Leo Varadkar, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital

 

Anti-Clerical Hysteria and the National Maternity Hospital

I have three previous articles that relate to this topic: Sister Stanislaus Kennedy and False Allegations against The Sisters of Charity [1];  Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital [2] and  Kevin Myers and the Age of De Valera and McQuaid  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! ..

(A) Background

According to its website 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. 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." [These are 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]

"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 the day to day operational control rested with the Master, an obstetrician and gynaecologist elected by the Governors.  

"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. The Governors elect the ordinary members of the Executive Committee at each Annual General Meeting and elect the Master once every seven years." 

The extensive rebuilding of the NMH in the 1930s was largely financed by the (in)famous lottery called the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes 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. 

Announcing the move, Fine Gael Minister for Health, James Reilly said the new facility could assure mothers and babies of the best quality care “in a state-of-the-art, custom-built, modern healthcare facility”. 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.

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. “The relocation of NMH will address this need and will achieve our strategic aim of close location with St Vincent’s University Hospital,” she said.

(B) 2017 Controversy re Alleged Role of Sisters of Charity in New NMH

St Vincent's Hospital was founded by Mother Mary Aikenhead, foundress of the  Religious Sisters of Charity, on St Stephens Green, Dublin in 1834. 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. 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! 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.

My article Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital [2] 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 also speeded up their withdrawal from their management role in St Vincent's University hospital. 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!  

Leading "liberal" nun Sister Stanislaus Kennedy described the thuggish assault on the integrity of her colleagues as "Elder Abuse" 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!

(C) Will Sisters of Charity Impose Catholic Ethos on NMH (as per Dr Peter Boylan)?

(i) An article in the Sunday Times dated 1st August 2021 is entitled New NHM Head: Ownership Is Irrelevant and subtitled "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"

Pat McCann, the newly elected head of the National Maternity Hospital board, has said he will not ask St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG) to sell the site to the state because it is “irrelevant” who owns it.

McCann believes that as long as the state owns the hospital building, the ownership of the land is not important. “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,” he said. “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.”

The founder of the Dalata hotel group has arranged to meet James Menton, the chairman of SVHG, this week “to make sure we’re all aligned on what we’re doing”. He does not intend to meet the Religious Sisters of Charity, who own SVHG, as “they will have no hand, act or part” in the relocated National Maternity Hospital (NMH).....

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 “had made things more complicated”. During the campaign, the tanaiste Leo Varadkar said state ownership of the NMH was a “red line” issue for the government. McCann said he “absolutely” supports the current plan for the state to own the new building on a site it will lease for 149 years from SVHG.

“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.”

(ii) Previous Head of NMH Board and Master of NMH reply to Dr Peter Boylan (2017)

(from article Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital [2] )

Nicholas Kearns (former President of the High Court) was Deputy Chair - in effect Head - of the National Maternity Hospital Board in 2017 and Dr Rhona Mahony was Master of the Hospital. They replied to an inflammatory text message from Dr Peter Boylan on 23 April 2017.  

"Both the Master and I have received and read your text sent to us at 13.47 today.  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. “It’s intimidatory tone is most regrettable.”

The National Maternity Hospital also issued a statement:

“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.

The decisive final meeting of the board overwhelmingly supported the agreement with 25 in favour, two abstentions (including Dr Boylan) and one vote against. [My emphasis] 

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.

An Irish Times article dated  8 December 2018 headed Dr Rhona Mahony says Nuns Will Not Run New Maternity Hospital has the subheading "Holles Street master says Canon Law ‘Irrelevant’ to New Cacility at St Vincent’s campus"

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...

“So let’s just be very clear. 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,” she told RTÉ’s Marian Finucane programme.

“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....

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. 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 “whatsoever” and that canon law will be “irrelevant” to the ethos of the hospital.

According to the Wikipedia article on the National Maternity Hospital, Dr Rhona Mahony privately complained that "the feminists are going to unravel this fantastic hospital for women"! [1]

(iii) So what was Dr Peter Boylan'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 “the ideal solution by any means” because it would mean the project getting “caught up in some potential legal difficulty for a large number of years” 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. 

My own comment at the time was that 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 “on the periphery” (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!

More recently Dr Boylan "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" - 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!

(D) The Dishonesty of Leo Varadkar 

In an article in the Irish Independent on Nuns are Being ‘Bullied’ over Land for New National Maternity Hospital, says Prominent Priest, Sarah McDonald writes:

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 “a sustained effort is being made to bully the Sisters of Charity into complying” with politicians’ demands over the valuable 29-acre site.

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 ‘gift’ the site at Elm Park to the State but should instead sell the site to the State and “use the enormous proceeds to re-direct their own medical services, especially towards the poor.

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....

Fr Hoban accused Tánaiste Leo Varadkar of throwing “the equivalent of a grenade” 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.

Describing the Tánaiste’s intervention as “odd”, 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 “a persistent Greek chorus of just one”.

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 “a vital project to create a world-class maternity hospital for the women and babies of Ireland”. They believe there will be no restriction on treatments and no subservience to religious control in the new hospital.

Suggesting that the nuns are collateral damage of Mr Varadkar’s agenda, Fr Hoban said there seemed to be only one solution. “Let the Sisters of Charity sell the site of the hospital to the state” and let Mr Varadkar explain the consequent loss of millions of euros, he said.

Unfortunately I think it's too late for the solution suggested by Fr Hoban. However the co-leader of the Social Democrats Roisin Shortall has provided a plausible explanation for Leo Varadkar's "odd" decision to throw "the equivalent of a grenade" into the NMH relocation process:

She asked him: “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.”...

“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.”

Ms Shortall added: “So I'm curious, Tánaiste, as to what prompted you to get to your feet in this House last week to express serious concern. 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.”

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 “a vital project to create a world-class maternity hospital for the women and babies of Ireland”. Except Leo Varadkar is not misinformed nor does he misunderstand. Political advantage is far more important for him than progressing the building of  a new National Maternity Hospital!

(E) The Folly of the Sisters of Charity

Back in 2017 I made three correct predictions regarding the future of this controversy - in my article Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital [2]. Well they were all the related to the same prediction really!

(i) "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."

In that respect I was pleased to read the following in Valerie Hanley’s article in The Mail on Sunday on 23 April [2017]:

A source revealed: ‘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.

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’. [My Emphasis]

That’s all very well and I couldn’t agree more BUT the Sister’s comment is being made anonymously. 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. 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: Sisters of Mercy

I hope that the Sisters of Charity now understand the dangers of Appeasement – defined by one British newspaper in 1939 as “A clever plan of selling off your friends in order to buy off your enemies”. (For the Sisters of Mercy, that worked the same way it did for Neville Chamberlain!)

But of course my hopes were vain and the nuns caved in!

(ii) 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 “compensation” that they “owed” 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:

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.

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…..

Yet, as Ms. Hanley pointed out, 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. 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?

Back in 2017 I wondered what would have been the attitude of Jews if they had been attacked in similar fashion? 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 “atrocities” against children, “experimented on [a child] for vaccine trials” 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!

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. The leaders of female religious congregations have always preferred the Appeasement approach. 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. 

Thus Leo Varadkar's recent attempt to win votes in the Dublin Bay South by-election by bullying supine nuns!

(iii) An article in the Irish Medical Times “A Complicated Delivery” by editor Dara Gantly on 10 May 2017 concluded as follows:

…What is of further interest now is that the Minister [for Health] wants to begin a “broader conversation” 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.

“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,” Minister Harris has noted. ..

I wrote in 2017 "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! 

"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!"

And so it has turned out!

The Sisters Surrender to the Secular Power!

On 31 May 2017 Sr Mary Christian, Congregational Leader of the Religious Sisters of Charity issued a Statement 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:

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.....

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.

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....

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!  

(F) CONCLUSION:

In 2017 I referred to an editorial in the Irish Medical Times (10 May)  entitled  “Minister Build That Hospital” subtitle Sorry episode has revealed much that is ugly about modern Ireland and quoting Doctor Ruairi Hanley

….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.

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.

Liberal outrage

The vicious, obnoxious tone of some members of this new mob is truly appalling. They have turned on Dr Rhona Mahony, 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.

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.

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. [RC My emphasis]

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, even if I am one of the only doctors in Ireland willing to say this publicly. [RC My emphasis]….. 

Indeed Doctor Doctor Ruairi Hanley was "one of the only doctors in Ireland willing to say this publicly." 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! [2]

Why were other doctors so reluctant to stick their necks out? I suspect that it was only partly fear of the "baying liberal mob" 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! [3]  Leo Varadkar felt free to insult them again in order to please anti-clerical voters in the recent Dublin Bay South by-election. 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! 

NOTES:

[1] Wikipedia refer to a Sunday Times article dated 23 April 2017  "Bishop says New Hospital Must Obey the Church", most of which is behind a paywall.

[2] This is the text of my Comment on the Irish Medical Times Editorial dated 10 May 2017

Rory Connor

24th May 2017 at 11:54 pm

I couldn’t agree more.

I have a number of comments on this issue on the Association of Catholic Priests website, (topic “Catholic Ethos and Other Mysteries”) the latest one being number 52 which might serve as a summary

http://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2017/05/catholic-ethos-and-other-mysteries/

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.

[3] See blog article The Decadence of the Sisters of Mercy and website article The Sisters of Mercy that  - despite its title - also describes the antics of Presentation Sister Elizabeth Maxwell and Ursuline Sister Marianne O'Connor, both former Heads of the Conference of Religious in Ireland. There is something especially grotesque about the antics of the leaders of FEMALE Religious Congregations (although anyone who suspects me of Misogyny should try reading Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the Simpsons and our Insect Overlords )

My Submission to The Independent "Future of Media" Commission

 

Professor Brian MacCraith, Chair of the Independent Future of Media Commission

A newly-established Future of Media Commission intends to “chart a pathway” for public service broadcasting and independent media in Ireland. [My emphasis]

In September 2020, the Irish government announced the new Future of Media Commission, which will examine how “public service objectives” can be funded in a sustainable way, with independent editorial oversight and value for money. The Commission will then make a recommendation on its findings to the government.

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.

.Question 1. 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?

You ask  "What can be learned from the evolution of public service media over the last decade?"

In 2004 I made an official complaint to Broadcasting Complaints Commission (I think it was then) re RTE's broadcast of the 2002 film "Song for a Raggy Boy" AND  RTE notice afterwards inviting people who had been affected by the film to ring a dedicated phone number to voice their pain. 

I cannot locate my submission now BUT I referred to it in my Blog article 'Recovered Memory' in Ireland and Allegations of Child Abuse" 
specifically in the last sections "Patrick Galvin, 'Song for a Raggy Boy' and 'Recovered Memory' " and the Conclusion. The culminating scene in the FILM 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 Patrick Galvin 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!  

When this sort of thing is done to Jews - in the Nazi film Jew Suss that I referred to in my complaint to BCC - it is called Blood Libel. (The 1925 BOOK "Jew Suss"  did not include  Suss raping or killing anyone.)

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 "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." 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?

This was OVER 10 years ago but RTE continued in the same vein over the last decade. In 2011 they libelled Fr Kevin Reynolds on Prime Time's "Mission to Prey" 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! 

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 "The Role of Pat Rabbitte" 

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 "Kevin Myers and the Age of de Valera and McQuaid"

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 "progressive" journalist!

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. 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!  

Question 2. How should public service media be financed sustainably?

You ask "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?" 

RTE should be defunded. I read that it receives €180 million from the taxpayer each year. I also see that "public service aims" includes "to ensure that the public has access to high quality, impartial, independent journalism, reporting .. in a balanced way and which contributes to democratic discourse". 

In the interests of "balance" would RTE consider broadcasting the  film "Jew Suss"? It may be as vile as "Song for a Raggy Boy" and includes scenes not depicted in the (somewhat) more realistic BOOK but at least RTE could say "we're not favouring one side over another".  

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: "Mary Raftery and Blood Libel"

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 "impartial, independent journalism" that "contributes to democratic discourse". In other words, they cannot act as a Public Service Broadcaster and should NOT receive public funds! 

Question 3. How should media be governed and regulated?

You ask "Are current legislative and regulatory controls for public service media adequate?" 

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!

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 "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."  

If someone like Pat Rabbitte can be appointed Minister for Communications then NO conceivable "legislative and regulatory controls" 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!    

  
Thank you. Your submission has been received!
. 

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!