Child Abuse, the State & the Catholic Church in Ireland
Many of you will have heard about the report, published a few days ago, into the abuse of children in Industrial Schools in Ireland during the 20th Century.
The report, a massive work that has taken nine years to compile, documents the enormous scale of the abuses – every type imaginable – inflicted on both boys and girls by the, supposedly Christian, people responsible for their education and welfare. It documents the awareness of the abuses, some might say collusion, of both the Irish State and the Catholic Church. What the report does not document, thanks to a High Court ruling in 2004, is the names of the guilty parties.
Much has been written and broadcast about the report, by people far more qualified to comment than I am. Indeed, the abuses are not really news. These appalling abuses have been widely recognised for some considerable time, but the report brings together many of the stories of the victims and highlights the scale of the tragedy. It is important for all of us to be aware of what happened, in the hope that a blind eye is never again turned towards such dreadful crimes.
Read more about the abuses committed by the Catholic Church in Ireland by clicking this link.
Thanks, Al.
Agree with you that the importance of the report lies in the setting out of the sheer scale of the abuse, a scale that indicates the persecution of impoverished children had become systemic. As RTE’s Gerry Ryan put it the other day, “We’re not talking about a few bad apples here: teh whole barrel was rotten”.
I grew up in Ireland (b.1965) and knew the Christian Brothers by repute as given to thuggishness but I never suspected that they were effectively running a Gulag for Children, nor that the abuse descended such depths of depravity. I do think that the State emerging with a report conclusively proving both scale and depravity IS news.
And that is why people are shocked: nobody quite grasped it before.
Thanks for the comment Fin. As you say, we have long been aware of the behaviour and reputation of the Christian Brothers (and others), hence the ‘news’ is the scale of the atrocities, which has never before been admitted or acknowledged.
What worried me was some bigwig cardinal who started wittering on about the courage of the clergy in facing up to the accusations of abuse. Wrong emphasis! He should have commended the courage of the VICTIMS in coming forward and daring to take on the might of the Catholic Church!!!
Absolutely right. I think the Church still don’t understand their collective guilt and responsibility for what happened.