuam, though widely predicted, provoke a sense of both sadness and shame. </i>…"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What precisely is the cause of this sadness and shame on the part of the ACP? I see that Brendan O’Neill (editor of the online current affairs magazine Spiked) has an article in the irish Times today</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/rush-to-moralise-over-tuam-has-run-ahead-of-the-facts-1.3002786">Rush to Moralise over Tuam has Run Ahead of the Facts</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/rush-to-moralise-over-tuam-has-run-ahead-of-the-facts-1.3002786</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will quote just the extracts dealing with ascertainable facts:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>On Friday, [the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes] confirmed what many had suspected: that babies and young children were buried in the grounds of the home. It said “significant quantities of human remains have been discovered” in a “long structure divided into 20 chambers”. It said the structure “appears to be related to the treatment/containment of sewage and/or waste water”, but it has “not yet determined if it was ever used for this purpose”.</i> …….</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>That the “structure” had 20 chambers suggests it had been turned into a kind of catacomb. That the children buried there were “swaddled up”, as one eye-witness described it, suggests they were not simply “dumped”. That the discovery of the structure in the 1970s was followed by a priestly blessing and then the setting up of a grotto by local people suggests the town of Tuam, and Old Ireland more broadly, was not a foul place but rather had many good people in it, concerned for the dea</i>d.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Brendan O Neill comments that “<i>The rush to moralise about Tuam doesn’t only run ahead of facts – it seems also to run ahead of common decency</i>” and gives as a example the fact that Commission told the media about the discovery of human remains BEFORE it told the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors (CMABS), some of whose members lost siblings in Tuam. A spokesman for CMABS said it was “<i>shocking we [had] to learn of this news via the media</i>”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From this he concludes that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>One can’t help feeling that the commission’s urge to emote publicly, to display its “shock”, overrode the traditional decorum of informing individuals of the potential discovery of family members’ remains. Nothing, not even basic civility, can be allowed to stand in the way of virtue-signalling over Tuam</i>. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Now THAT is something that should arouse “sadness and shame”.</i></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">29.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Anne </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 10th, 2017 at 8:53 am </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the burial ground was excavated and it was discovered that”the structure had twenty chambers” surely experts in sanitation were consulted as to what exactly the structure was. Why wasn’t it made clear what it was as with today’s sophisticated methods of gathering evidence it should not have been difficult to establish facts like when was it built and what was its purpose,and whether or not it was used for sanitation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The impression was given that nuns just opened up a cover and threw the remains into a septic tank. I know that this is not what the Report states.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But it left enough confusion for wild speculation to take flight There may be still some older residents alive who worked there or told stories of their time there and might be able to shed some light on this matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The people of Tuam showed that they respected the burial ground and have lovingly maintained it over the years.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">30.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Padraig McCarthy </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 10th, 2017 at 10:58 am </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many have jumped to exaggerated conclusions on the Tuam story. A letter in the Irish Times on Wednesday 8 March may free us from the hype:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<b>Sir</b>, – <i>As the son of one of the residents of the Bon Secours home in Tuam, who still has contact with some former residents, I have issues with the story of the ‘discovery’ of a mass grave.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>We always knew as a family that the plot currently in the news was where the babies who died in the home were buried. That was common knowledge.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The public record also shows that about 800 babies or young children were registered as having died in the home over a period of 35 years. So even without any technological examination of the site, it was clear that there had to be about 800 remains buried there. The coincidence of the number of the deaths recorded at the home and the number of remains buried at the site is what you would expect. Had only 200 deaths been recorded and 800 been discovered, for example, then it would indeed be real news. What in fact the recent examination has done is just confirm the information already available. Nothing new has been discovered. – Yours, etc</i>,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>PAUL CHURCHILL”</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Note the final sentences: “</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What in fact the recent examination has done is just confirm the information already available. Nothing new has been discovered</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.”</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">33.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Soline Humbert </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 10th, 2017 at 5:53 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>@30</i></b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What in fact the recent examination has done is just confirm the information already available.Nothing new has been discovered</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.”Paul Churchill</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well it seems to be news to the Bon Secours Sisters:In 2014,Terry Prone acting as PR representative for Sr Marie Ryan, leader of the Bon Secours sisters,wrote in response to an inquiry about Tuam former mother&baby home :<i>”If you come here,you’ll find no mass grave,no evidence that children were so buried….and the local police force casting their eyes to heaven and saying” Yeah a few bones were found,but this was an area where famine victims were buried</i>…”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.google.ie/amp/www.thejournal.ie/terry-prone-email-tuam-babies-site-1721252-Oct2014/%3Famp%3D1">Row Brews over Terry Prone Tuam Babies Email</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Furthermore,in an interview/debate on RTE radio the day before the publication of his letter,when put before the facts presented by historian Catherine Corless about the burial site in Tuam ,Paul Churchill acknowleged :”<i>That’s news to me</i>” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="https://radio.rte.ie/radio1highlights/catherine-corless-father-paul-churchill/">Tuam Babies Debate Catherine Corless and Father Paul Churchill</a></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The full recording is worth listening to if you can.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">40.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Padraig McCarthy </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 11th, 2017 at 6:09 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We have had much heart-searching about the Tuam home situation, and many comments seem to presume that this is a particularly Irish and/or Catholic problem. I would like to emphasise a few points so that we can see the wider picture. I have no specific information about Tuam; we await the further results of investigations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>(i)</b><i> Is burial in an unmarked grave a sign of disrespect – that those who died were just dumped or discarded?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In one location in Dublin there are about half a million people buried in unmarked graves. That place is Glasnevin Cemetery, where just about half the graves are unmarked. My mother’s parents who died in the 1920 and 1940s were in an unmarked grave until about five years ago when we erected a headstone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Burial in an unmarked grave does not mean disrespect to the dead. Usually it means that the people concerned had other priorities on their minds at the time. It is likely that most families in Ireland (and perhaps elsewhere) have relatives in unmarked graves – you could enquire for yourselves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is the case not only in Ireland.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>(ii)</b> <i>Was infant mortality in homes such as Tuam evidence of malpractice?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again we await further reports. For reference keep in mind what Robert Karen PhD wrote in <i>Becoming Attached: First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love, Oxford University Press,</i> 1994, page 18ff:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>It had been reported, for instance, in 1915, that infants admitted to ten asylums in the eastern United States had mortality rates of from 31.7 percent to 75 percent by the end of their second year</i>…”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perhaps Ireland may be found not greatly out of step with international experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>(iii)</b> <i>Was treatment of unmarried mothers particularly harsh in Ireland?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Minister Katherine Zappone says that human rights were violated. As seen today it was undoubtedly harsh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We must remember that our contemporary awareness of human rights dates from after World War II, following the abomination of how so many were treated in Nazi Germany. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights dates from 1948. Other jurisdictions had far more draconian ways of dealing with those who were judged unfit to procreate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Legislation for mandatory sterilisation was enacted in 33 of the then 48 States of the USA, beginning with Indiana in 1907. These included many women who were sent to institutions under the guise of being “<i>feeble-minded</i>” because they were promiscuous or became pregnant while unmarried. Most notorious, perhaps, is the judgment of US Supreme Court Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., in Buck v. Bell, in 1927, upholding a Virginia law: <i>“Three generations of imbeciles are enough</i>.” Justice Pierce Butler, a Catholic, dissented.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">European countries that had sterilisation programmes include Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Switzerland, Iceland, Austria, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Winston Churchill was in favour, but, thankfully, failed to get it through.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From this perspective, how unmarried mothers were treated in Ireland then, however objectionable today, was less severe than found in other jurisdictions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is possible that the strength of Catholic teaching helped keep Ireland free of those excesses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is more information in PDF booklet referred to at <b><i>#13 </i></b>above.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is not to imply, of course, that all was well, but it is important to understand the world and social milieu of the time. We have much to learn for our own day.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">41.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Rory Connor </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 11th, 2017 at 11:01 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When Enda Kenny spoke about the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in the Dáil he said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>Tuam is not just a burial ground, it is a social and cultural sepulchre. That is what it is. As a society in the so-called ‘good old days’, we did not just hide away the dead bodies of tiny human beings, we dug deep and deeper still to bury our compassion, our mercy and our humanity itself. No nuns broke into our homes to kidnap our children. We gave them up to what we convinced ourselves was the nuns’ care</i>.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As David Quinn pointed out in the Independent on 10 March, our Taoiseach’s tone and his words contrasted very sharply with those of Labour’s Kathleen Lynch in 2013 when she addressed the Dáil about Bethany Home, which also housed unmarried mothers and their babies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-quinn/harsh-victorian-morality-at-core-of-mother-and-baby-home-scandals-35517919.html">Harsh Victorian morality at core of Mother and Baby Home Scandals</a></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-quinn/harsh-victorian-morality-at-core-of-mother-and-baby-home-scandals-35517919.html</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ms Lynch, then the junior minister in the Department of Justice, used much softer language than the Taoiseach, even though hundreds of babies also died in Bethany Home and were buried in an unmarked grave.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Explaining the high death rate in the Protestant-run institution she said: “<i>Unfortunately, poverty and disease were commonplace in Ireland up to the 1950s and this was reflected in infant mortality rates</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>Infant mortality rates in the 1940</i><b>s wer</b><i>e at a level that is hard to comprehend today, about 20 times higher than now and that figure applies across the entire population. For those who were malnourished and subject to disease and a lack of hygiene, the figures would have been higher still</i>.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Responding to critics of the home, she said [my emphasis]: <i>“Our Constitution demands we respect the rules of natural justice. People are entitled to a fair hearing and an opportunity to protect their good name…It seems to have been accepted at the time that Bethany Home was run by people with charitable motives</i>.“</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why are the rules of natural justice not being applied to the Bon Secour nuns? Why is it assumed that the Tuam Mother and Baby Home was NOT run by people with charitable motives? Note for example the headline in the Connaught Tribune yesterday:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://connachttribune.ie/tuam-babies-investigation-likened-to-nazi-war-crimes-trials-088/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Tuam babies’ investigation likened to Nazi war crimes trials</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[ Link doesn't work now but same story appears to be online at Galway BayFM site</span><br />
<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://galwaybayfm.ie/galway-bay-fm-news-desk/tuam-babies-investigation-likened-nazi-war-crimes-trials/">Tuam babies’ investigation likened to Nazi war crimes trials </a>]</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As per the article, Junior Minister John Halligan is calling on Gardai to question any surviving Bon Secours nuns who ever worked at the home, to establish whether a criminal investigation is warranted. Minister Halligan says as was the case with the Nazi war crimes trials, if an individual has been an accessory to a crime then they should be held accountable, regardless of how many years have passed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is just a further development of Enda Kenny’s statement that <i>“We took their babies and gifted them, sold them, trafficked them, starved them, neglected them or denied them to the point of their disappearance from our hearts, our sight, our country, and in the case of Tuam and possibly other places, from life itself.</i>”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why was this not said in the Dail debate about Bethany Home? Just for the sake of argument, let us suppose that a Garda inquiry into Tuam finds no evidence of crime or any behaviour that would justify this rhetoric. Should we expect an apology from the politicians concerned?</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">42.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>ACP </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 12th, 2017 at 7:00 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Homily preached by Archbishop Michael Neary in the Cathedral of the Assumption, Tuam</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>11 March 2017</i></b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> In recent years, and again during this past week, we in the parish, the archdiocese, the country and beyond have been endeavouring to come to terms with the heart-breaking news of the Mother and Baby Home here in Tuam. This is a deeply distressing story for all of us, but especially so for those affected individuals and families. We can only attempt to understand the emotional upheaval which mothers suffered as they felt so helpless and isolated.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What is particularly harrowing is the report of high levels of mortality and malnutrition. It was an era when “<i>unmarried mothers</i>” – as our society at the time labelled women who were pregnant and not married – were often judged, stigmatised and ostracised by their own community and the Church, and this all happened in a harsh and unforgiving climate. Compassion, understanding and mercy were sorely lacking. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is now timely that this dimension of our social history be addressed and thoroughly examined. To do so would begin the process of attempting to explain, but not to excuse, what happened in our not too distant collective past. Perhaps we could begin with this fundamental question: “<i>How could the culture of Irish society, which purported to be defined by Christian values, have allowed itself to behave in such a manner towards our most vulnerable</i>?” </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is an understandable sense of shared anger arising from this situation; people are deeply distressed and desperately upset by what they hear and read. There is a danger, however, that when anger begins to die down, we may be tempted to move quickly to the next social problem from the past without having fully understood the complex and tragic historical situation before us. The use of highly-charged emotive language, while understandable in the situation, may prove to be counter-productive. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is an urgent need for an enquiry to examine all aspects of life at the time, broadening the focus from one particular religious congregation, and instead addressing the roles and interrelationships between Church, State, local authorities and society generally. Such an approach should ensure that the truth will emerge no matter how unpalatable it may be to those on whichever side of the present discussion. In this way we will be enabled to move genuinely forward. One hopes that the Report of the Commission will enable that truth to surface in a clear and objective manner.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even today there are huge challenges surrounding how we care for the disadvantaged in our society. In years to come our present society will inevitably be subjected to scrutiny and will most likely be found deficient in many areas to which we are blind at present. We need to learn from the past in order to prevent similar injustices in our time, and so as to inform our future generations.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wish to again apologise for the hurt caused by the failings of the Church as part of that time and society when – instead of being cherished – particular children and their mothers were not welcomed, they were not wanted and they were not loved.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the story of the Transfiguration in today’s Gospel, frightened disciples are given a preview of the Resurrection in order to give them courage to face the scandal of the Cross. Today, we pray for that courage to enable us to face squarely and honestly those agonising questions which confront us from our recent past. Let us pray for the light which will illuminate the dark recesses of that past and bring hope and healing to us all. Amen.</span></blockquote>
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">44.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Kevin Walters </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 13th, 2017 at 7:57 am </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Padraig McCarthy@40</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>We have had much heart-searching about the Tuam home situation, and many comments seem to presume that this is a particularly Irish and/or Catholic problem</i>” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No the problem is about the action and manifestation of love or lack of it in a Catholic county where the Church has a monopoly over that culture.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>(i)</b><i> </i>”<i>Is burial in an unmarked grave a sign of disrespect – that those who died were just dumped or discarded</i>?”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Probably not under difficult circumstances, burial at sea etc but generally it would be preferable to do so as it gives comfort to those who are still living. But in your statement you have by passed the most important aspect of this scandal and that is of a Christian burial, to be buried in consecrated ground. Was there not a cemetery close by?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It has been stated on the radio that some of the children/mothers have been buried there, given the indignation that was shown by the Church’s teaching on suicides etc. Yes, they were just dumped and discarded by those who should have behaved better. As religious those who participated in this deception knew exactly that they were doing, it was a cover-up to hide the true reality of the situation at this institution (Mother and Baby Home) in Tuam.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The motive for doing this was to maintain an image of goodness for the benefit of the powers that be in order to maintain the power of Clericalism. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>(ii)</b> “<i>Was infant mortality in homes such as Tuam evidence of malpractice?</i>”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We will have to wait and see but the lack of respect and dignity for each individual human life gives us a good indicator to the mentality and behaviour of many of those involved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>(iii) </b>”<i>Was treatment of unmarried mothers particularly harsh in Ireland</i>?”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My opening statement address this question</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The problem is about the action and manifestation of love or lack of it in a catholic county where the Church has a monopoly over that culture”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Within the context of the above statement, yes absolutely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>kevin your brother</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>In Christ</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>45.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Padraig McCarthy March 13th, 2017 at 10:17 am </b><br /><span style="color: blue;">Archbishop Michael Neary asked: “<i>How could the culture of Irish society, which purported to be defined by Christian values, have allowed itself to behave in such a manner towards our most vulnerable</i>?</span>” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />On Mother and Baby Homes, we bought, at least partially, into the dominant paradigm of the time in Britain & USA: segregation in an institution. We must also ask: if religious organisations (not just Catholic) did not take up the task, what would have happened the single pregnant women? The State, through the County Homes, could not have coped financially or otherwise, and the women would have had nowhere to turn. Certainly, it is wrong that they were rejected by their families, and the churches were part of that society which was greatly influenced by a (Victorian?) puritanical conformism, especially with regard to more disadvantaged sections of society. It would be of interest to know how many, if any, women from the wealthier sections of society were ever residents in a Mother and Baby Home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />On the matter of taking the children, we bought into the “<i>wisdom</i>” of the day that it was better to take the children to give them the possibility of “<i>a better life</i>”, as England did in sending children to Australia. In February 2010 UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a formal apology to the families of children who were taken.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />On how the unmarried single women were treated, we did not buy into the dominant paradigm in 32 States in USA and at least 10 countries in Europe, that the best thing was to sterilise such “f<i>eeble-minded</i>” women so that they would not give rise to a new generation who would be a burden on society. (Winston Churchill was in favour but failed to get it through.) It is little consolation to the women and children who suffered, but at least in this matter we have reason to be grateful that we did not follow the example of so many other jurisdictions which would usually be seen as civilised.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">46.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Padraig McCarthy </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 13th, 2017 at 12:54 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Kevin @44:</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Tablet in June 2014 reported: “<i>Fr [now bishop] Fintan Monaghan, spokesman and archivist for the diocese of Tuam said the diocese’s baptismal register showed that 2,005 children from St Mary’s mother and baby home had been baptised from 1937 to 1961</i>.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since children from the home were baptised, it seems very unlikely that those who died were buried in unconsecrated ground. I’ve never been involved in the “<i>consecration</i>” of a burial ground, but it seems quite possible that a priest from the parish, or a chaplain to the Home if there was one, could have blessed the ground at the beginning. The Home was originally the workhouse; I don’t know how much knowledge there is of the details of that operation. In Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, I was chaplain to St Colman’s hospital, on the site of the previous workhouse. Nearby there is a burial ground, known locally as a famine graveyard, but likely to hold more than just famine victims. There is just one memorial stone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many say that they were “<i>dumped and discarded</i>.” The Notice from the Commission on 3 March does not come to that conclusion. It seems better to wait the results of whatever further investigations may take place, and not condemn those responsible for the burials without clear evidence of disrespect.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">52.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Rory Connor </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 14th, 2017 at 2:27 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>We must identify and own our own failures, without flinching, if we are to learn from them</i>.” – <b><i>Sean O’Conaill and Mary Vallely</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the case of nuns, the failures of the religious congregations also include the refusal to defend nuns who have been subjected to obscene and lying allegations – including the rape and murder of children. In a previous post on the topic “<i><a href="https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2017/02/child-abuse-scandal-almost-fatally-destroyed-catholic-church/">Child Abuse Scandal Almost Fatally Destroyed Catholic Church</a></i>”, I referred to the article in the Daily Mirror on 11 October 1997 entitled</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/HOT+POKER+WAS+USED+ON+LITTLE+MARION..+NO+CASH+WILL+GET+HER+BACK%3B+I...-a061066142">HOT POKER WAS USED ON LITTLE MARION.. NO CASH WILL GET HER BACK; I THINK MY BABY WAS MURDERED AT THE ORPHANAGE, SAYS PAYOUT MUM</a>.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The tabloids have very high powered lawyers to defend them against libel actions and I’m sure they advised the Mirror editors that the allegation – that a Sister of Mercy had killed a baby by burning holes in both of the child’s legs with a hot poker – was highly libelous. However the editors understood – correctly – that the Sisters would not sue, possibly because they did not want to cause pain to the woman who was making the claim!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Two years later when former Sister of Mercy Nora Wall was convicted of raping a young girl, the media exploded with hate-filled headlines: “<i>Vile Nun, Pervert Nun”, “I was Raped by Anti-Christ</i>”. The conviction collapsed with extreme speed when the two accusers gave a newspaper interview that named them for the first time and one of their OTHER victims recognised the name of his own accuser! The following is an extract from the Wikipedia article on the case:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Wall">Nora Wall</a></b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Reaction of Sisters of Mercy </i></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After their conviction, the Sisters of Mercy issued a statement, which read:</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>We are all devastated by the revolting crimes which resulted in these verdicts. Our hearts go out to this young woman who, as a child, was placed in our care. Her courage in coming forward was heroic. We beg anyone who was abused whilst in our care to go to the Gardaí</i>.”</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even after the collapse of the case against the two accused, the Sisters of Mercy made no effort to apologise to Wall or to withdraw their statement of support for Walsh. One commentator remarked: “<i>The young woman their hearts were going out to, was the false accuser, not their own innocent nun. Our absolutist system had seduced them into identifying with the accuser and betraying their own sister</i>.”</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyone who reads the Wiki article should also note the paragraph headed “<b><i>Reaction of Kevin Myers, July 1999</i></b>”. Kevin Myers, no friend of the Catholic Church, was prepared to defend Nora Wall even BEFORE the collapse of the rape conviction. Her former colleagues have failed to do so, even to the present day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Something similar may well happen in relation to the Bon Secour nuns who served at Tuam. I referred at <i><b># 41</b></i> above to the Connaught Tribune article headlined "<i>Tuam babies’ investigation likened to Nazi war crimes trials</i>" regarding Junior Minister John Halligan’s claims. I see from a related article in the Irish Times on 11 March that Minister Halligan is not just using the term Nazi as a kind of generic insult – like the guy in the pub who calls someone a “b<i>astard</i>” without knowing what the word means. Mr Halligan knows and intends to be taken literally.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘<b><i><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/death-rates-in-mother-and-baby-homes-similar-to-concentration-camps-1.3007096">Death Rates in Mother and Baby Homes Similar to Concentration Camps</a></i></b>’</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>Old age should not diminish accountability for any crime or alleged crime. If you bear in mind that the child mortality rate at Bessborough in 1943 was approaching 70 per cent, sure that’s similar to concentration camps</i>,” he said.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>Are we seriously saying that because somebody is ill or aged that we shouldn’t at least interview them? If you look at what’s happened at Belsen, Auschwitz, Dachau, even up to last year individuals who are alleged to have carried out horrendous crimes in their 80s and 90s were interviewed</i>.”</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As it happens, I am in full agreement with Minister John Halligan that the Gardai should carry out an investigation into the deaths of babies in Tuam, Bessborough and elsewhere. Just for the sake of argument, let us suppose that a Garda inquiry into Tuam etc. finds no evidence of crime or any behaviour that would justify this rhetoric.<span style="color: blue;"> Will the leaders of the Catholic Church request an apology from Minister Halligan? Or will they display the same kind of “<i>compassion</i>” shown by the leaders of the Sisters of Mercy when they failed to defend their colleagues against false allegations, up to and including the murder of a child? (And just what is the nature of such “<i>compassion</i>”?)</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">53.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Rory Connor </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 15th, 2017 at 10:31 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Further to my previous comment, an Irish Times article by Breda O’Brien regarding Judge Harding Clark’s report on the Symphysiotomy “<i>scandal</i>” is also relevant here. How many people still recall this fake scandal that occupied media headlines for a mere 17 years – prior to the publication of the judge’s report in November 2016?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/breda-o-brien-why-did-so-many-women-say-they-had-symphysiotomies-1.2882141">Breda O'Brien: Why Did So Many Women Say They Had Symphysiotomies?</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Sensationalist consensus may overlook one third of applicants who never had procedure</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">……<i>But medical experts proved that a third of those who made applications, including some very vociferous and active campaigners, had never had the procedure at all.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Other applicants claimed to have had it in hospitals that were not yet built, or to have had it carried out by doctors who were not there, and “in several statements the applicant claimed being held down by nuns (in hospitals where there were no nuns) while she was being ‘assaulted’</i>.”…..[My emphasis]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ms O’Brien points out that this is eerily reminiscent of Nora Wall, who was accused, convicted and jailed for allegedly holding down a child while Paul McCabe raped a victim. Nora Wall was subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing, as was Paul McCabe. But reasons why such an utterly egregious miscarriage of justice were allowed to happen have never been properly investigated, and never will be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Breda O’Brien writes about the role of the media and indeed the Wikipedia article on Nora Wall points out that she and Pablo McCabe “<i>were originally accused in 1996 shortly after the broadcast by RTÉ of the TV documentary “<b>Dear Daughter</b>” in February of that year; they were convicted in June 1999 one month after RTÉ’s broadcast of the <b>States of Fear</b> series produced by Mary Raftery</i>.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There were also comments about nuns made by Dail Deputies at the time – of a tone similar to the recent ones by Minister of State John Halligan. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The main difference since then is that the Catholic hierarchy themselves now seem determined to join the witch-hunt against the Bon Secour Sisters. The Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary has recently asked us to begin with this fundamental question: <i>“How could the culture of Irish society, which purported to be defined by Christian values, have allowed itself to behave in such a manner towards our most vulnerable</i>?”</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I would answer the Archbishop as follows: The late Pablo McCabe was a homeless schizophrenic man who presumably qualified as one of “<i>our most vulnerable</i>” and former Sister of Mercy Nora Wall was hardly a member of high society. McCabe had no money but prior to 1999 no woman had ever been convicted of rape so McCabe was accused to make the allegation appear more plausible. The leaders of the Sisters of Mercy betrayed both of them and sided with the accusers. <b>Archbishop what makes you think that the current accusers are more plausible?</b> Do you really find it acceptable that a Government Minister should refer to Nazis and talk about Belsen, Auschwitz and Dachau? Archbishop, if a Garda investigation into the Tuam Home produces no evidence to support such claims will you do or say anything at all? Or will you remain silent like the current leaders of the Sisters of Mercy?</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">54.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Rory Connor </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March 21st, 2017 at 3:43 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It looks like this discussion has ended but perhaps I can say a final word. I note from an article in the Irish Examiner that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/tuam-no-evidence-of-crime-nobody-to-prosecute-780150.html">Tuam: No Evidence of Crime, Nobody to Prosecute</a></i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A garda source said reasons for establishing a criminal investigation would be a reasonable suspicion of a crime being committed, such as homicide or neglect, but said it would be almost impossible to prove the latter after so long. A forensic expert said that 50 years on, the chances of establishing a cause of death were “<i>very low</i>” as <b>except for cases such as strangulation</b>, [my emphasis] bones would bear no signs.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And I had almost forgotten that there were allegations in 2014 that the nuns had refused to baptise children because they were “</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">spawn of Satan</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">” but the Tuam Archdiocese proved this story false by producing records of thousands of Baptismal Certificates. The Associated Presss carried this story, which was reported in hundreds of newspapers worldwide, but then issued an apology as reported by the Jesuit Review “<i>America</i>” on 24 June 2014</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/ap-expands-corrections-tuam-babies-story">AP Expands on Corrections of 'Tuam Babies' Story</a></i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">…The Associated Press ….. repeating incorrect Irish news reports that suggested the babies who died had never been baptized and that Catholic Church teaching guided priests not to baptize the babies of unwed mothers or give to them Christian burials.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The reports of denial of baptism later were contradicted by the Tuam Archdiocese, which found a registry showing that the home had baptized more than 2,000 babies. The AP issued a corrective story on Friday after discovering its errors. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some of the lunatic allegations regarding the Bon Secour nuns are reminiscent of the 19th century anti-Catholic scandal centered on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Monk">Maria Monk</a>. “</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">” published in 1836 contained tales of depravity and infanticide centered on the Hotel Dieu convent in Montreal. Priests supposedly visited the convent via a tunnel. Because of this, infants “</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">were sometimes born in the Convent, but they were always baptized, and immediately strangled</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.” The Catholic Church of course denounced the book as a fraud but what really discredited “Maria Monk” (never a nun and in fact, a Protestant) was that prominent PROTESTANT clergymen and journalists – who had originally believed her horror stories – carried out an investigation and pronounced her a fraud. <span style="color: blue;">However if Canadian Catholic bishops at the time had chosen to throw the nuns to the wolves and believe the atrocity stories, then honest non-Catholics would not have dared to take a stand against the mob hysteria! There is a lesson here for the Irish Hierarchy today.</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">55.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Kevin Walters </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">March 22nd, 2017 at 11:56 am </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>Rory Connor @54</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In the past I have deliberately avoided making any comments on the Tuam babies story, but rather concentrated my efforts in regard to the culture of cover up relating to the child abuse scandal this article brought them together by including the resignation of Marie Collins from the Vatican Commission on Clerical Sex Abuse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">You have made many comments now and previously and put a lot of effort into citing headline such as “<i>Tuam babies’ investigation likened to Nazi war crimes trials</i>” the Symphysiotomy “<i>scandal"</i> etc. And yes much of this is hype and very unjust indeed, but what you need to know is that mankind see our Shepherds as having taken on the public mantle of our Saviour Jesus Christ and are now seen by them to be walking in His footsteps, proclaiming the good news, this mantle (Truth) is all they own, Jesus teaches that this is their only protection in this world, the world knows this also sadly this mantle has become so badly stained it is now almost unrecognisable and it needs to be cleansed quickly or our Shepherds will be trampled underfoot, the means are available to do this but this will take courage and honesty but then again if they possessed this courage and honesty in the first place the Church would not be in the mess it is to-day. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">One can only hope and pray that those men with the calibre and leadership qualities of Bishop Moriarty, that are now, so badly needed within today’s Church will make their presence known and step forward, if they do so all will not be lost, as the laity/mankind will see the truths within gospels actual working.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>kevin your brother</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>In Christ</i></b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">56.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Rory Connor </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">March 24th, 2017 at 11:34 pm </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It is possible that myself and Kevin Walters (and others) are operating at cross-purposes. I certainly believe that Christ’s call to establish a “<i>Kingdom of Heaven</i>” transcended Jewish Law and the Gentile attitudes to justice and truth that were accepted in his day – but it did not abolish them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>Matthew 5:18</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Transcending (or fulfilling) the Law does not mean ignoring it or destroying it. A lot of Catholics today seem to be so consumed by guilt about child abuse that they have no interest in questioning the accounts of self-proclaimed “<i>Victims</i>” even where such accounts are either exaggerated or demonstrably false. Some Religious Sisters in particular, seem to take the view that the Catholic Church is (or was) <i>Patriarchal</i> and <i>Clericalist</i> and therefore bad. Thus even if “<i>victims</i>” tell fantastical stories they must have suffered deep pain at the hands of evil Church personnel – and the grosser the allegation, the deeper the pain. Their attitude is dogmatic in the most literal sense of the word i.e. there is no conceivable evidence that will cause them to revise their views!</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe that the (comic) tragedy here is that these Sisters imagine that they are transcending the Old Testament attitude to Justice whereas in fact, they are failing to rise to it!</span><br />
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Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-7466590615904933972020-08-25T22:38:00.001+01:002020-11-02T09:51:26.113+00:00The Tuam Babies and the Bon Secours Nuns [2]<br />
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Tuam Babies Not Buried in Septic Tank</h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is the <b><i>second</i></b> in a projected series of three articles on "<i>The Tuam Babies and the Bon Secours Nuns</i>". Part [1] is <a href="https://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-tuam-babies-and-bon-secour-nuns-1.html">HERE</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The final report from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes (chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy) is now due to be delivered to the Government on 30 October 2020. The Commission was set up in the wake of media claims that the bodies of up to 800 babies and children were buried in a septic tank in the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, located in Tuam, County Galway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">[<b><i>The following is <a href="https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2014/06/tuam-babies/">an article by Fr Padraig McCarthy</a> on the website of the Association of Catholic Priests dated June 2014 - plus extracts from Comments</i></b> ]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Reporting on the Tuam story has often been wild and sensational, and out of touch with known facts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Brendan O’Neill, whose website describes himself as a <i>Marxist Proletarian Firebrand</i> has a blog on the story of the misreporting at "<a href="https://www.spiked-online.com/2014/06/09/the-tuam-tank-another-myth-about-evil-ireland/">The Tuam Tank: Another Myth About Evil Ireland</a>"</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> [Subtitle: <span style="color: blue;">The obsession with Ireland’s dark past has officially become unhinged</span>. ]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Tablet this week [June 2014] reports: <i>“Fr Fintan Monaghan, spokesman and archivist for the diocese of Tuam said the diocese’s baptismal register showed that 2,005 children from St Mary’s mother and baby home had been baptised from 1937 to 1961</i>.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Proportionately that would mean perhaps around 3000 children were baptised from the Tuam home 1924 – 1961. This, with the 796 recorded deaths, would indicate a mortality rate of about 20% overall. This would need to be related to the national infant mortality rates in those years, and to statistics in other countries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It seems that mortality rates for what we used to call “i<i>llegitimate</i>” children are generally higher in most if not all countries than for children whose parents are married, even today. The reasons for this are unclear. Possible causes may be that the mother did not approach a doctor as early; and the health of the mother may have been be below the average due to poverty in the case of mother and baby homes (better off families could make other arrangements). It would be relevant to know how the funding of the mother and baby homes compared to the funding of maternity hospitals at the time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Stillbirths in Ireland were not registered until 1995, so a stillborn infant would have neither birth nor death certificate.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The burial of very young infants in the first half of the 20th century in Ireland was not as we do today. They were very often buried in mass graves, like the Holy Angels plot in Glasnevin where over 50,000 infants are buried, and there were no memorials with names. Only in the last 20 years or so has this plot been made more presentable. Poverty was also an important factor in providing a memorial stone on graves. A not uncommon custom was to put the body of a very young infant into the coffin with another burial taking place at the time, with no necessary family connection.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Adoption legislation in Ireland took effect in 1952. We hear stories of adoption of the child of a single mother, where the mother was under such pressure that there was not free consent. This was the case in many other countries as well. Until about the 1980s, adoption was “<i>closed</i>” – no information available which could facilitate later contact between the birth mother and the child. The USA had what is sometimes called the “<i>Baby Scoop Era</i>” (do an internet search).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The question of how to deal with illegitimate births was not just an Irish problem. Social engineering in the form of eugenics was in the fashion in a number of countries. Many European countries, and many states in the USA, had far more draconian measures: compulsory sterilisation of those considered unfit to be parents. <span style="color: blue;">In 1927 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jnr., Associate Justice of US Supreme Court, approved for the sterilisation of a young woman who had been raped: “<i>Three generations of imbeciles are enough</i>.</span>” Just recently, in May 2014, the California Senate passed Bill 1135 to prevent sterilisation of women prisoners in a coercive prison environment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">There are so many factors to be considered before we can come to a more complete understanding of the matter. Those who dealt with these matters in the past in Ireland faced situations which may be very difficult for us to envisage. The fact that we today may judge that some actions taken were not good does not mean that all those who made those decisions were bad people. <span style="color: blue;">We must also keep in mind our present-day situation, where the infant mortality rate for Traveller children is 3.5 times that of the general population</span>, and where our provision for those seeking asylum in Ireland leaves so many in deplorable conditions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Padraig McCarthy</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Fr. Pádraig is a retired priest who has served 42 years in his pastoral work and currently does support work in Balally Parish, Sandyford, South Dublin . He is the author of "</span><a href="http://www.londubh.ie/?p=2344" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Unheard Story: Dublin Archdiocese and the Murphy Report</a><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">" that </span>challenges<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> some of the assumptions and assessments of that Report</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: bold;">Rory Connor </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 15th, 2014 at 12:03 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Very calm measured response from Padraig McCarthy to another blood libel of a type with which we have become all too familiar in Ireland. He refers to (Marxist firebrand) Brendan O’Neill’s editorial in the Spiked-online website that exposes the lunacy of our latest witch-hunt. A few quotes from O’Neill’s article should be taken to heart before our journalists manage to consign their latest idiocy to the memory hole:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">‘<i>Bodies of 800 babies, long-dead, found in septic tank at former Irish home for unwed mothers</i>’, declared the <b>Washington Post.</b> ‘<i>800 skeletons of babies found inside tank at former Irish home for unwed mothers</i>’, said the<b> New York Daily News</b>. ‘<i>Galway historian finds 800 babies in septic tank grave’</i>, said the <b>Boston Globe</b>. ‘<i>The bodies of 800 babies were found in the septic tank of a former home for unwed mothers in Ireland</i>’, cried <b>Buzzfeed</b>. Commentators angrily demanded answers from the Catholic Church. ‘<i>Tell us the truth about the children dumped in Galway’s mass graves</i>’, said a writer for <b>the Guardian</b>, telling no-doubt outraged readers that <i>‘the bodies of 796 children… have been found in a disused sewage tank in Tuam, County Galway’</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The subtitle to O’Neill’s article is “<i>The obsession with Ireland’s dark past has officially become unhinged</i>”. Anybody who thinks he is exaggerating should read the article he refers to here</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“<i>A hysterical piece in the Irish Independent compared the Tuam home to the Nazi Holocaust, Rwanda and Srebrenica, saying that in all these settings people were killed ‘because they were scum’</i>.”<a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/tuam-babies-cry-not-for-justice-but-for-vengeance-30337370.html">T</a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/tuam-babies-cry-not-for-justice-but-for-vengeance-30337370.html">uam Babies Cry Not for Justice but for Vengeance</a>" by Emer O'Kelly</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Now that this has been transformed into a general investigation of all Mother and Baby homes, the people responsible for the atrocity stories about the Bon Secour nuns in Tuam should not be allowed to fade into the background. They should be questioned about their allegations!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Paddy Ferry</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 15th, 2014 at 1:55 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Padraig, I do admire your taking on this horrible story and with your usual attention to detail and the relevant statistics. The silence on our ACP site was truly deafening all week. While I accept that we do not know, as yet, the full story, this could yet be the greatest scandal of them all. Just when you think — hope –that the worst must surely be past us now and things cannot possibly get any worse, they actually could get much, much worse. Even if the story remains confined to Tuam and does not eventually include Cork, Tipperary and God knows where else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I cannot accept any attempt at justification or rationalization that is based on the premise that this kind of thing happened in other counties too — in fact probably was much worse in other countries. Nor does the argument that society as a whole must accept the blame. To a large extent our society was unthinking and uneducated until Donagh O’Malley’s famous stroke of his ministerial pen. Our morals and attitudes were completely moulded by the institutional church and the blame must rest squarely with that institution.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">One thing that baffles and bothers me; how come those who were among the “educated” in our country , clergy and religious, seem to have been untouched — to a large extent — by the wonderful good news of the Gospel message of Christ?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I read all the articles in last Sunday’s Sunday Independent on the this awful topic. I had to ask myself; how can we, as a church, ever hope to regain respect among the masses?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Sean O'Conaill</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 15th, 2014 at 1:57 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This concluding paragraph from Brendan O’Neill’s article in Spiked is worth quoting:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“<i>Was the Ireland of yesteryear a sometimes harsh and unpleasant place? Yes. Did the Catholic Church mistreat some of the women and children in its care? Undoubtedly. But the unhealthy obsession over the past 10 years with raking over Ireland’s past has little to do with confirming such facts and instead has become a kind of grotesque moral sport, providing kicks to the anti-Catholic brigade and fuel to the historical self-flagellation that now passes for public life in Ireland. There’s a terrible irony here: in desperately searching for demons that they can hate, in obsessing over evil and its capacity to destroy lives, in frequently substituting speculation for evidence, these history-combing Catholic-bashers employ the very same irrational tactics of demonology and mythmaking once beloved of Ireland’s old Catholic establishment.</i>”</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">History often seems to be process in which one set of brokers of honour and shame is replaced by another. The Irish ‘<i>Catholic establishment</i>’ of the 20th century (never exclusively clerical) has been displaced by a generally secularist and anti-Catholic establishment of the 21st, while the shamed pregnant single woman of the mother-and-baby homes is now replaced by the shamed cleric so often pilloried by the media establishment..........</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Rory Connor</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 17th, 2014 at 7:21 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Paddy</i>, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">You read all the articles in the Sunday Independent (8 June) about this topic and you wonder how the Catholic Church can regain people’s respect. Does this mean you fully accept the truth of the article which Brendan O’Neill summarised as follows:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“<i>A hysterical piece in the Irish Independent compared the Tuam home to the Nazi Holocaust, Rwanda and Srebrenica, saying that in all these settings people were killed ‘because they were scum</i>’.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I take it you noticed that the Independent journalist specifically REJECTED the term “<i>mass grave</i>”, itself bad enough, and preferred to describe it as a “<i>septic tank</i>” and later as a “<i>cess pit</i>”? Did you also notice that in a separate article in the same newspaper the journalist wrote about the “<i>800 bodies of children SAID to be found BY a septic tank run from 1925 to 1961 by the Good Shepherd Sisters</i>”. [My emphasis and note that she also gets the name of the congregation wrong.]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/the-tuam-babies-case-an-inhumanity-born-of-despair-30337466.html">The Tuam Babies case: An Inhumanity Born of Despair</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The second article was presumably written shortly after the first to reflect the fact that the atrocity story was falling apart with great speed. In the Irish Times on the previous day, local historian Catherine Corless said she never used the word “<i>dumped</i>” and never told anyone that 800 bodies were dumped in a septic tank. According to an article in the Sunday Times (Irish edition) by Justine McCarthy on 8 June “<i>The location of the grave in Tuam has been widely reported as the site of a septic tank, but contemporaneous maps show it to have been a water tank</i>”. In fact the whole issue of a “<i>tank</i>” – water or sewage – would appear to be irrelevant. It is clear from the Irish Times report that in 1975 two local boys lifted up a concrete slab and found bones underneath. “<i>In his kitchen, Sweeney demonstrates the the size of the concrete flag as he recalls it; it’s an area little bigger than his coffee table, about 120cm long and 60cm wide</i>.” And later in the article: Would [the tank] have taken up the entire space of what is now known as the unofficial graveyard for the babies who died at the home? “<i>No</i>” [Catherine Corless] says. “<i>Maybe a third of the area.</i>”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/tuam-mother-and-baby-home-the-trouble-with-the-septic-tank-story-1.1823393</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The claim that Bon Secour nuns dumped the bodies of children in a septic tank is what caused this story to go viral world-wide and caused the Government to order an inquiry. What MAY have happened is that bodies were buried in the general area of what once was a water tank. But these bodies may well have been Famine victims from the previous century – which is what the Gardai appear to believe! (More on this later). It is grotesque for people to use this non-scandal as a means of expressing their hatred of the Catholic Church. It is also an insult to the dead – whether Famine victims OR children from the home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Rory Connor</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 17th, 2014 at 9:40 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I wrote above: “What MAY have happened is that bodies were buried in the general area of what once was a water tank.” I just came across the following from a Daily Mail article on 2 June</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2645870/Mass-grave-contains-bodies-800-babies-site-Irish-home-unmarried-mothers.html</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“<i>The babies were usually buried in a plain shroud without a coffin in a plot that had housed a WATER TANK attached to the workhouse that preceded the mother and child home</i>. [My Emphasis]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This ties in with the Sunday Times article on 8 June but the TITLE of the Daily Mail article is still “<i>Mass Septic Tank Grave ‘containing the Skeletons of 800 Babies’ at site of Irish Home for Unmarried Mothers</i>“. Our journalists appear to be amending their atrocity stories on the hoof!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Of course I appreciate that local historian Catherine Corless is upset by the way she was misquoted by a hysterical mass media. However the article in the Irish Times on Saturday 7 June also had this curious paragraph:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>When Corless was researching the home she looked at old maps of Tuam. One was an 1840 Ordnance Survey map that shows the then workhouse. At the rear of the site is a space she believes to be the sewage tank for the workhouse, although it is not labelled as such. Later maps have “sewage tank” written in the same space. But there is confusion about what dates these maps relate to. One map Corless shows The Irish Times is dated 1892. It describes the building on the site as “Children’s Home”, but in 1892 the building was a workhouse. It did not become a home until 1925. Corless had not noticed this until her attention was drawn to it</i>.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It is extra-ordinary that she did not notice this discrepancy. The 1892 map is presumably that shown in Philip Boucher-Hayes blog here</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">http://philipboucher-hayes.com/2014/06/04/tuam-babies-the-evidence/#comments</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">and HE doesn’t comment on the discrepancy either! He does quote a reply the Gardai sent him:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Hello Philip.</i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The grounds in Tuam were being surveyed in 2012 and bones were found, they are historical burials going back to Famine times, there is no suggestion of any impropriety and there is no Garda investigation. Also there is no confirmation from any source that there are between 750 and 800 bodies present.</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Boucher-Hayes goes on to state that <i>The location of that site [of the Famine era bones] is about 100 yards away from the septic tank burial site. So the Gardaí are misinformed on this or have decided to find a reason not to investigate any closer</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">[My Emphasis: Perhaps the Gardai are afraid of a belt of the crozier?]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">In his latest post dated 12 June he does concede that at least one of the two plots possibly used by the Bon Secours nuns was not a septic tank as previously thought and also <i>"But the most significant aspect to this information is this – whatever cruelties you could lay at the nuns feet, however harsh or medically incompetent the regime they ran was, it was always hard to believe that they would have knowingly put babies in a septic tank</i>."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">http://philipboucher-hayes.com/2014/06/</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Well now THAT is a great relief. The trouble is that the Government inquiry is set to include all Mother and Baby homes, plus issues about Adoption, Vaccinations etc. So are the people who published atrocity stories about the nuns dumping babies in septic tanks, going to be questioned about their allegations?<span style="color: blue;"> I suspect that the Investigation Report will ignore all the OBVIOUS lies and accept as true any claim that the Bon Secour nuns cannot PROVE are false. Since all the Sisters who worked in the Tuam Home are now safely deceased, my fear is that they will be demonised by the same kind of people who published the “<i>babies in the septic tank</i>” atrocity stories</span>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Paddy Ferry</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 18th, 2014 at 12:22 am</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Rory, I have to say fair play to you, you have mounted a strong and well-researched defence and I sincerely hope you are right and this is just a sensationalist false alarm. I say that even though I feel Fr. Gerard Maloney’s reaction (in the most recent article above) to the “maybe” scandal is a better approach and one that I would empathise with more. However, you obviously feel strongly that the church is being unfairly treated. The article with the reference to “<i>scum</i>” may well have been the piece written by Gene Kerrigan. Now, I cannot check it because even in this high tech, digital age I receive my Sunday Independent on Tuesday and I pass it on to my Tipperary born mother in law on Friday. So, I don’t have it now. However, I have to say I greatly admire Gene Kerrigan. He is an excellent journalist as are many of his colleagues and he has been my first port of call when I get the paper and his analysis of, not just the church, but bankers and politicians as well, over the years has been excellent, in my opinion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I have just had a quick look at Sunday’s paper which came to-day and the piece by Eilis O’Hanlon on victimhood seems very reasonable and mature. And, Rory, you know as well as I do that young women who had a child outside marriage were looked upon as scum at home in Ireland and were frequently denounced as such from the altar. And, with all due respect to you, Rory, I feel we would do better to be exercised more by the terrible attitudes and treatment– definitely unchristian — young, unmarried women and their children received in our native land not so very long ago</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Joe O'Leary</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 18th, 2014 at 4:20 am</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The terrible treatment unmarried mothers received is quite a different thing from how mother-and-baby homes handled the great number of mothers and babies confided to their care by the state and by the families. In the case of the Tuam home it is quite possible that the Bon Secours nuns are guilty of no wrongdoing whatsoever. The dangerous overcrowding of the home was probably not their choice. The death rate was lower than in most such homes (about 20%, as opposed to 90% in some US homes). The babies were given respectful burial in a vault grave (coffins were purchased from a local dealer). Contrary to the Daily Mail (aka the Daily Insult, says Salman Rushdie), the children were properly baptised. Why were the children not buried in the Holy Angels plot in the nearby cemetery? Could it be that that the locals did not want their children’s bones mixed with those of the unwanted?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">As to the treatment of Irish unmarried mothers today, Fintan O’Toole has pointed to our huge abortion rates. As to non-Irish mothers and babies in Ireland, there are other </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">questions to be asked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Des Gilroy</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 18th, 2014 at 2:59 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Thanks to Padraig McCarthy for his balanced piece on the story emerging from the Tuam mother and baby home over the past fortnight. Regrettably, too many commentators have gone overboard on this particular home and it is very hard for the public now to separate fact from exaggeration. A public enquiry has now been promised and the calls for its enlargement to take account of many other institutions makes one wonder whether this will ever get off the ground........</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">What is unhelpful at this moment is the media hysteria with the various commentators coming to their conclusions before the facts are known. We do know that shock horror stories sell newspapers and whip up tv and radio ratings but some of the comments made by people who should be more responsible have been very surprising. It was most disappointing, therefore, to hear one of our national treasures, <b>Brian D’Arcy,</b> referring to Tuam as “<i>an atrocity</i>” , “<i>a serious crime</i>” and finally referring to it “<i>as shockable as something that happened in Germany in the war</i>.” This latter comment has now been misrepresented in this weeks “Northside News” as Brian “ <i>drawing parallels with Nazi Germany</i>”. I am sure Brian never intended to equate the Bon Secours with the Nazis but it just shows how careful high profile leaders should be with their language.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Eddie Finnegan</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 19th, 2014 at 8:30 am</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">As always, thanks to Pádraig McCarthy for attempting to place all this in the context of “not just an Irish problem” (his penultimate paragraph above). Thanks, too, to Des Gilroy@12 for his rational pursuit of “the facts”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Vincent Twomey SVD has an Opinion piece in this morning’s Irish Times which, I’m sure, deserves reproduction on this site: “<i>Catholic Church should set up its own commission of investigation following mother and child home controversy</i>.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">His additional suggestion: “<i>Government commission should be chaired by someone of evident distinction who is not Irish or of Irish extraction</i>.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">[I realise that an appearance by Vincent Twomey on the ACP website may be something of a culture shock for both parties ]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Association of Catholic Priests</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 19th, 2014 at 8:40 am</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Link to Irish Times article by Vincent Twomey SVD</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/catholic-church-should-set-up-its-own-commission-of-investigation-following-mother-and-child-home-controversy-1.1837066?page=3">Catholic Church should set up its own commission of investigation following mother and child home controversy</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Joe O'Leary </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 19th, 2014 at 10:33 am</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Thanks to Vincent Twomey for insisting on historical perspective. Another good article is: http://americamagazine.org/content/all-things/galway-horror-part-ii</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Des Gilroy </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 19th, 2014 at 6:06 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">As is his wont, Sean O’Conaill has penned a very thoughtful and cogently argued piece on the ACI website which is very relevant to this discussion on the Tuam Babies case. I would commend it to all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The link is http://www.acireland.ie/honour-and-shame-and-irelands-culture-war-sean-oconaill/</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Rory Connor</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 21st, 2014 at 10:18 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">There are interesting articles in (the Jesuit) <i>America Magazine</i> and in <i>Forbes Magazine</i> by Kevin Clarke and Eamonn Fingleton respectively regarding this fake scandal. I see that these critical commentators have succeeded in extracting apologies (or “clarifications”) for some of the most disgusting allegations – or at any rate for such allegations that can be readily disproved. This is Kevin Clarke in his Second and Third third articles on the subject:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/galway-horror-part-ii">The Galway Horror Part II</a> [Kevin Clarke, 18 June 2014]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“<i>Babies born inside the institutions were denied baptism and, if they died from the illness and disease rife in such facilities, also denied a Christian burial</i>.”</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>It is a sentence, unattributed to any source, which repeats—either word for word or in a close approximation—in HUNDREDS </i>[My emphasis RC]<i> of articles concerning the now infamous deaths and burials of hundreds of children in Tuam, Galway between 1925 and 1961. This appalling sacramental indifference is referenced in major U.S. and U.K. publications and cited in leading online opinion journals like Salon as more evidence of the cruelty of the Bon Secours sisters who ran the home and the Catholic Church in Ireland in general.</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://americamagazine.org/content/all-things/associated-press-issues-correction-based-america-query">Associated Press Issues Correction Based on America Query</a> [Kevin Clarke, 20 June 2014]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">After our June 18 report on baptismal certificates recorded in Tuam, I queried the Associated Press regarding their stories on the Tuam Mothers and Babies Home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Today AP issued the following correction:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Ireland-Children’s Mass Graves story</b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">DUBLIN (AP) — <i>In stories published June 3 and June 8 about young children buried in unmarked graves after dying at a former Irish orphanage for the children of unwed mothers, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that the children had not received Roman Catholic baptisms; documents show that many children at the orphanage were baptized. The AP also incorrectly reported that Catholic teaching at the time was to deny baptism and Christian burial to the children of unwed mothers; although that may have occurred in practice at times it was not church teaching. In addition, in the June 3 story, the AP quoted a researcher who said she believed that most of the remains of children who died there were interred in a disused septic tank; the researcher has since clarified that without excavation and forensic analysis it is impossible to know how many sets of remains the tank contains, if any. The June 3 story also contained an incorrect reference to the year that the orphanage opened; it was 1925, not 1926.</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It is interesting that Forbes the famous business magazine, which has NO connection with the Church, has published two highly skeptical articles about this witch-hunt. The second one by Eamonn Fingleton is here:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2014/06/15/796-babies-in-a-septic-tank-does-a-hidden-anti-catholic-agenda-explain-a-global-hoax/">796 Babies In A Septic Tank": Does An Anti-Catholic Bias Help Explain This Hoax?</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I recall that several years ago, Forbes published a long and highly sarcastic article about people making child abuse compensation claims based on decades old “<i>memories</i>” which they had suddenly “<i>recovered</i>”. In that case, I believe that Forbes were worried about the implications for the American Insurance industry but that issue hardly arises here! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">However it may be worth recalling that journalists on the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> were instrumental in discrediting the Satanic Ritual Abuse craze in the 1990s. Evidently, BUSINESS journalists are less likely to believe in witches and witch-hunts!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Pádraig McCarthy</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 23rd, 2014 at 9:36 am</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">An interesting snippet from the Enda Kenny interview with Gay Byrne (22 June), “<i>The Meaning of Life</i>”. The Taoiseach’s mother gave birth to triplets who died: two died before she returned home, and one a few days later. These were buried (in two different locations), and it appears that they were laid to rest in unmarked graves. This was just how this was normally dealt with at the time. It was not a matter of poverty or neglect. The father of the children was a prominent GAA player, and the mother had worked for Fianna Fáil and RTÉ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Memorials were erected just a few years before the death of the Taoiseach’s mother in 2011.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Rory Connor</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 28th, 2014 at 12:14 am</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">As this particular discussion seems to be coming to an end, maybe it’s time to put it into perspective. The following is based on comments I made to an article in The New Republic by Jason Walsh:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118316/800-irish-babies-buried-septic-tank-was-partly-bogus-story">That Story About Irish Babies Buried in a Septic Tank Was Shocking. It Also Wasn't Entirely True.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">(Incidentally it’s remarkable how SOME secular and Marxist style publications have denounced the atrocity stories while our senior clerics grovel before the accusers)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This fake atrocity story is the latest in a series of grotesque claims that began in 1997 with a claim that a Sister of Mercy had murdered a baby girl by burning holes in the baby’s legs with a red hot poker. However at least that baby existed and actually died. This claim was followed by a long series of similar blood libels against the Christian Brothers – some of which related to periods when no boy died of ANY cause. Accordingly I coined the phrases “<i>Murder of the Undead</i>” and “<i>Victimless Murders</i>” – try Googling these. …….. the Blood Libels were published/broadcast by our “<i>intellectual</i>” Irish Times, our best-selling Irish Independent, the state broadcasting company RTE and the independent broadcaster TV3.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">…… for those who want to sample Ireland’s history of hysterical allegations against Catholic religious see </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/irish-controversies/allegations-of-child-killing-1996to2005/SunTribune25May06.php">Letter to Sunday Tribune re Child-Killing Allegations</a>” </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">where I attempted to give a summary of the child-killing claims up to 2006.(There have been more since then).</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">At the time I actually forgot the one about the murderous nun with the hot poker but you can find the story here: <a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/accusers/christine-buckley/hotpoker-wasused-11oct97.php">Hot Poker Was Used on Little Marion</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Note the title of the UK Mirror article "</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">HOT POKER WAS USED ON LITTLE MARION.. NO CASH WILL GET HER BACK; I THINK MY BABY WAS MURDERED AT THE ORPHANAGE, SAYS PAYOUT MUM."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">How did I manage to forget this when I was doing my summary article in 2006? Because the torrent of lunatic claims is so huge that it overwhelms you. The “<i>babies bodies in a septic tank</i>” is just the latest in a long and demented series!</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Paddy Ferry</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 29th, 2014 at 5:50 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Rory,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is definitely my last word on this topic — I am not even sure what is the main issue we are discussing now. It may be — sensationalist and inaccurate reporting aimed at damaging the Catholic Church in Ireland. That would not be my take on this, Rory. It would be hard to make some of these stories more sensational than they already are. However, my main reason for responding to you is because I am puzzled as to why you gave us the link to the piece in the Mirror concerning the treatment of Christine Buckley and the child, Marion Howe in Goldenbridge. You are surely not calling into question the harrowing accounts that Christine gave of the treatment she and others were subjected to. I did not see the original interview when Christine Buckley appeared on the “<i>Late Late</i>” nor did I see the subsequent documentary. However, when she passed away earlier this year, I read quite a bit about Christine who was obviously an incredible woman who had the courage to speak out not just for herself but for all the others who experienced similar brutality in Goldenbridge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">However, when I read or hear the word “Goldenbridge”I do not think immediately of Christine but of the little child, Marion, who, sadly, did not live to tell her story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Rory, I would not trust British tabloidism either but I would trust –yes indeed — the Sunday Independent, and it was in the Sunday Inde that I first read about Marion Howe. It is some years since I first read the story and my memory of some of the details may be a bit hazy. At the time it made a major impact on me. As I remember it, Marion’s Dad had gone to England to look for work and a short time later her Mum became ill. There were four children at that stage and they were all taken into care,– Marion to Goldenbridge. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Sometime later she died. Her father came home and saw Marion in the mortuary and saw evidence of injury/wounding to the child’s leg. He subsequently made a request to see the death certificate which had mysteriously disappeared. He then went to the Gaurds and the Guard he spoke to told him he would be as well forgetting all about it. As far as I can remember, the family took no further action at that time.If anyone feels that any of this is not accurate then I stand to be corrected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Rory, I have to say to you that defending the indefensible does not do our Church any favours nor does it bring any credit on ourselves. I am as concerned as anybody about the damage that has been inflicted — self-inflicted – on our Church and I am equally concerned about our prospects of regaining some respect and credibility. However, I would respectfully suggest that we would be better employed focusing on the ill-treatment and brutality inflicted on the weakest and poorest in our country by those who should have been influenced more by the Gospel of justice and love rather than continually fussing about the reporting of the atrocities, sensationalist or otherwise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Rory Connor</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 30th, 2014 at 12:06 am</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Paddy,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">One major reason I mentioned the 1997 “<i>Hot Poker Was Used On Little Marion</i>” atrocity story is that it bears some resemblance to the stories being published and broadcast about the Bon Secour nuns in Tuam e.g. claims that they allowed children to starve to death, buried the bodies in a septic tank and that the Church refused to baptise the children of unmarried mothers. For example today’s Sunday World has a story subtitled “<i>Councillor Seeking Justice For ‘Murder’ of Babies</i>” about People Before Profit councillor Deirdre Wadding. The following is an extract:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Deirdre said that what was happening to single mothers in Ireland even in the 1980s was a form of “torture”. “In later years, there was brutality, what you would call torture,” she said, describing the babies bodies found in the septic tank in Tuam as “nothing short of murder”. “Children seem to have been allowed to die. No doubt the cracks will uncover as time goes on and we can be sure if it happened in Tuam it happened elsewhere. We have to seek justice. Somebody has to be responsible for this. ……If that means individuals being brought to court, jail sentences, whatever it means, we cannot hold back</i>”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Another woman describes a “<i>sinister scene</i>” in the Good Shepherd convent in New Ross in 1964.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>I saw a baby in a nun’s arms and blood dripping along the floor. I saw another nun standing with a shovel in her hand. I was a 12 year old. I knew they were going out to do something, or dig a hole for that child but nobody would listen to me</i>.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is very much in line with the “<i>Hot Poker was Used on Little Marion Story</i>”. I don’t know the Sunday Independent article you refer to, but the allegation was dealt with in an article in the Sunday Times (Irish Edition) on 28 April 1996 – article entitled</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“<a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/accusers/christine-buckley/CBuckleyandChildKilling.php">Medical View ‘Inconsistent’ with Goldenbridge Abuse</a>”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">……. One of the more chilling allegations to surface was that an 11-month-old baby died four days after she was put into Goldenbridge. When the infant’s father, Myles Howe. returned from England and went to St Ultan’s hospital, he was told by a nurse that his baby had burns on her knees but the staff had got her too late to save her. The postmortem said the child died of dysentery.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Howes have never been satisfied by the official response.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">[Doctor] Prendiville <b>[1]</b> recalls that St Ultan’s was established largely for dealing with bowel complaints such as dysentery or gastroenteritis, a common illness among children which at that time could reach epidemic proportions in Dublin. He speculated that Marian Howe was more than likely admitted to St Ultan’s with a bowel complaint. “<i>I wouldn’t say that burns of that size on a child’s legs would have been the cause of death. <b>They didn’t treat burns in St Ultan’s</b>. If the baby died from a burn, there would have to be an inquest. But failure to communicate information is a defect in many hospitals</i>,” he said.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">But if the burns were not the cause of Marian’s death, asks Howe, why was he told by Xavieria that it was an “accident” and not dysentery that killed his child? Why, on his arrival at St Ultan’s to see his dead child, did a nurse indicate to him that his daughter had died of burns? And why could nobody explain to him the large burn marks on the sides of her knees?</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The outrage that followed the Prime Time programme was directed as much at Xavieria’s denials of abuse as at an apparently “<i>soft</i>” line of questioning. The allegation that a baby in her charge died of burns was not put to her on the programme. <b><i>The reason was that after researching the allegation, the Prime Time team could find no evidence to support it</i></b>. according to an RTE source. The reporter did ask Xavieria about the incident, he said, but her response was edited out of the programme. [Emphasis is mine RC]</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>[1]</b> Doctor J. B. Prendiville was a senior surgeon who worked at the hospital where children from Goldenbridge were treated during the 1950s.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It wasn’t only Prime Time that failed to find any evidence to support the allegation – neither did the Gardai. This is despite the fact that the original “<i>Dear Daughter</i>” documentary contained allegations that could easily be checked even decades later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/accusers/christine-buckley/index.php">Christine Buckley</a> [on my website IrishSalem.com ]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">In the words of Irish Times journalist Eddie Holt (writing on 24 February 1996) “<i>Christine Buckley was once beaten so badly by the unidentified Sister Sadist of the Shining Stick that she had to get about 100 stitches in her leg. On another occasion, perhaps too tired from walking up a flight of stairs, Stick just poured a kettle of boiling water over 10 year old Christine’s right thigh</i>”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Perhaps the Gardai did not investigate because they were afraid of a belt of the crozier? The child-killing and related allegations were also omitted from the Ryan Report published in 2009. Was Judge Ryan also afraid of the Bishops?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It is very important that the forthcoming investigation into the Mother and Baby Homes DOES produce a Report that deals with the allegations that have been made, especially the ones that can actually be proved/disproved even decades later e.g. child-killing and burials in a septic tank.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Joe O'Leary</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 30th, 2014 at 6:33 am</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Paddy Ferry, in the Tuam Babies scandal what “atrocities” were committed? The state authorities seem to have been well aware of mortality rates in these homes (more than matched in other countries) and vault burial of children must also have been known.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Joe O'Leary </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June 30th, 2014 at 7:07 am</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">In the case of the baby Marion Howe it is not clear that an “<i>atrocity</i>” occurred either:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“In a statement read to the court yesterday, the Sisters of Mercy said: “<i>We, the Sisters of Mercy, accept that Marion had a burn to her leg at the time of her death and died of acute dysentery infection. We have been unable to establish how this burn occurred</i>.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“The statement continued: “<i>We, the Sisters of Mercy, wish to express our deep sorrow to Myles and Christina Howe for the anguish and distress they experienced on and since the death of their baby daughter, Marion, while in our care in May 1955</i>.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“”<i>We also wish to express our sorrow and regret if there was any lack of courtesy and compassion at that time</i>,” it added.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Statement by the Sisters of Mercy referred to above by Fr Joe O'Leary was made in October 1997 - as per Irish Times article "<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/goldenbridge-nuns-to-pay-20-000-1.114180">Goldenbridge Nuns to Pay £20,000</a>" I understand that the Sisters subsequently discovered a record showing that when baby Marion Howe was in her crib, a child thought that she looked cold and put in a hot water bottle that was too hot and caused a small burn. This would tie in with the statement by Dr Prendiville that I quoted in my last Comment above</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>I wouldn’t say that burns of that size on a child’s legs would have been the cause of death. They didn’t treat burns in St Ultan’s</i>."</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As per the Irish Times article:</span></span></div>
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<i><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Marion was visited by the orphanage doctor, Dr Dillon, who examined her and referred her to St Ultan's Hospital, the statement said. The child died on May 21st, 1955, and a post-mortem was held two days later. The coroner for the city of Dublin certified that Marion had died of acute dysentery infection.</span></span></i></div>
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Kilbarry1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16315245582069674422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524702757941791247.post-75972791135081004222020-08-19T14:15:00.001+01:002020-08-19T14:15:13.487+01:00‘Many People Were Damaged By Carl Beech’<br />
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<span style="color: #1d1d1b; font-size: 34pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">‘Many people were damaged by Carl Beech’</span><span style="font-family: TimesModern-Bold, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "TimesModern-Regular","serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Carl Beech ruined lives with fake
accusations of sex abuse. Why? Vanessa Engle, the director of a new film about
him, explains<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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August 17 2020, 12.01am, The Times</span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Vanessa Engle, director of The Unbelievable Story of Carl Beech</h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vanessa Engle has built a reputation
on asking straight questions about knotty subjects. Engle’s television
documentaries on the art world, Jews, lefties, Harley Street and domestic
violence have been marked out by humanity, curiosity and her disarming, direct
interviewing style. The British journalist’s new film, though, is perhaps the
most disturbing of her 30-year career. </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Unbelievable Story of Carl
Beech </i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is one of those rare titles that’s not an exaggeration.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2012 Beech, a hospital inspector
in his forties from Gloucester, claimed to police that he had been abused,
raped and tortured as a boy in the late Seventies and early Eighties by a
paedophile ring that included the politicians Edward Heath, Leon Brittan and
Harvey Proctor and the senior army officer Lord Bramall. Beech, referred
to by the police as “Nick” to protect his identity, also said that he witnessed
members of that ring murder three boys and that he had been abused by his
stepfather. “I had poppies pinned to my chest whilst they did whatever they
wanted to do,” he says of the “VIP ring” in a police interview. That would
normally begin with him being forced to perform oral sex, he adds, “but would
always culminate in being raped”.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Proctor said in an incendiary press
conference at the time, Beech’s claims amounted to “just about the worst
allegations anyone can make against another person”. Yet, after an 18-month
investigation that cost £2.5 million and put huge stress on the accused men —
Proctor lost his job and home — not a single arrest had been made. The
allegations were completely fabricated. Last year Beech, who had been awarded
more than £20,000 in compensation for non-existent injuries suffered in the
alleged abuse, was tried and sentenced to 18 years in prison for offences
including fraud and perverting the course of justice.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3>
Carl Beech (left) in Court 2018</h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And yet his unbelievable story was at
first widely believed in a country that was reeling from Jimmy Savile’s crimes.
Victims of abuse were being listened to like never before. In the police
interviews Beech looks plausibly nervous, vulnerable, damaged. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“We were at a moment where people
would believe literally anything on this subject,” Engle, 57, says by phone from
her home in north London. “The press believed it, politicians believed it,
police believed it, the public believed it. There are still people saying, ‘Oh,
no smoke without fire. It must be true.’ ”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Except in this case it wasn’t. Beech,
it is clear now, is a fantasist on a grand scale. If notes read out in the film
are anything to go by, he is also a dreadful poet. “Electrocution and drowning
were some of the tools/ They used when I broke the rules,” he wrote. “They used
snakes and wasps/ Or left me out there to die in the frost.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Well he obviously didn’t die, did
he, because he’s alive and still in prison, for f***’s sake,” says his ex-wife,
Dawn Beech, in the film. She is a peach of an interviewee — candid, courageous
and funny — which is extraordinary, given her travails. Her sex life with
Beech, she tells Engle, “just wasn’t good at all”. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another interviewee is Mark Conrad, a
journalist who was taken in by Beech. “Some people have probably assumed that
Beech took you for a fool,” Engle says to Conrad. See what I mean about direct?
“I’m a very direct person,” she says. “I did ten years of therapy and that gave
me the tools to be very aware of what’s happening in the room when I ask
questions and what it’s possible to ask. You know you’ve done a good interview
if you know you’ve taken a risk in some of your questions.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nevertheless, she says she was
nervous about making this documentary. “Why would I spend time on somebody who
was not a real victim, as far as we know, and who had inflicted so much damage
to the real victims? Normally, the more you familiarise yourself with stories,
the less strange they become, but with this one Carl’s motivation just seemed
stranger and more despicable to me.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What was that motivation? Engle
thinks there may have been a past trauma. “You just have to look at him. He
does not look comfortable in his own skin, does he?” When police searched
Beech’s home they found substantial amounts of child pornography, the
possession of which contributed to his prison sentence. While there is no
evidence that Beech was abused, Mike Pierce — an anti-abuse charity worker and
survivor of child sexual abuse who appears in the film — met him and felt that
he had been. “So, I can’t categorically say that he wasn’t,” Engle says. “I
don’t know how bad a thing has to happen to someone to send them off the
rails.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The film ended up becoming an
examination of the damage that Beech has done. “There was just wave upon wave,”
she says. “We all understood that the falsely accused were very damaged, but I
hadn’t really realised that Beech’s own family was damaged too. The family of
his step-siblings has been really badly damaged. I hadn’t understood that the
journalists [who covered the case] were damaged.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Conrad talks about the long period of
depression he went through when Beech was found to be a liar. “I know that some
of the police who were fooled have had breakdowns as well,” Engle says.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She coaxes brilliant details out of
people, punctuating the grimness with off-kilter interludes. Brittan’s widow
and housekeeper talk about the police searching the house. “The thing that hurt
the lady more than anything — they took his slippers,” the housekeeper says.
“Were they nice slippers?” Engle asks. “They were pretty awful, to be honest,”
Diana Brittan replies. “No monogram.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is ultimately, Engle says, “a
film about truth. Which, of course, is very relevant in the post-truth era.” In
the age of Trump and Johnson, will fantasists like Beech become more common?
“That’s a terrifying thought,” she says. There have always been fantasists, she
points out. Her previous film,</span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The $50m Art Swindle</i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, was about
Michel Cohen, a Frenchman who made a fortune by selling Picassos and Monets
that he didn’t own. “He was a conman and a very deluded person too. We all have
a tiny strain of deluded thinking. That’s not always a bad thing. It’s what
makes people have dreams and grand ambitions.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s hard to put a positive spin on
Beech’s case, though. What’s most heartbreaking is how much damage it has done
to the cause of genuine abuse victims. “We just were at a moment where the
victims of historic child sexual abuse were coming forward and were being
believed,” she says. “What kind of a person would want to get in the way of
that?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Engle asked Beech for an interview,
but he refused. “We’d have loved to ask him why he did it. But when you see his
extraordinary performance in those police videos, I don’t think you could whip
off the mask and the real Carl Beech would step forward.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Does she think he feels any remorse?
“From everything I know and from everything I’ve heard from those closest to
him, no, he doesn’t,” Engle says. “He’s never said, ‘I made it up.’ He really
does seem to believe what he’s saying.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<b><i>The Unbelievable Story of Carl Beech</i> is on BBC Two on August 24
at 9pm</b></span><span style="font-family: TimesDigitalW04-Regular, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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