EU Commissioner Phil Hogan Forced to Resign re "Golfgate", as Supreme Court Judge Seamus Woulfe Refuses

 

Justice Seamus Woulfe (right) pictured with Phil Hogan, who resigned from his role as EU Commissioner for Trade after Golfgate

We have  a corrupt media and political establishment that goes into hysterics over  a minor issue like Golfgate . Meanwhile people who have done great wrong have been promoted to high office and then demoted for ludicrous reasons - as Phil Hogan became Minister and then EU Commissioner after libelling Nora Wall 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! 

Phil Hogan was Chair of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party in April 2002 when he used Parliamentary Privilege to libel former nun Nora Wall and an unnamed 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 "is the golden thread weaving through a number of centres where children were in some cases tortured and forced to have sex with animals" said Phil. Our anti-clerical media reported what he had said -  see section (B) below - but there was no follow-up i.e. they knew he was talking nonsense! 

In 2009 - following  publication of the Ryan Report that denounced the Religious Orders - Fine Gael Justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan again used Parliamentary Privilege to repeat Hogan's libels against Nora Wall and the still-unnamed Dept. of Education official and added one against the Cistercian monks of Mount Melleray (but for some reason, did not include the bit about nuns forcing children to have sex with animals). Again the media just reported the allegations but without demanding that such grotesque claims be investigated - see section (C). I understand that media reports of Parliamentary proceedings are also 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. 

Charlie Flanagan was lucky not to be forced to resign as Minister for Justice  during the Maurice McCabe scandal. 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! Phil Hogan was not so lucky but both of them had sowed the wind that created the whirlwind!

(A) "Golfgate", Covid and Public Hysteria 

On 13 December 2020 there was a story in Sunday Independent by Eilis O'Hanlon 'Covidiots' Are Being Eaten by a Monster They Created . 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: . 

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 Phil Hogan.

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 hysteria regarding "Golfgate", 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 Pat Rabbitte brought down the Fianna Fail government with his bogus claims concerning Fr Brendan Smyth. 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! 

Eilis O'Hanlon continues 

A culture of public shaming has been forged in which wrongdoers are put in the stocks for the righteous to pelt with rotten fruit  and she concludes: 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.

BUT this "culture of public shaming" commenced long before the Covid crisis and Phil Hogan himself did a great deal to create it!

(B) 2002: Phil Hogan Libels Nora Wall and Senior Dept of Education Official

In April 2002 he used Dail (Parliamentary) Privilege to libel Nora Wall and a senior official in Department of Education.

This is the text of the Irish Times article dated 25 April 2002 entitled

"TD Cites Retired Official in Child Sex Abuse Allegations"

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.

Fine Gael chairman Mr Phil Hogan gave details last night about the official, who retired some years ago and who "has been implicated by a victim in a rent-a-boy sex ring with convicted killer Malcolm McArthur". He referred to "astonishing revelations of a perceived and systematic cover-up of rape, gross indecency and abuse of children from 1978 to 1990". 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".

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. "This man has never come to the attention of gardaí," he said, but "his name keeps coming up with journalists speaking to health board officials". Mr Hogan asked, "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?

The [Fianna Fail] Minister for Education, Dr Woods, said: "I care very much, the secretary-general of my Department cares". He added that they would give any information they could, and would co-operate fully. He said, however, that his Department had no information on any cases which compared to newspaper reports.

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.

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.

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 "gave one of the worst offenders a clean bill of health".

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.

The official was guilty of "gross incompetency at the very least and at very worst there was something very dark and dirty behind him hidden from public view", Mr Hogan added.

(C) 2009: Charlie Flanagan Libels Nora Wall, Cistercian Monks AND Dept of Education Official

This is the text of the Irish Times article by Marie O'Halloran dated 9 July 2009 entitled "Fine Gael Deputy seeks New Investigation into Former Nun"

  

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.

Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan said she “exposed the children in her care to unacceptable risks by allowing male outsiders to stay overnight at the Cappoquin care home centre in Waterford”. He said: “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. 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.”

Mr Flanagan 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.

[Fianna Fail] Minister of State [for Children] Barry Andrews 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. 

The Fine Gael spokesman also said “there are issues in relation to the charging and release of Nora Wall that need to be revisited by way of investigation. And it is a matter of some concern that reports about interference with witnesses and attempts to buy their silence have been made,” he added. “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.”

Deputy Flanagan also called for the Education Finance Board, which has a budget of €12.7 million, to appear before the Public Accounts Committee. “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.”

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 “alarming”, “disastrous” “inappropriate and dangerous”.

He said: “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.”

Mr Flanagan referred to 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 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,” Mr Flanagan said.

The Irish Times doesn't mention it, but Charlie Flanagan was referring explicitly to Phil Hogan's previous allegations. According to the Dail Eireann Debates record for 8 July 2009:  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.

Did Charlie Flanagan seriously believe that the Gardai had ignored this claim for the previous 7 years? WHY didn't he repeat Hogan's 2002 allegation that "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" ?

(D) Libelling the Laity (and non-Catholics) to Get the Church!

Matt Russell (and Harry Whelehan and Albert Reynolds)

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 "Sex Scandals Rock the Catholic Church - and the Role of Pat Rabbitte" 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 "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."  However senior civil servant Matt Russell was probably NOT a "practising Catholic" 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: "The Dismissal of Matt Russell")

Pablo McCabe

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 woman 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. Their vile antics were a street level version of the behaviour of Rabbitte, Hogan and Flanagan.

The only detailed account of the tragedy of Pablo McCabe is in an article by Breda O'Brien in the Jesuit Review Studies in Winter 2006: "Miscarriage of Justice: Paul McCabe and Nora Wall" 

She begins with a quote from Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman"

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.

Kevin Myers
Although the Irish Times account of Charlie Flanagan's attack on Nora Wall in 2009 doesn't mention it, Deputy Flanagan also criticised journalist Kevin Myers - because he had defended her. See my article Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, George Hook and Nora Wall [1]
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."

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 and by State Broadcaster RTE. It was a series of events unprecedented in the history of this State and probably of any democracy! I write about it here:
Kevin Myers and the Age of de Valera and McQuaid

There was no direct 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!

Ruairi Quinn libels Dept of Education Civil Servants
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 "We've come for a head. Yours or Harry's [Whelehan], and we are not going to get Harry's." He boasted about his role in his 2005 autobiography "Straight Left" written long after it was clear that neither Reynolds nor Whelehan had done anything wrong. 

In June 2009 Quinn, then Labour Spokesman for Education said in the Dail that "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"

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 "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." 

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 "Not retiring quietly, Ruairi Quinn has harsh words for critics"  

....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. “People feel they can blackguard each other. ..... [my emphasis]

Irony is definitely not the former Education Minister's  strong point. There is no hint that Quinn's own brand of thuggish rhetoric had anything to do with the "unprecedented levels of abuse and venom" in public discourse!

Charlie Flanagan vs Civil Servants in Department of Justice
I wrote about this issue in a number of previous articles including "Justice Ministers Kevin O'Higgins to Charlie Flanagan: from Decency to Decadence". 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. 

Secretary General Brian Purcell stood aside in July 2014 after then Justice minister Frances Fitzgerald published the Toland Report on the Department, which identified a "closed, secretive and silo-driven culture" supposedly prevalent there. He was the third senior Justice figure forced to resign - after Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan.

Noel Waters 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 "subjected to a barrage of unwarranted criticism". 

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 The job nobody wants: secretary-general of the Department of Justice 

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. “We couldn’t get anyone to apply for it,” said one figure involved in the process.

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:

As he departed, he strongly defended the department - which he said had been “subject to a barrage of unwarranted criticism” - in an email to colleagues. “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,” he wrote. “Many of the claims about how the Department has acted that have been made in the media and in the Dáil are not true. The Department makes an important contribution to Irish society, a contribution that more often than not goes unseen and unnoticed,” he added, urging staff not to “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.”

The authors of the "barrage of unwarranted criticism" and the "untruthful claims" included Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan. Leo Varadkar said the events of recent days “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”. 

Charlie Flanagan: “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.” The minister poured blame on officials at the Department of Justice, saying it has been “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

In contrast Leo Varadkar defended Frances Fitzgerald who had been forced to resign as Tanaiste in the course of the same fake scandal. A good woman is leaving office without a full or fair hearing' - Varadkar addresses Dáil following Fitzgerald's resignation as Tanáiste (Both Leo and Frances had joined in libelling Kevin Myers earlier in 2017!) 

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. 

(E) Supreme Court Justice Seamus Woulfe Refuses to Resign in "Golfgate"

On 26 August 2020 the BBC did quite a good summary report of Golfgate as it then stood: What is GolfGate and why is it causing Ireland problems?

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. 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. A week later, 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. ... 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.

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. 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. 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 part of the portfolio once held by Valdis Dombrovskis - the man who was promoted to take over from Phil Hogan! 

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!  The Supreme Court requested its former Chief Justice, Susan Denham, to report on Woulfe's attendance at the dinner.  Denham's report was published on 1 October 2020. 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 "unjust and disproportionate" - a perfectly sensible observation amidst the hysteria! Ms Justice Denham said she was “of the opinion that it would be open to the Chief Justice [Frank Clarke] to deal with this matter by way of informal resolution.” The Supreme Court initially accepted Denham's Report but media and political hysteria continued and Woulfe criticised same in a private meeting with colleagues. 

Frank Clarke met with Woulfe as part of the  "informal resolution" 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 "significant and irreparable" damage to the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice said that in his "personal opinion" Woulfe should resign. He referred to developments since the report was published  doubting Woulfe's understanding of "genuine public concern" 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

Justice Seamus Woulfe faced down public hysteria generated by the media and endorsed by his own colleagues and refused to resign. Under the Constitution a judge may be removed from office only for "stated misbehaviour or incapacity" 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. 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.

(F) Conclusion Sinn Fein and Antifa

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 Free Speech Vs Anti-Racism Rallies in December 2019, 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? 

One thing is clear. Politicians like Charlie Flanagan and Leo Varadkar (and former ones like Phil Hogan, Alan Shatter (NOTE [1] ) Ruairi Quinn and Pat Rabbitte) 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 "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 for certain - and perhaps our judges - are similarly decadent and equally incapable of standing up to the barbarians at the gates! 

NOTES

[1] See Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews! for former Justice Minister Alan Shatter's contribution to the debate on Separation of Church and State in Ireland!

Irish "Antifa" Attacks Protesters - "Liberal" Irish Media Don't Mind

 

So far I have been at three 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 - Free Speech Vs Anti-Racism Rallies and My Response to Department of Justice The third was a protest outside the Custom House against the Government's Covid restrictions. (As it was a different topic I wondered on Twitter if Antifa would attack but they did!) 

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 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). It seems that political violence is becoming a feature of Irish life, it is getting worse with time, 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!

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. 

Antifa counter-demonstrators (left) attack demonstrators outside Dail Eireann

Brenda Power: Left-Wing Activism Flies Under the Extremism Radar

The Sunday Times October 18 2020 by Brenda Power

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.

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.

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 “far right” and so, as far as the prevailing narrative has it, they are always, always going to be the ones in the wrong.

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 “public safety fears”. 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 “left wing”, then they are always, always going to be the good guys.

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 “a giant among global leaders”. 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.

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.

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 Je Suis Charlie 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 “fascism” — 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.

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.

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.

NPHET’s Death Toll in Doubt, But Debate is Off Limits

On June 16, NPHET [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, HIQA [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.

The explanation was that the reported number of Covid deaths “may have included people who were infected with coronavirus but whose deaths may have been predominantly due to other causes”. NPHET has not revised its figures; the current death toll is predicated on that June figure being correct, despite HIQA saying it was not.

Last week a full-page advertisement addressed “to our leaders” appeared in The Irish Times. Citing “facts from Irish government websites”, it questioned the lockdown model, and linked to the recent Great Barrington declaration by leading epidemiologists which denounced the approach.

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.

We cannot, it seems, even debate this subject.

brenda.power@sunday-times.ie

We Have a Decadent Ruling Class That Won't Stand against Terrorism (or Sinn Fein)

The author of our new proposed Hate Speech Law is former Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan - the guy who used Parliamentary Privilege to libel Sister of Mercy Nora Wall - see my article Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, George Hook and Nora Wall [1] During his Dail speech, Charlie also denounced Kevin Myers - the only journalist who defended Nora when she was convicted of rape - and he did so because 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!

Kevin Myers -  a strong supporter of Israel - was subsequently libelled as an anti-Semite (!) by our Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, his then Deputy Frances Fitzgerald and a former Deputy PM Joan Burton. See my article Kevin Myers and the Age of de Valera and McQuaid. It's pleasant to note that Frances Fitzgerald - who was also a former Minister for Justice - was forced to resign as Deputy PM in an "unrelated"  bogus scandal (but it was 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.

Before  Francis Fitzgerald was Minister for Justice and Equality, the role was held by Alan Shatter. - a man who plays a prominent role in my article Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews 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.

As per Wikipedia "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." 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!

I have an article dated January 2018 The Maurice McCabe Affair - Six Top Level Resignations To Date (and More to Come?)  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 "More to Come" has been fulfilled by the recent forced resignation of Ireland's EU Commissioner for Trade, Phil Hogan - a man who also used Parliamentary Privilege to libel Nora Wall! Phil Hogan was forced out in the preposterous Golfgate Scandal - 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!

The Decadence of Archbishop Diarmuid

Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin had something to say on this topic and naturally he condemned the victims 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 Diarmuid Martin Warns Anti-Mask Protestors are 'Dangerous Influence' on Young People and I quote:

Catholic archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has warned that organisers of ‘anti-mask’ 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.

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. He noted that elsewhere in Europe young people are being influenced by neo-Nazis. 

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. 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. [My emphasis]

Compare this to Brenda Power's  "As they stood peaceably at the gates, they were set upon by a violent group of masked hooligans..... 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." 

But the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin will only condemn those attacked by the gang of sinister thugs!

Sinn Fein and Antifa

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 Free Speech Vs Anti-Racism Rallies last December where 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? 

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! 

[See also article Justice Ministers Kevin O'Higgins to Charlie Flanagan: from Decency to Decadence"    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.]

Free Speech Vs Anti-Racism Rallies and My Response to Department of Justice

Protest against new Hate Speech Law and Counter-Demonstration by Anti-Racism groups

On Saturday 14 December I attended a protest rally against a proposed new "hate speech" law that had been planned weeks ago, to take place outside the Dail on that date. In the meantime a counter-demonstration was organised by unions, "anti-racism" groups and NGOs including Trocaire - the Catholic Church's overseas development agency! The "anti-racism" groups included some protesters dressed in black and masked who chanted slogans like "Nazi scum" at us. (Will this qualify as "hate speech" under the new legislation?). They also launched an attack at one stage that was held back by the Gardai and their own rally stewards.  I presume these are the Irish equivalent of AntiFa who have made such a name for themselves in the USA and elsewhere. (According to the Irish Times, three people were arrested by Gardai following minor scuffles; very one-sided scuffles!)

 I am the white haired guy at the back right in the above photo. On 12th and 13th December I had engaged with the the Department of Justice by sending two Emails in reply to their requests for comments from the public on the proposed new legislation.

Rory Connor

17 December 2019

Hate Speech Public Consultation - Follow Up to 5 Question Survey [2]

13 December 2019

Department of Justice and Equality
51 St Stephens Green
Dublin 2

I sent a submission regarding the above yesterday night. It included a copy of my previous online response to the 5 Question Survey.

 I mentioned that about 2003/04 I made two complaints to the Gardai under the Prevention of Incitement to Hatred Act regarding false allegations of child murder, one published by the Irish Times, the other broadcast by TV3. They are items 1 and 2 in my Blog article
Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews!

I could have made a third complaint to Gardai when Alan Shatter (and the late Gerry Ryan and others) made similar claims against the Church in 2009 but it was obviously futile. I also refer to that case (the murder of Bernadette Connolly) in the above article.

As to my motives - and qualifications - to comment on proposed Hate Speech legislation. I was a De La Salle Brother from 1966 to 1969 and details of my background are in the "About Me" section of my old website IrishSalem.com [see PS at end of letter]

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. Hate Speech from the media plus the almost evidence-free payouts from the Redress Board, encouraged people to lie. The media Hate Speech is especially relevant to the allegations of child murder against the Christian Brothers - at times when no boy died of ANY cause! (I refer to these as "Murder of the Undead" and "Victimless Murders" and I went to the Gardai about two such cases.) Presumably the so-called victim accusers didn't get "compensation" for claiming that someone else was murdered so this type of claim was caused by media Hate Speech and not greed!

I corresponded for years with the late UK cultural historian Richard Webster and two fruits of that collaboration are his essays 
"States of Fear, the Redress Board and Ireland's Folly"

AND "The Christmas Spirit" in Ireland"

I also have an article on my current Blog IrishSalem.Blogspot.com regarding Richard Webster
"Richard Webster, the Idea of Evil and Operation Midland"

Finally I gave evidence to the Ryan Commission on my own behalf and as a member of the group "Let Our Voices Emerge" that represented victims of false allegations. I had a letter in the Irish Examiner on 7 November 2011
"Ryan Report Did Not Deal with False Allegations"
that summarizes our experience.

Regards


Rory Connor
11 Lohunda Grove
Clonsilla
Dublin 15

Hate Speech Public Consultation - Follow Up to 5 Question Survey [1]

12 December 2019

Department of Justice and Equality
51 St Stephens Green
Dublin 2

A few weeks ago I submitted an online reply to the quick "5 Question Survey on Hate Speech". I am including a copy of my original submission below. I added 2 links to the very end which relate directly to Minister Charlie Flanagan - I think I forgot to include them with my original reply.  I will now answer the 5 other questions contained in the Public Consultation Document

Question 1.  Are there other groups in society with shared identity characteristics, for example disability, gender identity, or others, who are vulnerable to having hatred stirred up against them and should be included in the list of protected characteristics?

I think the main problem with the existing situation is that bogus allegations of child rape and murder are not counted as Hate Speech when directed against Catholic clergy or religious. The few prosecutions seem to be for wasting Garda time not hate speech. The main priority should be to enforce the existing law against Incitement to Hatred  rather than add more protected groups. 

Question 2. Do you think the term “hatred” is the correct term to use in the Act? If not what should it be replaced with? Would there be implications for freedom of expression?

Indeed. I got the impression that the two cases I referred to the Gardai (regarding Irish Times and TV3 claiming the Christian Brothers murdered boys) were turned down by the DPP because these false murder claims did NOT prove that the Irish Times and TV3 personnel were motivated by hatred. From that point of view, it might be best to substitute "Hostility" or "Prejudice" for "Hatred". HOWEVER I am very conscious of the danger that vicious and dishonest politicians could misuse such a change in order to target their own ideological enemies. For example when the Sunday Times fired Kevin Myers on a bogus charge of anti-Semitism, this decision was loudly applauded by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and then Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald. I wrote about this in a blog article:
"Kevin Myers and the Age of De Valera and McQuaid"

I think the term "Hatred" is OK as I would not wish to make things easier for dishonest or bigoted politicians!

Question 3. Bearing in mind that the Act is designed only to deal with hate speech which is sufficiently serious to be dealt with as a criminal matter (rather than by other measures), do you think the wording of the Act should be changed to make prosecutions under for incitement to hatred online more effective? What, in your view, should those changes be?

Regarding application of the law to online speech, I think the law already gives enough power to the State and I would be dubious about giving the State more power to silence online speech than it already has. For example would the State have used this power to prevent the obscene online attacks on Kevin Myers OR - more likely - to silence anyone who tried to defend him (e.g. by accusing his defenders of anti-Semitism)??

Questions 4. In your view, does the requirement that an offence must be intended or likely to stir up hatred make the legislation less effective? AND
Question 5.  If so, what changes would you suggest to this element of the 1989 Act (without broadening the scope of the Act beyond incitement)?

I believe it was the issue of proving "intention" to stir up hatred that caused the DPP to refuse to prosecute the Irish Times or TV3 for stirring up hatred against the Christian Brothers when both accused the Brothers of murdering children. From that point of view, I should welcome an extension of the Act to include circumstances where politicians, journalists,  broadcasters etc are reckless as to whether their actions stir up hatred. BUT again I'm dubious of giving too much power to politicians who may use this to silence their own ideological enemies. Maybe it would be sufficient to list certain actions  where the intention to stir up hatred is assumed  e.g false allegations of Rape, Paedophilia or Child Murder directed against a religious (or other) group?

There  is a copy of my previous answers to the "quick" online survey below. I may send additional material tomorrow Friday regarding my background and qualifications to comment on this issue but this is a sufficient response in itself.


Rory Connor
11 Lohunda Grove
Clonsilla
Dublin 15

5 Question Survey - Copy of Answers Previously Submitted

Hate Speech Consultation
Introduction
The Minister for Justice and Equality is reviewing Ireland’s law on criminal hate speech. The existing law, the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, is being revised and updated to ensure it meets the needs of a modern, democratic society......

You can share your views by completing the text boxes below, or by sending a written submission to HateSpeechConsultation@justice.ie before the closing date of 13th December 2019.


1. In your opinion, what groups or communities of people in Ireland are targeted by hate speech?

The Catholic Church especially priests, brothers and nuns. I was a De La Salle Brother myself. I have never disclosed my name in religion, or any place I was (apart from the Castletown novitiate) because I suspect I could attract a false allegation of child abuse.

2. Please describe the kinds of hate speech that you think are (or are not) serious enough to be a criminal offence.

Making false allegations of child rape and child murder. Many of the latter claims relate to periods when no child died of ANY cause, so I coined the phrases "Murder of the Undead" and "Victimless Murders" (try Googling them). 
 I have an online article on this subject "Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews!" 

3. Is it necessary or right to place limits on freedom of expression by making some forms of hate speech a crime? If so, what protections do you think the law on incitement to hatred should offer?

About 2003/04 I made official complaints to Gardai under the Prevention of Incitement to Hatred Act concerning numbers (1) and (2) in my article "Blood Libel in Ireland". I believe Gardai DID take them seriously but Director of Public Prosecutions declined to prosecute. They don't tell you why, but my understanding is that falsely accusing Catholic Religious of murdering children does not PROVE that the accuser is motivated by religious hatred. I think that new legislation should ASSUME that the motive for Blood Libel is religious hatred unless the accuser can prove otherwise!

4. Do you think those who are actively involved in publishing, spreading or distributing hate speech should be subject to criminal prosecution?

Yes. For tactical reasons I only targeted journalists and broadcasters, when I made my two complaints under the existing Prevention of Incitement to Hatred Act. I believe that fake "victims" should be jailed as well - ESPECIALLY those who lead "Victims" organisations which are or were, funded by the Government. (Note that Carl Beech in UK got 18 years in jail. He was not the only accuser in "Operation Midland" but he was the most prominent. He also accused Tory MPs of murdering non-existent boys which is UK equivalent of Irish "Murder of the Undead" claims!) See Wikipedia article on "Operation Midland"


5. Is there anything else important we should take into account as part of this review?

(A) I have a separate online article 
"Eight Falsely Accused Bishops (and Archbishops) in Ireland"

One of the false accusers is Pat Rabbitte who in 1994 used Dail Privilege to slander Cardinal Daly and Harry Whelehan and now leads child protection agency TUSLA. I think this is wrong.

(B) Finally I have an article on current Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan. I think that Minister Flanagan should request the Gardai to investigate the allegations he made in the Dail in 2009 against former Sister of Mercy Nora Wall (and those previously made by current EU Commissioner Phil Hogan who was Chair of FG Parliamentary Party at the time).
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan and Former FG Chair Phil Hogan Vs George Hook and Nora Wall

I may have forgotten to include the above link with my online submission. Please note I have another article on Charlie Flanagan alone.
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, George Hook and Nora Wall [1]

END OF SUBMISSION TO DEPT. OF JUSTICE

CONCLUSION

I also contributed to Hermann Kelly's 2007 book "Kathy's Real Story: A Culture of False Allegations Exposed" which deals mainly with fake abuse "survivor" Kathy O'Beirne but also goes into the culture of hysteria that made her own book "Kathy's Story: A Childhood Hell Inside the Magdalen Laundries" 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 "Murder of the Undead". Since Hermann Kelly is more moderate than I, he uses the subheading "Funerals of the Undead"   in his discussion of this issue! 

NOTE: There is a 2010 article by Mark Smith (currently Professor of Social Work at University of Dundee) "Two book Reviews:  Kathy’s Real Story by Hermann Kelly and The Secret of Bryn Estyn by Richard Webster" 
The above-mentioned article "States of Fear, the Redress Board and Ireland's Folly" is an extract from Webster's book "The Secret of Bryn Estyn"

The Reason Why?
As to the overall meaning of all of this, Arnold J. Tonybee was a British historian and philosopher of history who is best known for his 12 volume work A Study of History (published 1934-1961) that "examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders". Challenges and responses were physical, as when the Sumerians exploited the intractable swamps of southern Iraq by organizing the Neolithic inhabitants into a society capable of carrying out large-scale irrigation projects; or social, as when the Catholic Church resolved the chaos of post-Roman Europe by enrolling the new Germanic kingdoms in a single religious community.

Tonybee saw the growth and decline of civilizations as a spiritual process, writing that "Man achieves civilization, not as a result of superior biological endowment or geographical environment, but as a response to a challenge in a situation of special difficulty which rouses him to make a hitherto unprecedented effort."

According to an Editor's Note in an edition of  A Study of History, Toynbee believed that societies always die from suicide or murder rather than from natural causes, and nearly always from suicide.  And I believe that is the stage our society has now reached!

The Apologies of the Sisters of Mercy - and the Visit of Pope Francis to Ireland

Chief Apologiser Sister Helena O'Donoghue 

I have an article on my old website IrishSalem.com concerning the Irish Sisters of Mercy - and their policy of abasing themselves before people who make false allegations of child abuse. It begins as follows:

Together with the Christian Brothers, the Sisters of Mercy have been THE major target for false accusations since at least 1996. The Sisters policy of apologising to false accusers has had disastrous consequences - and not only for themselves. They appear to believe that a false accuser is a "deeply hurt" person and that an apology will lead to "healing and reconciliation". The outcome of this policy is that no distinction is made between vicious fraudsters and people who may have a genuine grievance. Not surprisingly, their apologies have been met with loathing and ridicule but other religious orders have followed suit and eventually the Bishops themselves, (even though the latter had initially defended themselves strongly to the extent of suing media that slandered them).

I recently posted two comments on an article in America Magazine entitled U.S. Sisters Demand Action on Sexual Abuse Crisis by Michael J. O'Loughlin. The "action" the American Sisters are demanding is that they be protected from sexual abuse and harassment "perpetrated by those in positions of trust in the church community". [my emphasis]. This demand does not seem to refer to harassment from persons making false allegations of child abuse, child rape and child murder. Do American nuns really not face this problem - which is a major issue in Ireland? Or can it be that the group referred to in the article the "Leadership Conference of Women Religious" [LCMR] have no interest in defending their falsely accused colleagues? The latter is certainly the case in Ireland. The Irish counterpart of the the American group is the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland [AMRI] . This Association is led by the Sisters of Mercy who have gone out of their way in attempting to appease people who despise them!

First Comment re Article "US Sisters Demand Action on Sexual Abuse Crisis"

Rory Connor  - 7 August 2018

I sent a message to the American Religious Sisters of Mercy concerning their counterparts in Ireland; the latter took the side of people who made false allegations of child rape and murder against their own colleagues - and failed to withdraw their support from false accusers even when the Court of Criminal Appeal issued a Certificate of Miscarriage of Justice to one former nun! I wrote:

Regarding the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland, can the Irish Sisters take this opportunity to withdraw their apology to the accusers of Nora Wall (formerly Sister Dominic). See Wikipedia article on Nora Wall. Also reprimand our current Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan for repeating in 2009 a libel for which Nora Wall had received damages from the Sunday World in 2002. He did so under Parliamentary Privilege and the Irish Sisters said nothing at the time.

My blog is http://IrishSalem.blogspot.com and the Profile section contains a link to my Background.

Finally the Irish Sisters should withdraw their apology to the Howe family who accused Sister Xavieria Lally of murdering baby Marion Howe with a red hot poker in 1955. The Howe's made that claim in an article in the Daily Mirror on 11 October 1997. Try googling the headline
"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".

Daily Mirror executives rightly believed that the Sisters of Mercy would not object and would prevent Sister Xavieria from defending herself or suing for libel. An article in the far more "respectable" Irish Times on the same date observed: "Why then has the order issued qualified apologies? Why has it paid compensation to the Howes, albeit a relatively meagre sum? Is there not a tacit admission here that what these people say happened did happen? Or are we to believe that the Sisters of Mercy have taken to paying compensation and issuing apologies for things that didn't happen at all?"

In contrast Nora Wall, no longer a Sister of Mercy, successfully sued the Sunday World for libel in 2002, received a Certificate of Miscarriage of Justice from the Court of Criminal Appeal in 2005 and successfully sued the Irish Government and Director of Public Prosecutions in 2016 (after a battle lasting a decade which her former colleagues ignored). Sister Xavieria is now deceased but is owed an apology by her colleagues who betrayed her and allowed her to be vilified precisely because she did NOT leave the Congregation. The visit of Pope Francis, the Pope of compassion should motivate those colleagues to repent and - at the very least - withdraw their apologies to those who slandered Nora Wall and Sister Xavieria.

No reply from either the Irish Sisters of Mercy - or their American counterparts. I presume the latter are part of the group who are now criticising the Bishops for failing to protect nuns!!

Second Comment re Article "US Sisters Demand Action on Sexual Abuse Crisis"

Elaine Boyle - 8 August 2018
Laicize, excommunicate, prosecute

Rory Connor - 10 August 2018
WHO exactly do you mean? My information about the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Ireland is that there was a conflict between Liberals and Conservatives in the Congregation about how to deal with a avalanche of allegations, some of which were impossible to disprove 40 or 50 years later but others were either proven to be false (rape allegations against Nora Wall and Pablo McCabe) or OBVIOUSLY ludicrous from the beginning (murder allegation against the late Sister Xavieria Lally).

The Conservatives wanted the Congregation leaders to defend the innocent and to condemn false accusers. The "Liberals" - who predominated in the leadership - took the view that even women who told obvious lies about the nuns must have been deeply hurt by the Church in order to say such things; therefore the proper response to their pain was to apologise to them and to pay "compensation", for which no proof of wrongdoing would be required. By a truly incredible co-incidence, the younger liberal leaders who took this decision were not themselves the target of the obscene allegations - it was the older nuns who objected to this approach and it was THEY who were thrown to the wolves!

The above article by Michael J. McLoughlin is entitled "U.S. Sisters Demand Action on Sexual Abuse Crisis". Would I be correct in assuming that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious whom he quotes, have never condemned false allegations against clergy or nuns? Also that the Religious Sisters of Mercy in the USA are members of this Leadership Conference??

Apart from the Wikipedia article on Nora Wall, there is an article by Breda O'Brien in the Irish Jesuit Review 'Studies' entitled "Miscarriage of Justice: Paul McCabe and Nora Wall"

It focuses on the homeless schizophrenic man whom the Irish Sisters of Mercy ALSO betrayed. (See NOTES [1] and [2])

"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength"

The above quote comes from the King James Bible translation of Psalm 8:2. In this particular case, strength and wisdom come from the internet magazine SpikedOnLine which is edited by atheist Irishman Brendan O'Neill. A recent article "Can Poetry Survive Outrage Culture" was penned by writer Candice Holdsworth. It concerns the sad fate of a poet Anders Carlson-Wee who was savaged by an online social,media mob for a poem published in the (very liberal) Nation magazine last month. Once the mob denounced the poem as non-PC, the two poetry editors at the Nation who had accepted it, completely backed away from the work and published an apology, which they posted above the poem. They said they had made ‘a serious mistake’, were sorry ‘for the pain we have caused to the many communities affected by this poem’, and planned to ‘earn the trust back’ of their readers. Poet Carlson-Wee also grovelled. 

It's very reminiscent of the behaviour of the Irish Sisters of Mercy abasing themselves before false accusers in the hope of "healing their pain" and "promoting reconciliation"! Two readers who commented on Holdsworth's article explained the mentality very well.

mouseketeery 
The poet's self-abasement had the usual effect - the mob smelled blood and doubled-down on the claimed outrage. His cringing and cowering statement was itself deemed 'problematic' and full of 'thought-crime'.

Never apologise to these buggers, it won't get them off your back. You can never be apologetic enough and they don't ever accept it as contrition, just as an admission of guilt for which there is no redemption.

Mark Beal reply to mouseketeery 
Besides, does anyone actually believe the apologies? They only thing the apologizing party achieves is severely diminishing the amount of respect anyone has for them, and probably their own self-respect.

NOTES regarding Pablo McCabe

[1] Paul (Pablo) McCabe was Nora Wall's co-accused and the "homeless schizophrenic man whom the Irish Sisters of Mercy ALSO betrayed". He was the ultimate victim of this miscarriage of justice. Obviously he had no money but prior to 1999, no woman had ever been convicted of rape in Ireland so Regina Walsh fingered him as the main rapist and claimed that Nora Wall had held her down while Pablo had raped her. Her intention was to claim "compensation" from the Sisters of Mercy; Pablo was "collateral damage"!

Breda O'Brien's article in Studies Review in Winter 2006 focuses on Paul McCabe and indicates how the very Merciful Sisters originally favoured him:

Paul McCabe addressed a Diocesan Gathering of Mercy Sisters in Gracedieu in Waterford in 1988. 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 “very happy ones of caring and interested women.” He then went to the Industrial School at Artane, Dublin, which he found traumatic, as it had “over nine hundred boys in a very strict set-up.”.....

So when Pablo could be presented as a victim of the Patriarchy, the Sisters allowed him to  address one of their annual meetings. It's difficult to imagine John Charles McQuaid, the doyen of the Irish Catholic Church in the  20th century doing anything similar. But McQuaid would never have betrayed an innocent man (and one of his own priests) as the Sisters betrayed Pablo McCabe and Nora Wall!

[2] This is the text of the Sisters of Mercy apology to Regina Walsh - as per the Wikipedia article on the case:
"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."

The article continues:
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: "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."


The media which had savaged Nora Wall ("Vile Nun", "Pervert Nun", "I Was Raped by Anti-Christ") put no pressure on the leaders of the Sisters of Mercy to withdraw their apology. As for their own consciences - well perhaps the visit of Pope Francis will cause the Merciful Sisters to reconsider their behaviour??