# Marie-Thérèse O'Loughlin Goldenbridgeinmate39

## Survivor of an Irish Industrial *School*.

# RateYour Solicitors

by  Goldenbridgeinmate39

## **2006-12-06 22:52:24 Setanta**

## Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook 2

Statement 10 = Lies and false allegations of child abuse made by children from St. Joseph’s orphanage, Kilkenny City, Ireland.

Marie -Therese O’ Loughlin,  
I wish to compliment you on your excellent research, and up-front reporting. I believe that your writings have attracted thousands of viewers from all over the world.

You suffer from a vile avoidance, from very cunning, and crooked politicians, barristers, solicitors, professional people, and the Catholic Church.

And I, a falsely accused person, suffer from the same elusive people, who collude together, and deny me my basic Constitutional, National and International Right to defend myself against what has been said against me.

Regards Setanta.

_Last edited by Setanta (2007-09-22 16:14:14)_

#89 2006-12-07 16:22:05 **Marie-Therese O’ Loughlin**

Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook 2

Shalom. Shalom to the Salem Witch-hunters.

Ladies Gentlemen and Scholars. I said that the second half of 1999 was the time when this country succumbed completely to child abuse hysteria and I gave a number of examples – including allegations of child killing by the Christian Brothers at times when no boy died of any cause. (Medieval Jew baiters showed slightly more respect for the intelligence of their audience.) I forgot to include the publication of John Cooney’s “John Charles McQuaid, Ruler of Catholic Ireland” in my list of lunacies. This was also published in November 1999 and Cooney used allegations of paedophilia against the Archbishop to advertise his novel (sorry biography). I note that a number of you immediately recognised that Cooney’s allegations were totally lacking in credibility. I regret that you drew no general conclusions from this fact but seemed to treat the issue as a minor blemish in an otherwise admirable work. Do you expect that future historians will endorse this judgement?I have only a BA in history gained at night university but I am prepared to bet a very large sum of money that they won’t. Will anybody take me on? A second point. Many of the allegations made by Mary Raftery, Louis Lentin, John Cooney, Christine Buckley, Patrick Walsh (of SOCA Ireland), Gerry Kelly (founder of Alliance) etc. are demonstrably false. Is it conceivable that the CREATORS of our child abuse industry are liars and frauds but that their cause is still valid? Regards. Rory Connor 11 Lohunda Grove Dublin 15 Ends.

A BA in history Rory, that explains a lot, in particular your consumptious indulgence in your nacissistic adoration of self as an “individual” who is making a particular contribution to the world, or perhaps expressing a “special wisdom”, sensitivity or even committment in life. Being an “ardent adherent” in recent years to your “dialogue” , it certainly furthers my interest to deepen the connection to “sources of the past” in “personal terms”, while simultaneously enabling a degree of understanding to decry “history”, in socio-pathological terms ensuing as a result of tyranny and oppression imposed upon a Nation, masked and “dressed up” as something called “religion”, a subject VERY CLOSE to your good self, as evinced and evidenced by your misguided and rather featherweight disseminations of “subjects” you tackle, but are in yourself devoid of understanding. On the basis that you are bereft of REASON and LOGIC, which you have so tragically enounciated in your love of ambiguity, the “””tool””” of the miscreant “dont know brigade” , I am presented with no great task in revealing your love of religios “defence”overriding REASONING and LOGIC which unfortunately will display that a BA in history, is NOT the requisite “tool” for the “subjects” you pursue and furthermore, indulge yourself as a “humanitarian campaigner” in such pursuit. Concerned primarily with the personal aspects of your own life, you have dealt mainly with what has been subjective to your individual existence, the persons of which you have been more intimately involved, and the “impact” of particular events upon your own life. As you publicly declare, you forsook the love of parental care and transfered your “emotional development” to a “religious order”, where in your own words, your “mentors”, a Father Sweetman, and a Father Kirk, BECAME MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR PARENTS. Without wishing to “confuse”” you Rory, ((and that’s quite simple) many questions present themselves here of why a young man should abandon his Parents for something as yet, HE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND? But to be bluntly fair, each and every one of us in our own way , draws upon history, traditions,the world of nature, the realm of the spirit, the arts, and many other transpersonal resources for the experiences and possible potential within us. Having gained a BA in History, Rory, you will be aware that the sources as described above can lead to inner personal conflict and in themselves can become a “problem” where matters of faith and belief are concerned. It’s within the above Rory, from whence YOUR problems spring, as in “GIVING” yourself to a “religious” brainwashing order, while still in the development stages of your formative years,you in effect forsook reality for the unproven dogmatic principles of an organisation whose main tenet of existence was to subjugate the unwary and unsuspecting “seedlings” as perambulating “orators” of “christian values”, which HISTORY has now shown as nothing more than A BUNCH, of LIARS, CRIMINALS AND THUGS, whose remit consisted of global thuggery in the most heinous PURSUIT of all, THE RAPING, BUGGERING and SODOMISING OF YOUNG DEFENCLESS CHILDREN. The connective experience of your self to the continuing defence of these LIARS, CRIMINALS and THUGS, and their penchant for indulgence in CLERICAL SEXUAL TERRORISM creates the need for some further questions, not least the fact that UP TO DATE despite your rantings and lunacies, you have yet to PRODUCE ONE SHARD OF EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY? Assembling your own SPIRITUAL HISTORY does NOT constitute a “defence” Rory, far from it, it raises further the issue of your continual involvement to defend he indefensible , and such tacit delusional “offerings” you give, unfortunately fall within the realm of “mental affliction” to disregard in total THE CONTEXTUAL, PHYSICAL and DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE NOW IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN , and wholly CONDEMNATORY of the THUGS, CRIMINALS and LIARS you so robustly associate yourself with, which merely further underlines your inability to not only face REALITY, but in total to STUDIOUSLY IGNORE IT, this Rory, is the world of the MADMAN, and any PUBLIC EXAMINATION to date in relation to your “crusade” in recent years, would only leave a “Judiciously”convened PSYCHIATRIC PANEL, not to adjuducate on your “mental” well being, but merely to adduce WHICH INSTITUTION YOU SHOULD BE COMMITTED TO:  
THE RAPING OF A CHILD, I, – RORY, A SERIOUS CRIMINAL OFFENCE, and what sets US apart from you is WE recognise it as such, but EX CHRISTIAN BROTHERS SUCH AS YOURSELF, VIEW THE RAPING OF A CHILD AS “MORAL FAILURE”I insert the above Rory, purely as a reasonable step in consolidating the unambivalent fact that BRAINWASHING, in your case IS ALIVE AND WELL, though perhaps that’s what we have Psychiatrists for, and Rory being intellectually challenged is not something to be ashamed of, after all, it really wasn’t YOUR fault, but that of your “religious mentors” I must confess to gleefully amusing myself with the fact that your continuing aversion to Mr John Cooney’s TRUTHFUL biography of “MR SPIKE IT”, your archbishop Mc Quaid, still sticks in your craw. Rory. hopefully the cornflakes will also stick in your craw when events DETAILING Mr SPIKE IT Archbishop, which will in DUE COURSE BECOME PUBLIC, no doubt giving rise to further angst in your small world. I would dearly enjoy a “jousting bout “with your maligned perspectives of WHAT exactly constitutes a CRIMINAL, LIAR and THUG, as its a tag you appear to have IMPOSED ON ANYBODY WHO PRESENTLY INVOKES YOUR WRATH BY NOT “SUCCUMBING” TO YOUR PERCEIVED IDEALS of perhaps a “””FEW”” ABUSES OCCURED IN THE CHILD BROTHELS OF IRELAND ,BUT “NOTHING” IN WHICH IN YOUR “ESTIMATION” THAT A “WITCHUNT” SHOULD ENSUE? WE BEG TO DIFFER. But skirting the peripherals of Philosphy with yourself would be a NO-NO for me Rory, quite frankly, you don’t have the “tools” for such debate. You may be more gainfully employed Rory in fortifying your notion that any unnotional increment to your spiritual aggrandissement may go unnoticed. On a rather sad note in conclusion – Rory, it would be rather remiss of myself if I failed to exmplify in modest terms, of course, that your “pain” can only be usefully exacerbated as a lesson in DENIAL when conjoined with your “life events” as a facile super – imposition in trandscending yourself to such planes of denial which can only erupt from experiencing a consciousness which you NOW ATTEMPT TO DENY, and SELF DENIAL IS THE BIGGEST CRIME OF ALL.

From a Victim/Survivor of Institutional Abuse. whom I comprehensively hold in high opinion. This victim/survivor does not beat about the phoney bush, only the ingenious one and is in consequence villified by persons such as Rory Connor who does not have a bull’s concept of chronological institutional abuse. Notwithstanding him having a measly BA in History.

The above mentioned victim/survivor who suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of the religious has remained unwavering right the way through the last decade. Additionally, the said survivor has carried the courage of the historical institutional child abuse convictions and will not be cowered. Most principally, not by an ex-seminatrian who did classes in history. I ask -who gives a toss as to what this witch-hunter achieved?

Halloween is over, and it is time Rory disappeared on his spanking new religious broomstick, because if he was to hang during the wrong season you will be roasted for Sunday Xmas dinner.

Rory is messing around in the wrong sandpit.

The survivors above, along with the Irish/British abuser group activists, Mary Raftery, Eoin O’Sullivan, co authors of Suffer the Little Children, Christine Buckley, Chairperson of Aislinn, an educational/counselling centre distinctively set up in Jervis House, Jervis St, Dublin, to help those who were in the past incarcerated in Irland’s gulags.

Emer O’Kelly, journalist with The Irish Independent, Bruce Arnold, journalist, Fintan O’Toole, journalist, John Cooney, Journalist, Kathleen O’Malley. British based magistrate and author of ‘Childhood Interrupted’ who was also a survivor of institutional child abuse at Goldenbridge and Moate, Co Westmeath abnd another Goldenbridge contemporary Bernadette Fahy, author of ‘Freedom of Angels.’

Vincent Browne, barrister, editor of Village Magazine in Dublin, journalist. Emma Browne, solicitor, journalist, daughter of the latter.

Last but not least, Tony Hanahoe famous footballer turned solicitor, Margaret Rice, assistant to solicitor, Carthage Conlon and dedicated staff of Michael E. Hanahoe 21, Parliament St. Dublin 2 are all of the one mind. So beat it Rory boy. Go off home with your good self.

Marie-Therese O’Loughlin

Comment 1 (Source unknown)

“In relation to women priests, gay priests, the laity etc. I don’t know if there is an equivalent group in Ireland – I am concentrating my fire on journalists. Maybe I am exaggerating the importance of my time in the De La Salle Novitiate. But then again maybe not!”

Rory Connor

My reply:

Rory Connor is concentrating his “ire” is more like it, on victims/survivors of institutional abuse. Perhaps, he is a latent ‘Hohxa-hitlerist’. His obsession with us beggars belief. He continually posts on a site that is especially there for people who were in industrial schools and his drivel is so monotonous – all out out to save religion in ‘his’ name  
I would hazard a guess that he has never gotten over leaving the De-la Salle Brothers and is subconciously making us suffer with all this transference lark.

He has this unhealthy insatiable fixation with “Abuse”. My last words to this attention-seeking parasite is: Why don’t you build a pill – house & isolate yourself in it and offer up penance to Stalin for all the anguish you are presently causing.

There are plenty of ‘sites’ in Albania that would cheerfully be right up your street. Just -please, please leave us alone. Get off the websites that are being partially funded by the dept of education & science for the benefit of people who were in institutions, not institutes. as opposed to where you were temporarily, Thank God “Glory goes to the ones not asking for it!” & may it follow you en-route to the chosen land. SIGURIMI.  
Comment 2

HEY! YOU! Rory Connor, stop concentrating your “fire” phallic-symbol on victims/survivors of institutional abuse. You have subconsciously directed it at us for far too long. It is limp and shrivelled up – just like your drivel. Find a new cause that will light your fire.  
What do you hope to gain by continually shoving your nose in the affairs of people who have evidently suffered in their childhood? You harp on about the fact that – because of what your mentors in the past did for you that you. You harass and harangue us for some sinister reason. Perhaps you need to go back to your formative years – Freudian slip – and I don’t mean your ‘religious’ ones, as methinks therein lies the mystery of your bizarre behaviour.

“Mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of us all”? I abhor egotistical jumped – up pseudo – intellectuals bullies & you Rory are one of them. Fancy going on a website that was specifically created for vulnerable marginalised & fragile ex-inmates of industrial schools/ reformatories & ranting on about intellectual arguments that have no direct bearing on the real, every day problems of victims/survivors.

I note that you have never once communicated with any of the users of the site either. Is isan advertising avenue for you? A MATURE HISTORY STUDENT LIKE YOU PERHAPS WOULD NOT HAVE ANY THING IN COMMON, WOULD I BE CORRECT OR MIGHT IT BE a link to your most devoted priests, you hope, as you have no other format with which you can use to get recognition? A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 3

FROM AN AMERICAN WEBSITE. RORY ‘S HANDS/WITCHUNT MENTALITY HAVE TRAVELLED FAR?

“The attached is from the “Gay” magazine The Guide. Its not that it is the best account of your country’s Salem Witch-Hunt  
I will send you details of better ones. It’s just that they cannot possibly be accused of making excuses for the Catholic Church. (I see they also have an article this month). Will you defend this lunacy or (more likely) will you ignore it and the questions is raises about anti-clerical “liberals”? Regards, Rory Connor”.

Summary follows.

“Plenty of material for an article on the effects of anti-clericalism. It’s not so much that I expect journalists like yourself to disagree.  
What I expect is that you will remain silent and let the Witch-Hunters run riot. You don’t actually believe what they are saying but they are attacking your enemies and that’s all that count” Rory Connor.

COMMENT 4

B-A-I-N-I-N. MUMBO JUMBO. GOLDENBRIDGE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL INCHICORE REVISITED.  
RORY CONNOR FOISTS HIS COPY CAT MUMBO – JUMBO ON TOP OF VICTIMS/SURVIVORS OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.  
ON THE ABOVEMENTIONED WEBSITE.  
A VERY HURT VICTIM/SURVIVOR URGED THE ARBITRATOR, TOM HAYES, IN A POLITE POSTING, TO ELIMINATE ODIOUS MATERIAL FROM IT BUT AS AN ALTERNATIVE OF COMPLYING WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE VICTIM/SURVIVOR WHO WAS IN A VERY DISTRESSED STATE.

FOR EXAMPLE, ENDANGERMENT OVERCAME HIS/HERSELF TO THE EXTENT OF CONTEMPLATING OVERINDULGING IN MEDICINE.  
FOR THE REASON OF THE CONTEMPTIBLE CONTENTS OF MR CONNORS THAT WAS BLATANTLY PUT ON A WEBSITE FOR ANTAGONISTIC REASONS.  
THE ABOMINABLE CLAPTRAP WILL NOT BE TOLERATED BY VICTIMS/SURVIVORS WHO WERE UNLAWFULLY INCARCERATED IN THE GULAGS OF IRELAND IN THE PAST. WE WILL STAND UP AND BE COUNTED.

THE INTERMEDIARY INSTEAD, CHOSE TO SIDE WITH RORY Oâ€™ CONNOR AND REMOVED THE VICTIMSâ€™/SURVIVORSâ€™ GRIEVANCE.  
THE AUDACIOUSNESS OF MR. TOM HAYES, WHOM I EMPHATICALLY ASCERTAIN IS COLLUDING WITH A MAN WHO INCESSANTLY STIRS UP TRIBULATION.  
BY PALPABLY ALLOWING HIM TO HAVE PRIMACY OVER A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE IN HAVING HIS ABOMINABLE, NOXIOUS SAY!. IT, SUPPLEMENTARILY, BEGS THE QUESTION AS TO WHICH CAMP THE MODERATOR IS IN.

CERTAIN PARTIES, HAVE PURPORTEDLY IN THE PAST COUPLED TOM HAYES WITH DISSENSION/FOREBODING WITHIN THE ABUSE GROUPS, IT. HOWEVER, IT ALWAYS WENT ON DEAF EARS FROM MY VIEWPOINTâ€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦ AS I FOUND IT TO BE RATHER UNFATHOMABLE. NOT ANY MORE, SUFFICE IT TO SAY. SO, SO SADLY LATE IN THE DAY!

RUMOURS TO THE CONTRARY ABOUNDED THAT HE WAS/IS WORKING ON THE SIDE OF THE RELIGIOUS. ALSO IN ADDITION, THAT HIS WEBSITE WAS ONLY A FRONT TO LURE THE NAIVE AND GULLIBLE. VERY CONFLICTUAL CHINESE WHISPERS!  
IT WAS FOR THIS REASON THAT I NEVER PARTICIPATED IN ANY POSTING DISCUSSIONS THAT WENT ON. IN HINDSIGHT, I AM AS GLAD AS I UNDOUBTEDLY, WOULD HAVE COME DOWN ON A SOFT LANDING.THANKFULLY, I POSTED ONLY ONCE, AND THAT WAS TO MY CHAGRIN.

MARY HANAFIN, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, WILL, PERSONALLY BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, IF THE WELL KNOWN WEB/NAVIGATOR/AGITATOR IN THE GUISE OF RORY O’ CONNOR, IS ALLOWED TO CONTINUE TO COMPOUND ABUSE ON VERY FRAGILE VICTIMS/SURVIVORS.

THERE ARE, SUPPOSEDLY, HUNDREDS OF REGISTERED USERS ON THE PARTIALLY FUNDED SITE BUT IF ONE SCRUTINISES IT ONE WILL SEE THAT THE MAJORITY ARE â€˜PORNâ€™ ORIGINATED! IE: NICHTRAUCHER, NONSMOKER ‘CHEAP FLOWER’ – VERY UNDESIREABLE TO SAY THE LEAST.

THE SITE, RECENTLY, BY THE MODERATOR, WAS GIVEN A FACE-LIFT – A SOMEWHAT NEW IMAGE OF SORTS. YET, EVEN AT THAT ‘CHEAP FLOWERS’ AND ITS ILK ARE STILL HANGING AROUND. THAT INCLUDES BY THE WAY, THE EX-SEMINARIAN, SEMENARIAN.

IS IT PERHAPS, A RUSE, TO GIVE IMPRESSION TO THE POWERS-THAT-BE THAT VICTIMS/SURVIVORS ARE ACTIVELY EMPLOYING ITS SERVICES? WHATEVER THAT ENTAILS. INDEED! FROM A VERY ANGRY VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE

THE USAGE OF A PSEUDONYM WAS A PROTECTION MECHANISM FOR A VERY DISTRUSTFUL PERSON.

AS IT TURNS OUT trustworthiness does not come into the vocabulary of the partial owner of said site.

A VICTIM/SURVIVOR, AS TOM HAYES, ABOVE ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW, HAVING SPENT HIS WHOLE CHILDHOOD IN AN INSTITUTION, IS VERY CAUTIOUS BY THE VIRTUE OF THEIR SAD BACKGROUND. IT IS THE MODERATORS’ PROBLEM IF HE DOES NOT WANT TO CORRESPOND WITH A VICTIM/SURVIVOR COMPLAINANT, WHO WAS AFTERALL ONLY POINTING OUT DISGUSTING RUBBISH THAT WAS PUT UP ON HIS WEBSITE BY A FIXATED EX-PRIEST WHO HAS A BIG AXE TO GRIND. I REITERATE IT THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF RYS FORUM, WILL MR. TOM HAYES OF live up to the name of the sites ethos and support the very people the site professes. be in alliance with victims/survivors and not those who are allegedly making false statements about Christine buckley who is incidentally, a very sick woman.  
Please ultimately dispose of the digusting pieces of Mumbo Jumbo that has been put on a website that is for victims/survivors of institutional abuse.

WHO, IN THEIR RIGHT MIND, WOULD WANT TO GIVE THEIR CREDENTIALS TO A MODERATOR WHEN SUCH ALLEGED NEGATIVITY HAS IN THE PAST BEEN BANDIED ABOUT.

By the way, Tom Hayes YOU DELETED POLITE COMMENT YET YOU ARE PREPARED TO LEAVE ON THE SITE DENIGRATING MATERIAL REGARDING CHRISTINE BUCKLEY. HAVE YOU BY ANY CHANCE GOT A PERSONAL GRUDGE AGAINST THIS ARDENT CAMPAIGNER OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE AS IT CERTAINLY SEEMS THAT WAY. A GENUINE VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.  
COMMENT 4  
RORY,”WHY” DID YOU LEAVE YOUR HOLY ORDER OF christian brothers , THE DEL LA SILLYS.  
DID HUMPTY DUMPY FALL, OR WAS HE PUSHED.? WHICH WAS IT RORY no ‘sweetman’ me, Rory A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 5

RORY CONNOR UP TO HIS AMERICAN WEBSITE ANTICS.

Yes, Rory, I do accept that, at the very least, there has been a miscarriage of law in the Shanley case (I’m not in a position to know whether it was just, in the cosmic sense). I also accept that cases based on recovered memory are crap. The notion that people forget trauma is fanciful and probably agenda-driven. Further, the instances you describe re: Artane sound nuts and produced by hysteria. But what you can’t deny is what the Church has documented itself – and I’m not just talking about sexual abuse, here. I’m talking about the Magdelen laundries and the whole infrastructure of incarceration built around unwed mothers, orphans and juvenile delinquents, wherein these people were mercilessly brutalised. And, of course, I’m talking about clergy who have admitted what they’ve done and about the Church which has admitted its role in covering for them. It’s important to distinguish fact from fiction and to consider these cases individually, but you want to generalise too much from a handful of particulars. What should be important to you is the truth, not just the reputation of the Church. Comment by: Jon Ihle. Thank You Jon. nothing sticks to the Teflon/Velcro smooth smarmy Rory – especially not the truth. A victim/survivor of institutional abuse.

COMMENT 6

The insidious whisper of the bad angel.

Rory Connor, can you not get satisfaction in any other capacity? Does your ex-priesthood status still create problems? Is this grotesque insidious, lying in wait, watching for an opportunity to ensnare the work of a witch? As you clearly portray the symptoms in your postings. You are nothing but a crafty: wily; designing; guileful; circumventive; treacherous; deceitful; deceptive, jumped-up nobody, ready to become active when you think the chips are down on the victims/survivors of institutional abuse. You forget, though, that we are also out there waiting to pounce. We are slowly waiting to listen to the insidious whispers of the bad angel. From a victim/survivor of institutional abuse.

COMMENT 7

THE LENGTHS RORY CONNOR WILL GO TO WITH HIS OBSESSION TO EXONERATE THE CHURCHS COMPLICITY.

What the hell is in the water up there, anyway? Comment by: Douglas Fletcher at February 24, 2005 Everyone here – especially Tim should know that Rory Connor’s aim here is to exonerate the Catholic Church’s complicity in widespread sexual abuse by drawing attention to exceptional miscarriages of justice. He’s been bombarding my blog and email for over a year now trying to get me to write about this stuff, too. He contacted me because I’m a Jew who occasionally writes about anti-Semitism and he sees the sex abuse allegations, trials, etc. as an anti-Catholic campaign. As you can see from his last comment, his paranoid exculpatory fantasy involves a conspiracy theory about an organised attack by homosexuals on the Church. From what I can tell, his group, is struggling with the complete loss of Catholic authority in Ireland, where not only has clerical sex abuse been revealed, but also a widespread longstanding system of virtual slavery for orphans, unwed moothers and other moral undesirables. This is an institutional problem with the Church, but Connor wants you to pay attention to an individual case so that you forget that. Comment by: Jon Ihle at February 24, 2005………..NICE ONE, ‘PARANIOD EXCULPATORY FANTASY’ – SUMS IT UP TO A TEE!

RORY CONNORS, REPLY.

Jon Ihle is right. I have been bombarding journalists trying to get them to write about a gross miscarriage of justice that bears comparison to the (Jewish) Dreyfus case in France over a century ago. The evidence against Dreyfus was forged but it was not ludicrous. The accusers of Dreyfus had more respect for the intelligence of their audience than the advocates of Recovered Memory which is more like voodoo brain science. I know a lot more about the witch-hunt in Ireland than in the USA. However I do know that Shanley was one of the chief whipping boys of the anti-clerical child abuse lobby. Since Shanley is innocent of the charges against him (as even Jon Ihle seems to accept), it is a reasonable conclusion that the entire scandal in the USA is fake. I know for certain that our Irish scandal is a fake and a witch-hunt. I have been in contact with a number of the chief accusers and leaders of “victims” groups. One of them told me on the steps of the Catholic Cathedral in Dublin, that there are mass grave in Artane and other institutions run by the Christian Brothers. (This encounter took place in front of journalists and TV crews and was – briefly- reported in the media. His group was picketing the Cathedral after Mass). Another gentleman told the Irish Times that he attended the funerals of boys who died after being punched in the stomach by the Christian Brothers. No boy died of any cause while this gentleman was in Artane. I had a sharp E-Mail exchange with him in which I invited him to name the dead boys. Of course he produced no names. I know of several other accusations of this type. I call them “Murder of the Undead” allegations and they seem to be the Irish equivalent of Recovered Memory Syndrome. I am not talking about isolated individuals who jump on the bandwagon of a genuine scandal. These allegations come from the leaders and spokes-persons for “victims” groups in my country. The Irish Minister for Justice and the Gardai (police) have confirmed that they are unaware of a single murder. It is impossible to disprove allegations of child abuse, decades after the alleged events. You cannot prove a negative. However when the people who allege systematic child abuse are also making “Murder of the Undead” type claims, then you know that we are dealing with a new Salem. Rory Comment by: Rory Connor at February 24, 2005.

COMMENT 8

Rory Connor here, I’ve known many, many gay people in my life; I don’t ever recall any of them having a burning desire to lower the age of consent laws. Even if Shanley is innocent, that hardly undermines the numerous other cases of sexual abuse of children (and nuns for that matter) by RCC priests. Of course, its not like the RCC doesn’t have a long and inglorious history of persecuting or victimizing people; thus, the latest revelations are just par for the course.

COMMENT 9

I agree I have limited knowledge of the scandal in the USA. However the following is a quotation from an article by Daniel Lyons, “Sex, God and Greed”, Forbes magazine, June 2003. “The False Memory Syndrome Foundation, a Philadelphia debunking group, says at least 100 clergy cases involve people who claim they were molested or raped, blocked it out for decades and now suddenly remember.” Another quote about the lawyer who represents the four “victims” of Paul Shanley. “For Roderick (Eric) MacLeish, sex litigation is a big business. MacLeish says he represents 240 people bringing abuse claims against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.” The Shanley case is described as his “most celebrated current case.” Daniel Lyons is no Catholic Church acolyte nor is Forbes Magazine. The article is largely concerned with the effects of the scandal on the American insurance industry! There are just too many dubious cases. Have they all jumped on the bandwagon of a genuine scandal or is there something rotten about the entire child abuse issue? The story is much the same in Ireland. Artane was an industrial school mainly for teenage boys I think. Some would have committed offenses, some were orphans and others were neglected by their parents. The allegation about mass graves is an accusation of mass murder against the Christian Brothers! There was an article in the Sunday Independent (on 22 December 2002 I think) which claimed that there had been a “Holocaust” at another school in Letterfrack with bodies buried all over the place. The man who made the claim had been at Letterfrack about 20 years after the last boy died there! As I said, “Murder of the Undead” allegations are the Irish answer to Recovered Memory Syndrome. Rory Connor.

COMMENT 10

Is this discussion closed? I am going to attempt a final comment anyway. John Ihle and myself differ on most things but we both agree that Recovered Memory is crap. Since he is Jewish and I am Catholic this agreement is not ideological but genetic (i.e. we are both Irish). Recovered Memory Syndrome is a Freudian fable and only occurs in societies where Freudianism has made deep inroads into the culture. This did not happen in Ireland. The Catholic Church was strongly opposed to Freud’s ideas because they represented a threat to Catholic doctrines regarding sin, free will and personal responsibility. (Even aetheists should be concerned about the latter two). That is why we have lunatic lies like “Murder of the Undead” but not Recovered Memory. Both societies are sick but I prefer the Irish disease. A liar inhabits the same moral universe as the person who is telling the truth; he just has a different attitude to truth. The Recovered Memory brigade are from a different planet altogether. It is possible to repent of telling lies but how do you repent of Recovered Memory. Rory Connor.

COMMENT 1  
From my reading of the case Paul Shanley may well have been guilty of sex with underage but ADOLESCENT boys. Consensul sex with a 16 year old youth is a crime, but very different from raping a 6 year old. So why wasn’t he charged with his (possible) real crimes? In the 1970s Paul Shanley was a Gay and Liberal icon. He was part of the Church’s outreach to the Gay community and reached out so far that he swallowed their agenda hook, line and sinker. When he was removed from that ministry about 1980, Cardinal Madeiros (?) was denounced as reactionary. Part of the Gay agenda was (and is?) to reduce the age of consent. If Shanley was prosecuted for consensual sex with teenage youths, the trial might have focused on the issue of homosexual priests. Instead the prosecution brought vile and fantastic charges in order to demonise Shanley and the Catholic Church. Just a suggestion! Rory Connor. Has Rory connor got any religious/ psychotherapy training? If not, why the morbid interest in all things pertaining to sex & priests.

COMMENT I2

Does Rory Connor allegedly get a kick out of both? If he was a victim/survivor one would automatically understand from whence he was coming. but that is not the situation. Very mysterious indeed! There are countless worthy justice issues out there that need campaigners to fight for, but this gentleman seems to have nestled himself neatly amongst institutional victims/survivors despite having very little wherewithal in relation to the politics of these despicable gulags; of which, destroyed thousands of innocents’ lives. This witch – hunter needs desperately to find a new broom to clean his closet. There is also a lot of dust under his own creaky bed that needs sweeping! The old broom afterall, is completely worn out & is leaving too many tell – tale signs behind. A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 13

“I was a novice in the De La Salle Brothers in Castletown, Co. Laois, Ireland in the year 1966/1967. It was the peak experience of my life and the main reason why I have been engaged in the fight against false allegations of child abuse directed against Catholic clergy . My novice master was Brother Maurice Kirk. In August/September 1967 a Jesuit priest Father Michael Sweetman gave us our final Retreat” (spiritual conference) before we were professed as De La Salle Brothers. I left the Brothers in March 1969. Recently I deposited some material in archives and the following is part of a covering note”.

COMMENT 14

Rory Connor, what are the bona fide reasons for engaging yourself in the fight against false allegations? Are you hiding behind the mantle of a dead priest or what? Alternatively, under it, Is this cyclical behaviour on your part? If you are so fond of the Religious, why did you leave the De La Salle Brothers in the first occurrence?Would it be a piece of evidence that you have still not found what you are looking for?  
You also come into view as that of a personage that does not; have any comfort zone in life” from sound bytes, you send out, you emerge to be a someone who has this underlying need to salvage  
Are you still afflicted with hankerings after the Order in question? As from my angle, it sounds like it!  
Your morose inquisitiveness vis-a vis Clerical Sex Abuse stretches far and wide into the cyberspace world and it relates – only to males. On the other hand for, whatever reason you do not take an interest in female sexual abuse issues” Sex abuse, is sex abuse, is sex abuse and it happens to both species. Why differentiate between Homo – Sapiens. In this respect, you send out the message that you have an schema. A qualified person would spot it a mile away as they watch out for cues and you unquestionably give away many clues in your postings. For a man of the near cloth Freudian slip, it strikes me, as if you are being too exaggeratedly implicated, in the whole Sex Abuse shambles. The incessant rationalization you make a propos your departed guru does not wash. You looked up to your mentor and saw him as someone on a par with your parents and even better than them at a time in your life when you should have transferred your idolisation to young women. Did something go extremely wrong wherever in your youth that you have never come to terms with, – mal- imprinting perhaps? A few expert sessions with a skilled Freudian psychotherapist – preferably though,, not religious in your case could indubitably see you find your proper causes to fight – which may even turn out to be – your own corner. ‘Never look back’ says the song, but this is unerringly what you are doing. You are in a time warp and you do not even know it. I would comprehensively advocate that you find another valuable cause. You will never know the new cause could be more appropriate to your persona as you perceptibly do not have the attributes or the empathy for the one that you have of your own accord taken on. You have asymmetrical deranged in-sanitary contemptuous disillusioned uncanny black views. You are an discomfiture to the religious by all fanatical records. You have also become a laughing stock to victims/survivors of institutional abuse. You need to find a new familiarity that will re-ignite a blazing fire within. You might even reach higher magnitude ‘peak’-wise than the ones you rose to whilst with the De La Salle Brothers. Who knows – orgasmic heights unidentified to you may be to come for you. Conversely, Sir, my advise, in the interim is ˜get real” for The sake of the De La Salle Brothers & that too of institutional ex-detainees.  
Last but not least, for your own sake. as you are not going to find the real thing hanging out where you are patently not wanted.  
FROM: A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 15  
Among Shanley’s fiercest critics–and those who would have suffered the most because of what they say he did–are gay men and supporters of gay fights. “Paul Shanley didn’t rape me because he was gay,” says Arthur Austin, who Shanley manipulated during an emotionally fragile time in his early 20s to make him Shanley’s sex slave. “He raped me because he was a sociopath who was encouraged and nurtured by the archdiocese of Boston. They let it happen.” THIS LAST BIT NEEDS REPEATING “He raped me because he was a sociopath who was encouraged and nurtured by the archdiocese of Boston. They let it happen.” “He raped me because he was a sociopath who was encouraged and nurtured by the archdiocese of Boston. They let it happen.” “He raped me because he was a sociopath who was encouraged and nurtured by the archdiocese of Boston. They let it happen.” ….. “He raped me because he was a sociopath who was encouraged and nurtured by the archdiocese of Boston. They let it happen.” A VICTIM SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

Never look back – in anger – in anger – in anger – in anger – in anger – in anger – in anger – in anger – in anger. I slipped up, rather was a song by Queen? All these Freudian slips I am having to contend with are sending me into/up dizzy heights. Look back in anger is the old – time film. The choice is all yours, Rory Connor.

COMMENT 16

VICTIMS/SURVIVORS kindly take great care if you are “contacted” by a one TOM HAYES OF A FORUM FOR “HEALING”.  
I see he already has an AGENT OR TWO floating about. Two names to avoid are:TOM HAYES and RORY O CONNOR (ex Christian Brother))The “HELP” offered by these people consists of ANYTHING YOU SAY BEING RELAYED BACK TO RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES. Much more information can be given on this, but I shall find a manner, privately, to get this to you. A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 17

I CAN SECOND – ABOVE COMMENT, AS I TOO, HAVE HAD A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE TOM HAYES AND RORY O’ CONNOR WILL IN FUTURE COME WITH A WARNING SIGN FROM: “A ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY” VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 18

It is sheer lunancy to drop the statute of limitations for child abuse on the basis of the Paul Shanley case. Recovered Memory Syndrome is practically unknown in my country (Ireland). Even people who make patently false claims against the Catholic Church (e.g. allegations of murder at a time when no boy died of any cause) do not claim Recovered Memory. It is a Freudian fable and Freud was never very influential in Ireland. (We have no equivalent of Woody Allen either!). We Irish are not THAT different from Americans, especially in the way we react to severe trauma. If Recovered Memory only occurs in certain cultures, it cannot be real. Regards Rory Connor, Dublin.

COMMENT 19

This reminds me a lot of my own article which speaks for people who have been falsely accused of child abuse. By the way “Recovered Memory” is almost unknown in Ireland even though we have plenty of false accusations. It is a Freudian fable and Freudianism never put down deep roots in my country. The Catholic Church regarded it as an attack on the concepts of sin, of free will and of personal responsibility (and they were right). Rory Connor.

THE CONVICTION OF (FATHER) PAUL SHANLEY (excerpts)

Shanley’s original chief accuser was a man called Gregory Ford. As his parents tell it he had tried in vain for years to recall being molested by anyone. They showed him a newspaper article and photo of Shanley and he did not even remember the priest. Finally they showed him a snapshot of his first communion with Father Shanley and he collapsed sobbing and said that from 6 to 11 he had been raped by the priest. He alleged that Shanley took him from his one hour Sunday school class, raped him and then returned him to his schoolmates. The Fords say that Gregory never exhibited any unusual behaviour during those years. THEY CLAIM THAT AFTER EACH ONE OF 80 SEXUAL ASSAULTS, GREGORY FORGOT WHAT HAPPENED AND APPROACHED EACH NEW ASSAULT AS IF IT WERE THE FIRST. “AS SOON AS IT HAPPENED, EACH TIME HE LEFT THE ROOM, HE FORGOT ABOUT IT,” GREGS FATHER RODNEY FORD SAID. “THE SPECIALISTS HE SEES NOW ARE AMAZED HE COULD BLOCK THIS OUT, THAT HE HAD SUCH CONTROL”.

[1] Paul Shanley was convicted on ludicrous evidence because the USA is gripped by hysteria about child sex abuse. It is the same blind hysteria that secured Nora Walls’ conviction in June 1999. Who can forget those touching headlines! Vile Nun! Pervert Nun! I was Raped by Anti-Christ?. It was not only the tabloids that created this lunacy. ONE OF NORA WALL’S DEFENCE TEAM TOLD ME THAT SHE WAS CONVICTED IN A CLIMATE OF HYSTERIA CREATED BY THE MEDIA AND SPECIFICALLY BY MARY RAFTERY’S “STATES OF FEAR”? SERIES (RTE April/May 1999).

COMMENT 20

Comments  
A large number of sex allegations have been made against priests and nuns dating back decades. Does this mean that things were terrible when the… A large number of sex allegations have been made against priests and nuns dating back decades. Does this mean that things were terrible when the Church were powerful and that there is a vast improvement today? In my country (Ireland) there were about 6 murders a year in the 1950s. Today the figure is closer to 60 a year. Every other type of violent crime has increased in the same way, not to mention addiction and venereal disease. The only ‘exceptions” are deaths from AIDS and drug abuse which have not really “increased” because they hardly existed then. Are we supposed to believe that child abuse is the only exception to this sorry story? Look at this another way. It’s usually accepted that criminal behaviour starts early in life and that a child’s early experiences are vital in determining his future. So what type of early experioences are our children having today (as compared to 50 years ago)? I have put this question to some of my “liberal” friends and I have got very strange answers. I was told – more than once – that many murders were never reported in the 1950s! So maybe that explains the lack of statistics about deaths from AIDS and heroin back then. Maybe the Catholic Church was concealing them as well? I was also told that decades ago alcoholism was the same as drug abuse today. That is partly true but does it mean that the number of alcaholics is going down as the number of drug addicts increases? Rubbish. All doctors agree that both problems are getting worse. Moreover the children of addicted parents are more likely to be abused – either because the parents are out of control or because they cannot protect their children. So how is it possible to believe that children are better off today than they were in a society where the Church was powerful? We are now living in a “liberal”, secular society in which anything goes. Why do our liberals persist in blaming the Church for the evils all around them? I use the term Witch Hunt to refer to the entire range of hate filled propaganda against the Catholic Church. (I use the term “anti-Semitism” in a similar way). Does this mean that all of the accusations against clergy are false? No it does not. There are Catholic criminals just as there are Jewish criminals. The problem lies with the motives of those who condemn priests or Jews. Julius Streicher editor of the Nazi magazine Der Sturmer accused the Jews of being sexual perverts who murdered Christian boys. He also wrote that there were Jews in the American Mafia and among Stalin’s lieutenants. The last two accusations were true. This does not mean that Streicher was supporting Stalin’s victims or Mafia victims. He just used the existence of Jewish criminals to justify his hatred of the Jews. I think it is highly significant that both anti-clerics and anti-semites make bogus allegations of child murder. Dexx seems to be saying that if innocent clergy are accused of child abuse it is really the fault of the Catholic Church and not… Dexx seems to be saying that if innocent clergy are accused of child abuse it is really the fault of the Catholic Church and not of the people who tell the lies. Paulo McCabe was not a clergyman. He was mentally ill and living on the streets. Nora Wall was a Sister of Mercy and tried to help him. Thus he became a target of people who were really aiming at the Catholic Church. Maybe all homeless or poor people should refuse help from the Church in case they attract accusations of child abuse? If so do our anti-clerics plan to take over the Church’s I’m not sure what tc finds so hard to understand. If two Jewish Rabbis were the subject of Blood Libels (i.e. they were accused of… I’m not sure what tc finds so hard to understand. If two Jewish Rabbis were the subject of Blood Libels (i.e. they were accused of murdering boys at a time when no boy died), would it be hard to understand what is going on? I did not refer to only two false accusations. The two women who accused Nora Wall had made a string of rape allegations against several people. Only one even reached the courts (the Kilkenny case) and that was thrown out. One of them also accused a homeless schizophrenic man of raping her on her 12th birthday with the help of Nora Wall. This man Paulo McCabe was in jail on this ladys 12th birthday. He was the ultimate victim because he was accused simply as a way of getting at Nora Wall and the Sisters of Mercy. If a Jewish woman was convicted of rape on evidence like that, we would all agree that the cause is anti-Semitism. What is the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Clericalism. The comments on the Nora Wall case are extraordinary. Her two accusers had previously accused a father, brother, uncle, “black man in Leicester… The comments on the Nora Wall case are extraordinary. Her two accusers had previously accused a father, brother, uncle, “black man in Leicester Square” and a man from Co. Kilkenny in Ireland. After the trial the Kilkenny man saw an article in a newspaper and recognised the name of one accuser as the one who had made a false allegation against himself. He contacted a member of Nora Wall’s family and the case against Nora Wall promptly collapsed. I am personally aware of two cases where men accused the Christian Brothers of murdering boys in Artane Industrial School. They said they attended the funerals. (One made his clain in a newspaper, the other in a TV programme). No boy died while either of these was in Artane. It was not even “honest” hysteria. This is nastier than the Salem Witch Hunts. At least the Salem accusers believed in their allegations.

COMMENT 21

Rory Connor. Only one ex nun was ever brought into the equation. where the female gender is concerned, this was merely because she was a high profile figure. Just raking over the recent past. Rory, you too should try going back a bit further and delving into your own past . If you want a dig-out ask Bertie for a hand-out. In saying that – be mindful as nothiing sticks with this fella – his hand, in the interim might slip and knock you back into the big deep quagmire. Slippery Teflon/velcro Rory then would be an apt title. I would seriously recommend that vetting procedures be put in place before people like you come into contact with vulnerable victims/survivors of institutional abuse, as a lot of us don’t know where you are coming from. You, like some others, are very unnerving characters. Out of nowhere you entered the Child Abuse arena. Do the moderators of the Child Abuse websites know your credentials apart from what you want to divulge? The Dept of Education should be made aware that you are using a website that was set up for their usage. Victims/survivors do not need to be disturbed any further by your rantings on their site. A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 22

The Republic of Ireland in the International Context – – 14. The Council notes that placed in an international context the Republic of Ireland has a low level of recorded crime, at just above 2,000 per 100,000 of the population. Sweden, with a rate of just under 14,000 per 100,000 of the population has the highest rate. The Republic of Ireland belongs to a group of countries, which also includes Spain, Russia and Japan, which have low rates of crime. Indeed, in 1998 the rate of recorded crime fell here and in Denmark by six per cent, representing the largest drop in Europe. In terms of violent crime the Republic of Ireland is situated at the lower end of the scale; only Switzerland, Greece, Russia and Japan have lower rates. …. http://www.irlgov.ie/crimecouncil/docum … Report.pdf . From a victim/survivor of institutional abuse.

COMMENT 23

You are absolutely right: The Black Internationale has got Tim! I was a De La Salle Brother from 1966 to 69 and it was the formative experience of my life. My novice master Brother Maurice Kirk was as important as my parents if not more so. (He became head of the De La Salle Order in Ireland and was killed in a car crash on 10 April 1974.) In September 1967 at the end of our training a Jesuit priest Father Michael Sweetman gave us a 9 day Retreat (spiritual conference for you pagans). It’s true what the Jesuits say: when they control a child’s education they have him for life! Rory Connor

COMMENT 24

WHICH OF THE TWO HAS GOTTEN TO YOU RORY? IS IT – THE BLACK INTERNATIONALE? OR IS IT – THE BLACK GARB JESUITS? OR DO BOTH BOTHER YOU GREATLY AS METHINKS BETWIXT THE WITCHES AND THE RELIGIOUS YOU ARE IN TOTAL CONFUSION, THAT BOTH HAVE INDECIPHERABLY ‘EMERGE'{D} INTO THE ONE. UNDER THE ‘INFLUENCE’ OF VARYIOUS ‘VOICES’. IN THE HEAD ‘LOVE’ HATH NO BETTER FRIEND/VOICE THAN THAT OF ROARY THE HOARYS CRUSADING ONES  
I HONESTLY BELIEVE THAT YOU SHOULD BECOME A BUDDHIST MONK , AS YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY IN GREAT NEED OF ENLIGHTENMENT OF SOME DISCRIPTION. The practice of Buddhism is very much about becoming a better human being. To be a better human being means being able to help others as well as oneself, avoiding negative patterns of behavior and embracing positive ones. Here are five steps that you may find helpful in the pursuit of this goal. FROM A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.The practice of Buddhism is very much about becoming a better human being. To be a better human being means being able to help others as well as oneself, avoiding negative patterns of behavior and embracing positive ones. Here are five steps that you may find helpful in the pursuit of this goal. More later – on the Five Precepts of said religion!

COMMENT 25

Have you got the Irish Times Rory said to newspaper seller on the corner of Seven Sisters Road and Holloway Road/ Also can you tell me where the Nags Head pub is? “You are standing right outside of what was the Nags Head, came the reply”! A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE NOW RESIDING IN GREAT BRITIAN.  
_Last edited by Marie-Therese O’ loughlin (2006-12-17 22:58:59)_

#90 2006-12-08 17:57:34 **Marie-Therese O’ Loughlin**

    Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook {2}

Saturday November 4th 2006

Founded On Fear By Peter Tyrrell

Mavis Arnold

‘I am looking forward to re-writing the story. But should anything happen, i.e. an accident, or death (my death) I hope it will still be possible to publish the story based on my manuscript. The thing is that it will one day be printed.”

Peter Tyrrell was born into poverty on a small farm near Cappagh, Ahascragh, Co. Galway in 1916. His mother had eight children, a feckless husband, and was crippled with arthritis. They lived in a one-room barn with no windows.

When the mother’s begging, in desperation to feed her family, came to the attention of the civic guards, the authorities petitioned the courts to commit four of the children to St Joseph’s Industrial School in Letterfrack. Peter was eight years old and he was to remain there until he was 16.

He wrote this book in the 1950s long before there was any attention paid to the horrific treatment of children in industrial schools. It took many more years before the neglect, the mindless cruelty, the dreadful conditions in which the children lived were thrust upon a public who, despite what they must have suspected over the years, chose to ignore the desperate plight of thousands of children in so-called ‘care’.

Significantly, none of Peter’s claims was refuted by the Christian Brothers at the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, in 2005, and all the Brothers accused by him were subsequently removed.

It was the reign of terror by Brother Vale which seems to have made the entire Letterfrack experience a nightmare that continued for Peter all his life, until his tragic death. (Vale was later sent to a mental institution and died there.)

The most violent of the Brothers, he was merciless, regardless of the age of the child, and delivered violent blows with part of a rubber tyre reinforced with a steel band for the most trivial of misdemeanours. His beatings were legendary and the sounds of children screaming and weeping permeated throughout the building.

The children’s hands, covered with chilblains, were beaten; their heads were knocked against walls; they were kicked and battered. They were half-starved.

When Peter Tyrrell later joined the British army in 1939 and was taken prisoner he said that prison camp was a tea-party compared with his childhood. Letterfrack, he said, was “like Belsen”.

But not at Christmas, New Year’s Day or Easter when were there no beatings, and the Brothers (including Brother Vale) would stay up half the night cooking the dinner for the next day, and putting small presents into stockings.

It was as if an Amnesty had descended, and the children could be heard laughing and running about, without fear of violence.

It was Owen Sheehy Skeffington – a passionate campaigner against the brutal ethos of Irish education – who encouraged Peter to write an account of his time in Letterfrack.

But it was not until 40 years later that the manuscript came to light, as well as correspondence between the two of them, in Skeffington’s papers.

In 1966 a pamphlet was published by a branch of Tuarim on ‘The Residential Care of the Deprived Child in Ireland’ with the object of informing public opinion. But, for Peter Tyrrell, too much of the reality had been ignored and he wouldn’t believe the group when they assured him that things were better now.

A year after the publication of the Tuarim pamphlet, he committed suicide by setting himself alight on Hampstead Heath. The only clue to his identity was a torn postcard found next to the body with the words ‘Skeffington’ and ‘Dublin’.

In a note on the book cover, the UCC historian Prof. Dermot Keogh says: “The text cries out to Heaven! It holds up a mirror to official Ireland, the Irish state and the Catholic Church . . . read it and weep.”

Â© Irish Independent

“FOUNDED ON FEAR”; BY PETER TYRRELL.

EXCERPT

The new Brother has now arrived to take charge of cooking and the refectory. We are all whispering to each other, the first mornig at breakfast that brother Vale takes charge. It’s always exciting when a new Brother arrives.  
Everyone is asking himself the same question, is he quiet, or is he cross? All eyes are now on Brother Vale as we take our breakfast in silence…. I have heard that Brother Vale has just spent seven years in a deaf and dumb school near Dublin.  
He wears dark glasses so we cant see his eyes. He speaks very little as he signals us to sit down, stand up etc. His age is about the same as Walsh or Fahy.  
Annie Aspel in charge of the laundry said his age is about forty five, or as she puts it, THE AGE WHEN THEY ALL GO STRANGE.

Nothing very much happens for almost a week, it was on Sunday, when we are allowed to talk at meals. After been given permission, we were about halfway through our breakfast when the boys on number three table began to speak.  
Like a flash, Brother Vale rushed to the table and beat everyone across the back and the head with something which was neither a stick nor a strap We couldnt see him carry any weapon. He struck everyone about six blows at terrific speed. The screams and shouts were most frightening.

The boys on number three table were about thirteen years old. A few minutes after we were given permission to talk my Brother Joe discovered what it was that the boys were beaten with. It was an eighteen inch long piece of rubber, and it had been cut from a solid rubber tyre.  
Vale now pushed the rubber up under the shoulder of his jacket, so that the impression was plainly visible from the outside.

Nobody else was beaten during the meal, but when breakfast was finished, Vale went around and examined the floor under each person. Anyone who had allowed crumbs of bread to fall on the floor were ordered to get down and pick them up, as they did this, they were beaten with the rubber………….Peter Tyrrell. Ends  
COMMENT

This Vale, was subsequently committed to a MENTAL INSTITUTION, and died there. A raving LUNATIC OF STAGGERING PROPORTIONS, VALE, LIKE TOBIN, CONDUCTED A VILE CAMPAIGN OF PHYSICAL BRUTALTY WITHIN BOTH, THE KITCHEN AND REFECTORY………. PEA’S IN A POD, BOTH OF THESE DEBASED LUNATICS.

WERE THERE “BABIES” OF THREE AND A HALF YEARS OF AGE EATING IN THIS REFECTORY AS THIS LUNATIC VALE, RAN AMOK WITH HIS EIGHTEEN INCH LONG PIECE OF RUBBER TYRE?

Peter Tyrrell’s book is INDEED A SEARING INDICTMENT exposing the BRUTALITIES OF LETTERFRACK.

It should serve the Country well, whenever we HEAR OF ANY RELIGIOUS ORGANISATION PUTTING FORWARD “POLICIES” FOR THE “CARE” and “PROTECTION” of vulnerable children.

WE HAVE WITNESSED AND “EXPERIENCED” this so called “CARE and PROTECTION”, and HISTORY has shown that this CARE and PROTECTION of children BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH and its ORGANS, make SHARIA LAW, AN ACCEPTABLE TENET OF WESTEN “CIVILISATION”

Peter Tyrrell’s book does indeed PUT MANY LARGE NAILS IN THE COFFINS OF THE BLACK GARBS, and RIGHTLY SO.

So much so in fact, that one ex de la silly Christian Brother, RORY, {it’s ok to f..k vulnerable children} CONNOR, has been on a “MISSION” IN London, attempting to DIG UP SOME “DIRT” on Peter Tyrrell to off-set THE GRIEVOUS DAMAGE DONE TO THE BLACK GARBS BY TYRRELL’S BOOK.

Mr RORY (it’s ok to rape vulnerable children) CONNOR, has also voiced and vouchsafed his OPINION to OFFER REBUTTAL to the contents of Peter Tyrrell’s book, titled no doubt, “FOUNDED ON FILTH”, a title in keeping with the “holy” order he once belonged to, NOW REVILED AROUND THE WORLD AS CRIMINALS, LIARS, BRUTES AND THUGS.

THE RAPISTS OF CHILDREN, THE SODOMIZERS OF CHILDREN, THE BUGGERERS OF CHILDREN, THE BRUTAL TORTURERS OF CHILDREN, yes, none other than the DE LA SALLE ORDER OF christian brothers. In tandem with their COHORTS of other religious orders, the exposure of THESE MOST BRUTAL AND VILE SATANIC CULTS has been WIDELY REPORTED AROUND THE WORLD.

Mr RORY (it’s ok for a Christian Brother to force oral rape on a child) CONNOR, has in recent years conducted his HATE FILLED CAMPAIGN on the Institutionally Abused, a most vile campaign based on nothing more than religious BIGOTRY and failing MENTAL HEALTH.

Mr RORY (it’s ok to starve and brutalize innocent children) CONNOR, has achived a certain degree of NOTORIETY by soft peddaling his “BA” IN HISTORY as a means and tool TO ATTACK THE HIGHEST IN THE LAND OF ENABLING A “WITCH HUNT” TO ENSUE AGAINST HIS BELOVED religious orders.  
From the TAOISEACH down, Mr RORY, (it’s ok to beat thOSE WHO WERE IN THE PAST incarcerated into animlastic states) CONNOR, has attacked all and sundry who fail to MARCH TO THE BEAT OF HIS DRUM, as liars, criminals and thugs, who are hell bent on obtaining money through the REDRESS BOARD by the application of FALSE ALLEGATIONS, obviously that can be regarded as “fair comment” when indulged in by the MENTALLY AFFLICTED.

Mr RORY, (it’s ok to kick a child to death in Tralee) CONNOR has displayed MENTAL AFFLICTION of a most insidious nature, and I feel it’s a BIT BELOW THE BELT TO LABEL BERTIE AS A CRIMINAL, LIAR, THUG AND BRUTE.

Merely becuse HE RECOGNISED THE FACT IN LAWFUL TERMS OF THE HORRENDOUS AND BRUTAL SEXUAL AND PHYSICAL ATROCITIES COMMITTED IN THE CHILD BROTHELS OF IRELAND, ON THE INNOCENT, THE HELPLESS, THE DEFENCLESS.

So much so that FOLLOWING BERTIE’S APOLOGY, ON BEHALF OF THE NATION, A LAWFULLY CONSTITUTED COMMISSION OF INQUIRY WAS ESTABLISHED, UNDER CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND ENACTMENT.

NOT ONLY TO ASCERTAIN THE EXTENT OF THIS RAMPANT AND VILE CLERICAL SEXUAL TERRORISM, BUT TO ALSO ENSURE THAT THROUGH SUCH EXPOSURE OF THIS PRACTICED CLERICAL SEXUAL TERROTRISM, such barbarity could NEVER AGAIN occur, or happen in Ireland.

Fair play to Bertie, and BOLLOCKS TO RORY. Mr RORY, ((it’s ok for children to be used as slave labour) CONNOR, has a “thing” about REPUTABLE JOURNALISTS who not only SPEAK THE TRUTH, but also REPORT THE TRUTH.

Mr RORY (it’s ok for children, who absconded to be forced to run around a playground till they could no longer run, that they dropped down like flies from exhaustion, and were KICKED into getting up and made run again)

CONNOR, can only be likened to some medieval jester of assisine ability, through mental impairment imposed no doubt by the brainwashing techniques he willingly submitted himself to as he entered, as an “innocent novice” the hallowed portals of his prison, from whence his “MENTORS” emerged, his beloved Fr Sweetmad, and Captain Kirk of the STARSHIP ENTERPRISE, or was it Maurice Kirk, do forgive me Rory, MY memory, like yours is not what it was, MINE GOT BETTER. Forsaking his PARENTS, and their LOVE thereto,

Mr RORY (it’s ok to have your hair shaven from your head, and beaten with a leather on it) CONNOR, lasted, it seems, THREE whole YEARS WITH THE DE LA SILLY Christian Brothers, AND THEN HE LEFT! BUT “WHY” HE LEFT REMAINS TO THIS DAY “UNCLEAR”, Any comments Rory boy?

Catch you later sunshine. From a victim/survivor of institutional abuse domiciled in London, England.

DECEMBER 2006 – NEWSLETTER FROM: THE RESIDENTIAL INSTITUTIONS REDRESS BOARD.

Newsletter December 2006………….. Friday, 8th December 2006………… This is the 13th in a series of newsletters which the Board has decided to produce to keep applicants informed from time to time as to the procedures it follows and other developments. The Boardâ€™s â€œGuide to Hearing Proceduresâ€ issued in April 2003 and in December of last year the Board issued the third edition of the guide. The Boardâ€™s annual report for 2005 issued to the Minister for Education and Science in June of this year. This report can be viewed on the Boardâ€™s website www.rirb.ie and is available free of charge from the Boardâ€™s office…………… Applications:……. The final date for receipt of applications has now passed and the Board has received a total of 14,541 applications; 9,432 of which were received in 2005. Of these 2,255 were received in November and 3,700 were received in December……….. The Board notifies applicants once it has received all necessary documentation in relation to their case. These notifications, known as completion letters, issue at a rate commensurate with the Boardâ€™s ability to finalise applications and therefore do not always issue immediately after the Board has complied with its obligations in relation to the notification of relevant persons as outlined in the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2002. The Board is conscious that, given the disproportionately large number of applications lodged immediately before the statutory deadline of December 15th 2005 (3,700 applications were lodged in the first two weeks of December 2005 compared with 104 for the same period in 2004) there will be a considerable time lapse before these applications can be finalised………… Applications Received after 15th December 2005:…………. In accordance with section 8(1) of the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 the final date for receipt of applications was December 15th 2005. The Board has received a total of 166 applications since that date. These applications have been dealt with by the Board in accordance with the Act……….. Awards:…………. To date the Board has completed the process in 7,168 cases. 5,256 offers have been made following settlement talks and 1,567 awards have been made following hearings. 5 applicants have rejected their awards. 345 applications were withdrawn, refused or resulted no award. By and large applications have been refused as, on the face of the documentation, the application was outside the Boards terms of reference as laid down in the 2002 Act. In other words the applications did not relate to residential institutions as defined in the Act. These applications are determined by the Board immediately on receipt so that the applicant is informed at the earliest possible date that his/her application is outside the ambit of the redress scheme……………. The average value of awards to date is 71,000, the largest award being 300,000. Redress Board Bands……………… The breakdown of awards by Redress Band is as follows:…….. Redress Bands Total Weightings for Severity of Abuse and Injury/Effects of Abuse…… Award Payable by way of Redress……. Number……… Percentage………… V 70 or more 200,000 – 300,000 20 0.29%…………….. IV 55 69 150,000 – 200,000 143 2.08%……………….. III 40 54 100,000 – 150,000 1151 16.74%……………. II 25 39 50,000 -100,000 3842 55.88%…………… I Less than 25 Up to 50,000 1719 25.00%………… Total: 6875…….. 100.00%…. Sittings………… The Board sits every day in its premises in Clonskeagh and now completes approximately 213 cases per month. It has also sat in Galway and Limerick. The Board sits for approximately one week per month in Cork and will continue to do so as long as there are sufficient applications from the region.

COMMENT:1

Poor Rory had to stay in a five star hotel in London while doing the dirty work for the religious freaks and now that he and his plans have been exposed the gobshite was recalled back to Dublin. Victim/survivor of institutional abuse.

BRUTALITY IN LETTERFRACK

October 31, 2006

A Chara, – Mary Raftery recently likened the dreadful experience of Peter Tyrell to that of Primo Levi (Opinion, October 19th). After hearing extracts from Tyrell’s book on the radio the other night, I was struck by the aptness of Raftery’s comparison.

Both men, through no fault of their own, found themselves locked in a nightmare. They suffered appalling brutality and humiliation. They were stripped of their dignity and lived in sheer terror.

The comparison doesn’t end there. In both cases society closed its eyes. The extraordinary way in which a combination of hatred and cowardice gave rise to collusion in Nazi Germany is well documented. But if it is true that ordinary Germans knew well about the horrors inside Dachau, here in Ireland ordinary people knew about places like Letterfrack. Worse still, they colluded in it. A garda would assist in rounding up boys for industrial schools. A farmer would hand over escapees that he found on his land. All in full knowledge of the cruel regimes to which the boys were being returned. Politicians rounded on anyone – and they were few – who dared to speak out. The Catholic Church, cruel and tyrannical, defended its regime with ferocity.

As Peter Tyrell sobbed after his brutal drubbings, he must have wondered what kind of people lived in the little cottages all around. He must have asked himself how a Mass-going community could allow an enclave of brutality in its midst. His heart must have been continually breaking as he wondered what he had done to deserve this cruelty.

Levi suffered a similar collapse in his faith in mankind. But at least he had the satisfaction of seeing the demise of the sick regime that was responsible for his suffering. Poor Peter Tyrell had been brave enough to raise his voice against the tyranny only to be shouted down.

In his quest for justice he met a stone wall, thick and steadfast like that of a church. We are still dismantling that wall and it is essential that we try to understand how it was built. – Is mise. CIARÃN MAC AONGHUSA, Churchtown, Dublin 14.

COMMENT:2

JASUS, that’s AWFUL, I mean RORY, (it’s ok to be deranged) CONNOR, having to give up his LUXURY HOTEL and ABANDON his “INQUIRIES”, is there NO JUSTICE in this world. Not for an eejit like him, that’s for sure.

Straying from the ambit of what little ability he posSesses (BA in history), and showing a lack of comensurate confidence in tandem with his ignorance, gained by THREE YEARS WITH THE DE LA SILLYS, a handi-cap in ANY mans language.

Rory, {it’s ok to support clerical sexual terrorism} CONNOR, bereft of observational learning and perceiving of himself as a model of competence and high status saw fit to imbue himself with a paradigm of nonsencical belief bordering on lunacy which can be progressively tracked to “life events” which so tragically decimated his “adolescence”.

We can witness this appropos by the abscence of reflective communications to HIMSELF, never mind others, which effectively denudes him of self understanding leading to a lack of inner sustenence so necessary to form opinions which govern attitudes, and as the religiously inducted and brainwashed NOW KNOW, corrective emotional experiences lie beyond their grasp as they are trapped and encapsulated forever in an “adolescent state” imposed by religious dogma.

“ARMED” with such “weapons” RORY, (it’s ok to be an idiot) CONNOR, entered “THE ARENA” of North London to GATHER DIRT on Peter Tyrrell, no doubt in answer to a “request” from the black garbs………Peter Tyrrell’s book , “FOUNDED ON FEAR,” MUST be giving rise to CONSIDERABLE CONCERN in certain quarters!

Mr RORY, (it’s ok to impose the genre of NE`ER DO WELLS to all the institutionally abused) CONNOR, reposed in luxury during his stay in London, somewhat truncated, but however A FIVE STAR HOTEL HERE DOES COST MONEY! AND “WHO” PAID FOR YOUR “DRIVER”RORY?

NO DOUBT, WHEN “THINGS” GO UP ON “YOU TUBE”it wont TAKE LONG to rid him. Your very presence here Rory leaves NO MISUNDERSTANDING AS TO YOUR INTENT AND PURPOSE WHICH IS TO DISCREDIT PETER TYRRELL.

Let me ASSURE YOU, it will be a BUMPY RIDE FOR YOU SUNSHINE. THE “ARENA” RORY, is for GLADIATORS, not WIMPS!

Your task “centred mission” in deflecting CLERICAL SEXUAL TERRORISM FROM THOSE “DESERVING”OF SUCH TITLE, has FAILED, and FAILED MISERABLY.

THERE IS “NO DEFENCE” Mr RORY, (it’s ok to beat up three and a half year old babies) CONNOR, TO CRIMINALS, LIARS, BRUTES AND THUGS, whose main remit in life WAS TO DESTROY CHILDREN, this barbaric practiced consisted of, RAPE, BUGGERY, SODOMY, TORTURE, STARVATION, FORCED LABOUR, EMOTIONAL DESTRUCTION, FAMILY DESTRUCTION, EDUCATIONAL DESTRUCTION, MORAL DESTRUCTION, RELIGIOUS DESTRUCTION, MENTAL DESTRUCTION, PSYCHLOGICAL DESTRUCTION, YOU NAME IT.

Mr RORY, (it’s ok to be a brute)) CONNOR, THE DE LA SALLES, THE IRISH Christian Brothers, THE penguins, AND OTHER religious RIFF RAFF BRUTES, CRIMINALS, LIARS AND THUGS WHO SYSTEMICALLY SET ABOUT IN ALMOST AN “INDUSTRIALIZED BRUTAL PROCESS” TO MALICIOUSLY AND WILFULLY DESTROY A WHOLE GENERATION OF IRISH DEFENCLESS CHILDREN.

AS AN ex Christian Brother, YOU TOO WERE ONCE PART OF THAT PROCESS. I STIIL AWAIT “NEWS” OF YOU ACCEPTING “MY CHALLENGE” TO TAKE YOU ON. Perhaps, the COWARDLY WAY OUT is best for you sunshine, yes, THE RELIGIOUS WAY. VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.  
_Last edited by Marie-Therese O’ loughlin (2006-12-17 22:57:27)_

#91 2006-12-08 21:57:35 **Marie-Therese O’ Loughlin**

    Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook {2}

Dear Daughter 1996

“I wanted to find my Dad and say ‘see what I’m suffering for the like of you’.”

The unwanted child from a relationship between a Nigerian medical student and a married Dublin woman, Christine Buckley was abandoned at three weeks and subsequently brought up in Goldenbridge orphanage where life for her and other children like her, was pure hell. Dear Daughter is the story of this coloured Irish woman’s persistent and ultimately successful search for her parents.  
Dear Daughter synopsis  
Louis Lentin

A coloured Dublin woman’s search for her parents exposes abuse in Goldenbridge Orphanage.

“I wanted to find my parents and kill them” Christine Buckley reflects at the opening to Dear Daughter. This documentary allowed Christine Buckley and other women to tell of the physical and mental abuse they were subjected to while in care at the Sisters of Mercy orphanage at Goldenbridge Dublin in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

Christine Buckley’s birth was the result of an affair between a married Dublin woman and visiting Nigerian student. At the age of three weeks she was given up for fostering. Having been in a number of foster homes at the age of four Christine Buckley was sent to Goldenbridge, an orphanage run by the Sisters of Mercy.

Much of the first half of the documentary concentrates on the memories of growing up in Goldenbridge. Director Louis Lentin uses dramatizations to illustrate the memories of the women. He also has the women re-enact things they did in the orphanage as children now as grown women. In one scene the women are shown making rosary beads as they tell how they were under pressure as children to meet a quota of making sixty sets of beads a day.

The accounts of the physical and mental cruelty the children endured are truly shocking. Tales of beatings, scaldings and infants strapped to potties do not make this an easy documentary to watch. One woman recalls how she broke a statue of the Virgin Mary while playing with another child. As her punishment she was made stand overnight in the pose of the statue she had damaged.

The second half of the documentary concentrates on Christine Buckley’s search for her parents. Christine left Goldenbridge and having completed her leaving certificate she went to Drogheda to study nursing. She married in 1977 and after an illness in 1983 she began the long search for the truth about her parents. When she finally traces her mother, her image for years of what this reconciliation would be like is shattered. Christine Buckley’s mother does not want to know her. As Christine Buckley says, ” There was nothing about her I recognised. I had looked forward to this day and I thought that we would be able to become friends and I thought we would be able to have many an hour sipping coffee in Bewelys… as I looked at this woman I knew it could never be like this.”

To trace her father Christine needed her mother’s permission for his name to be released. A year after meeting her mother permission for the name to be released was granted. After another search her father was traced back to his home in Nigeria where he is now a doctor. The first letter Christine received from him opened with the words Dear daughter which gives the documentary its title.

Dear Daughter is a fascinating yet at times difficult to watch documentary. The pain that memories of Goldenbridge have for the women at that time is there for the viewers to see. If there is a small quibble over the style it is that the dramatisations are awkward at times and jar the story. This is particularly true towards the end when Christine her husband and children act out some of her memories.

As almost a postscript the last couple of minutes of the documentary have Sister Helen O’Donoghue, the current Provincial Leader of the Sisters of Mercy expressing sorrow for things that happened in the past. Dear Daughter had huge audience figures in Ireland. It was broadcast at a time when Ireland as a country was beginning to uncover some dark secrets about how people in trust in our society had abused that trust.

Can be viewed at the Irish Film Archive by Liam Reilly

Medical View ‘inconsistent’ with Goldenbridge Abuse

{Added on November 5, 2004}

A SENIOR surgeon who worked at the hospital where children from the Goldenbridge orphanage were treated during the 1950s has said that he cannot corroborate the description of the most severe injury inflicted on Christine Buckley. She claims injuries were inflicted on her by beatings at the hands of Sister Xavieria, the Sister of Mercy nun at the centre of the controversy over alleged abuse at the orphanage.  
Buckley, who was the subject of the Dear Daughter documentary on Goldenbridge broadcast by RTE television last month was among 18 former residents who alleged physical and verbal abuse by Xavieria. Their claims have since been supported by dozens of former residents. But in the medical opinion of J B Prendiville, a surgeon attached to Dr Steeven’s, the hospital which treated Goldenbridge children from 1955 until its closure in 1987, Buckley’s claim in the documentary that her leg was split open from her hip to her knee alter a beating by Xavieria is difficult to comprehend.  
This has added to controversy over the claims made by Buckley and others against Xavieria. The nun denied abusing the children on RTE’s Prime Time programme last week and a number of former Goldenbridge residents have supported her. Now Buckley says she is appalled that the abuse is denied by Xavieria, questioned by medics, and missed as exaggeration some former residents.  
Buckley said she was viciously beaten by Xavieria after it was discovered she had smuggled a letter out to a newspaper with the bread delivery man. The nun, she claims her repeatedly on the legs with a stick, using such force that her thigh burst open from her hip to her knee, leaving a scar that stretched from her buttock to the end of her thigh.  
She says she recalls being brought to the hospital covered in blood. She was treated in casualty, or “the dispensary” as it was known to the children. She recalls her wound being sutured and dressed â€” she believed she received 80 to 120 stitches. She was not admitted as a patient to the hospital, and after her wounds were dressed was sent back to the orphanage. Prendiville said he cannot recall ever treating a Goldenbridge child with a lacerated thigh. He said an injury needing such extensive stitching would not have been treated in Casualty. Standard medical practice would have necessitated that such an injury would require extensive surgery under a general anaesthetic, and a child with such an injury would have been detained as a patient at the hospital. In his experience, injuries to limbs caused by blunt instruments do not cause significant lacerations, but are more liable to cause fractures and muscular injuries â€” a medical view supported by R B Fisher, consultant at Belfast City hospital with 10 years experience of treating the victims of punishment beatings.  
As a specialist in soft-tissue injury and burns Prendiville said that such an injury would have been referred to him by medical staff; since it was an unusual case he would have undoubtedly recorded it for academic purposes. But he has no record or memory of any such case although he concedes he might well have been away at the time Buckley’s leg injury brought her to Dr Steeven’s.  
Moreover, he has not seen the scars she still bears on her leg. His assessment is based on what was the standard practice in the casualty department, of which he was in charge. Neither he, nor three other medics who worked at Dr Steeven’s in the 1950s, can recall anything suspicious among the Goldenbridge children who regularly attended the hospital with typical childhood ailments.  
There is no documentation to chart what happened to these children. Medical records were destroyed in a fire after the hospital closed. The doctors are casting their minds back to incidents that happened more than 40 years ago, a time when responses to child abuse were generally muted. And some former residents of the orphanage have emphasised the repeated warnings, prior to hospital visits, that they should lie about the cause of their injuries.  
Buckley’s testimony has been supported by dozens of former residents of Goldenbridge and another institution. St Kyran’s where Xavieria also worked. The nun herself reportedly wrote to a friend “The allegations all nearly have a basic bit of truth but are blown up to an unbelievable state.”  
One of the more chilling allegations to surface was that an 11-month-old baby died four days after she was put into Goldenbridge. When the infant’s father, Myles Howe. returned from England and went to St Ultan’s hospital, he was told by a nurse that his baby had burns on her knees but the staff had got her too late to save her. The postmortem said the child died of dysentery.  
The Howes have never been satisfied by the official response. Prendiville recalls that St Ultan’s was established largely for dealing with bowel complaints such as dysentery or gastroenteritis, a common illness among children which at that time could reach epidemic proportions in Dublin. He speculated that Marian Howe was more than likely admitted to St Ultan’s with a bowel complaint. “I wouldn’t say that burns of that size on a child’s legs would have been the cause of death. They didn’t treat burns in St Ultan’s. If the baby died from a burn, there would have to be an inquest. But failure to communicate information is a defect in many hospitals,” he said.  
But if the burns were not the cause of Marian’s death, asks Howe, why was he told by Xavieria that it was an “accident” and not dysentery that killed his child? Why, on his arrival at St Ultan’s to see his dead child, did a nurse indicate to him that his daughter had died of burns? And why could nobody explain to him the large burn marks on the sides of her knees?  
The outrage that followed the Prime Time programme was directed as much at Xavieria’s denials of abuse as at an apparently “soft” line of questioning. The allegation that a baby in her charge died of burns was not put to her on the programme. The reason was that after researching the allegation, the Prime Time team could find no evidence to support it. according to an RTE source. The reporter did ask Xavieria about the incident, he said, but her response was edited out of the programme.  
Both Buckley and Dear Daughter producer Louis Lentin, regard the Prime Time report as an effort by RTE to undermine the documentary. “Sister Xavieria is perfectly entitled to any right of reply, but this programme bent over backwards to be reverential,” said Lentin. “The facts were not put to her in a strong, investigative manner.” Additional reporting: Jan Battles. Sunday Times 28/04/96

*I was too harsh on the orphans, admits nun*

{By Toby Harnden, Ireland Correspondent}

A NUN accused of cruelty while in charge of orphanages in the 1950s and early 1960s has admitted punishing children, “at times too harshly”, but denied allegations of serious abuse of those in her care.

Sister Mary Xavieria, 78, became the focus of the latest damaging scandal for the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland when claims of ill-treatment were made by some who had lived in institutions run by her order, the Sisters of Mercy.

Irish detectives are investigating allegations made in a television documentary that children were placed in a tumble-drier, scalded and, in one alleged instance, beaten hard enough to require hospital treatment.

On Tuesday night Sister Xavieria broke her silence to tell the RTE programme Prime Time that her life had been wrecked by the claims.

Many of those who spent time at the Goldenbridge orphanage in north Dublin had portrayed her as a harsh and pitiless woman. Sister Xavieria admitted forcing children to make rosary beads when they should have been playing.

She also said: “I did slap, I am sorry to say, on the hands and the leg. I inherited a slapper. It was a half-inch thick and had rounded edges like a ruler. At times I was too harsh.”

“Before my God and from my conscience, I have never put a child in a drier”  
Sister Xavieria denied scalding a child – “I would never have deliberately poured water on anybody” – and said no child was put in a tumble-drier while in her care.

“Before my God and from my conscience, I have never put a child in a drier,” she said.

She admitted that a child had been confined to a furnace room on one occasion for between 20 minutes and half an hour as a punishment, though not by her.

“I would not approve of it, I did not do it. I’m sorry it happened at all.”

Sister Xavieria, now living in retirement in a home run by her order, added: “I feel thoroughly sorry and I apologise to all the people out there I hurt in any way.”

Christine Buckley, 49, who alleged that she was the victim of severe beatings and ill-treatment by Sister Xavieria, said the programme was an injustice to those who had suffered.

“It’s despicable that Sister Xavieria is now saying she is sorry. I wrote to her in 1984 listing abuses she inflicted on me and I never heard from her,” Mrs Buckley claimed.

Carmel McDonnell, who was in Goldenbridge after Sister Xavieria left, said she was operating a helpline for victims and had received about 700 calls from people claiming they had been ill-treated.

Others, however, defended Sister Xavieria. Jenny O’Brien, who lived at St Kyran’s orphanage in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, said: “I cried on her behalf because she has to sit there and account for things she didn’t do…………” Mrs O’Brien is part of a group of former orphans supporting Sister Xavieria.

COMMENT 1

I CAN SEE CLEARLY WHAT IT IS THEY ARE TRYING TO DO. THEY ARE TRYING TO TWIST THINGS AND SAY IT WAS THE CHILDREN WHO ABUSED EACH OTHER. THIS IS UTTER NONSENSE. MY TIME IN GOLDENBRIDGE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL WAS DREADFUL. THERE WERE THREE EXTREMLY VIOLENT SADISTIC NUNS RUNNING THE PLACE WITH AN IRON FIST. SR BERNADINE, SR XAVERIA, AND SR FABIAN. THE STAFF WAS MADE UP OF MISS DEVANEY, WHO HAD A CELL IN ST JOSEPHS DORMITORY, WHERE THE BABIES SLEPT. MISS DEVANEY STOOD BY AND WATCHED AND DID NOTHING TO STOP THE BRUTALITY.

MISS GUIREY WAS ALWAYS DRUNK AND ALSO SMOKED LIKE A TROOPER. SHE ALSO ONLY WORE MENS CLOTHES AND HAD A MANS HAIR – CUT. SHE WAS SO SADISTIC THAT CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS TWO YEARS OLD WET THEMSELVES OUT OF FEAR. THIS ALSO HAPPENED WHEN SISTER XAVERIA AND SR BERNADINE WERE PRESENT. THERE ALSO WAS MISS GROGAN, MISS LOWE.

THE REST OF UNTRAINED STAFF WERE MADE UP OF WOMEN WHO HAD GROWN UP IN GOLDENBRIDGE. {WHO WERE KEPT ON AS WORKERS }……………… THESE WOMEN WERE VERY DAMAGED THEMSELVES. THEY GOT ACCOMMODATION AND A SMALL REMUNERATION. THE WHOLE ATMOSPHERE WITHIN THE CONFINED WALLS OF GOLDENBRIDGE WAS ONE OF INCREDIBLE VIOLENCE AND NEGLECT.

WE WERE NOT EVEN ALLOWED A DRINK WATER – SO WE WERE FORCED TO DRINK OUT OF THE TOILETS, LIQUIDS WERE REFUSED AFTER SIX PM EACH EVENING SO THE CHILDREN WERE LEFT SADLY WITH NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE.

DURING MY TIME OF DETENTION IN GOLDENBRIDGE, THE STAFF DID NO DOMESTIC WORK. ‘CHILDREN DID EVERYTHING’, WE WERE WATCHED OVER BY STAFF AND NUNS WHO CONTINUALY BEAT US WITH STICKS AS WE WORKED.  
THE CHILDREN WERE NOT VIOLENT TOWARDS EACH OTHER – BUT THE STAFF USED TO BEAT US TO TRY AND FORCE US TO ATTACK ONE ANOTHER.  
‘ EVIL’ IS THE RIGHT WORD TO DESCRIBE THESE MONSTERS, WHO WERE ALSO MENTALLY UNBALANCED. POOR CHILDREN WERE FORCED TO HAVE TO LIVE WITH SUCH MAD SADISTS.

CHILDREN IN GOLDENBRIDGE DID NOT BEAT EACH OTHER UP. THE NUNS AND STAFF DID PLENTY OF THAT.  
INDEED, CHILDREN WOULDN’T HAVE HAD THE TIME TO CARRY ON WITH THE LIKE AS THEY WERE ALWAYS WORKING, WHETHER IT WAS IN THE ROSARY BEAD MAKING FACTORY {FOR HOURS } OR, SOMETIMES, WELL INTO THE NIGHT OR TO FINISH AN ORDER FOR THE LOCAL FACTORY

OTHERWISE,CHILDREN WERE SLAVING AWAY – MAKING BROCHES, GLUING PAPER BAGS FOR SHOPS, OR SEWING POSH LACE ONTO LADIES UNDERWEAR FOR SHOPS OUTSIDE.  
WHEN NOT OCCUPIED WITH THE ABOVE WE WERE SCRUBBING, POLISHING, OR WERE GOING HUNGRY AND COLD AND WERE TERRIFIED. THIS WAS LIFE IN GOLDENBRIDGE, AND IF YOU THINK VICTIMS/SURVIVORS WHO GREW UP IN THIS HORRIBLE PLACE ARE ALL VERY ODD. IS IT ANY WONDER! FROM A VICTIM/SURVIVOR – NOW SADLY DOMICILED IN GB.

COMMENT 2

“The majority of us did not get an ounce of love. It shows they have absolutely no idea of the pain we endured”………CHRISTINE BUCKLEY.

Sr Helena O’Donoghue: was shocked by claims.  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
Wednesday March 16th 2005

Nuns tell heated abuse inquiry that orphanage head was unfairly ‘demonised’ in documentary

THE Mercy Sisters have said that while they accept abuses did take place at Goldenbridge industrial school, they deny the most serious allegations, especially those made against the former head of Goldenbridge, Sr Xaviera.

The statement was made yesterday during a public hearing of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Sr Helena O’Donoghue, a member of the Mercy Sisters’ leadership, was giving evidence about the general regime at the industrial school, officially known as St Vincent’s.

The school gained notoriety in 1996 when RTE screened the drama documentary ‘Dear Daughter’ which focused on the story of Christine Buckley and the allegations of brutality she made against Sr Xaviera, who was resident manager at Goldenbridge at the time.

Sr O’Donoghue, who stressed she had no personal knowledge of the school and was instead relying on written records and the testimony of third parties, recalled the dramatic effect ‘Dear Daughter’ had on her order, which is the biggest in Ireland.

She said they were shocked that so many of the people who had been in their care had such bad memories of their time in Goldenbridge and other industrial schools under their management.

However, she complained that Sr Xaviera, who is still alive, had been “demonised and vilified” as a result of the programme. “Serious allegations were accepted in the public domain as fact.”

Sr O’Donoghue recalled how, shortly after the ‘Dear Daughter’ broadcast, Sr Xaviera publicly denied the most serious claims of abuse made against her, although she acknowledged she ran a strict regime at the school which included use of corporal punishment.

Sr O’Donoghue said that Sr Xaviera’s denial of the most serious abuse allegations “was ignored by the media”. She said “judgment had been made”.

Christine Buckley, who runs the victim support group, Aislinn, was in the audience at yesterday’s hearing with a group of former residents of Goldenbridge who interrupted proceedings with shouts of “lies” and “whitewash”.

Legal counsel for Ms Buckley, the former Attorney General John Rogers, intervened saying that Ms Buckley felt she was not being given a chance to respond in public to what Sr O’Donoghue was saying. He indicated that Sr O’Donoghue’s testimony amounted to a denial of the abuse allegations made by Ms Buckley herself.

He said his client felt that if Sr O’Donoghue was permitted to comment in public hearings on her allegations, then Ms Buckley should also be permitted to respond in public hearing.

Commission chairman, Justice Sean Ryan, indicated he could give no assurance on this point. But Ms Buckley and over 30 other former residents of Goldenbridge will be giving testimony of their experiences at the school in private session beginning on Friday until April 27. Areas of contention can then be discussed in public hearing under cross-examination.

Among the most serious allegations against Sr Xaviera and Goldenbridge generally included that she beat Ms Buckley on the leg so hard that it split open, and that babies were badly neglected and even died as a result of mistreatment.  
David Quinn Religious Affairs Correspondent.Â© Irish Independent

Woman beaten by nuns attacks probe into abuse

Henry McDonald, Ireland Editor

Sunday September 14, 2003

The Observer  
The embattled Laffoy Commission into child abuse sent a victim subjected to 15 years of beatings and humiliations by nuns for counselling to a nun.  
May Henderson, who was sent to the notorious Goldenbridge orphanage at the age of two, described the commission’s decision as ‘the final insult after a childhood of abuse’.

Speaking publicly for the first time about her time at Goldenbridge, the London-based pensioner accused the government-backed commission of being ‘totally insensitive’ towards victims like her.

May was born in Dublin 70 years ago and at the age of two was incarcerated against her mother’s will in Goldenbridge because she was illegitimate.  
Despite repeated assurances by her father that he could take care of his daughter, the nuns at the orphanage refused to let May have any contact with him.

They even hid 31 letters her father wrote to his child while serving in the Royal Ulster Rifles during the war.

May only received the letters a couple of years ago when the state and the religious orders were forced to tell the truth about the regime of cruelty and deprivation in the church-run orphanages and institutions.

‘When the Laffoy Commission was first established I wrote to them and told my story,’ she said. ‘They recommended that I should get some counselling to come to terms with what went on in Goldenbridge.

‘They recommended that I speak to the Immigrant Counselling and Psychotherapy group at Islington, London.

‘It was only when I went there that I found out that the centre is run by a Sister Teresa Gallagher of the Loretto Convent and member of the Conference of Religious in Ireland. The Irish government funds it.

‘Now I don’t know this nun personally and I can’t say anything about her. But the bottom line is this – in general I hate nuns and want nothing to do with them. I suffered at their hands and don’t want any other nuns near me.

‘So I was stunned when the commission was totally insensitive by sending me there.’

May said her life in Goldenbridge was miserable from the day she went in as a toddler to the day she left as a teenager.

She was regularly beaten for minor transgressions, left to sleep in her own urine when she wet the bed, had her teeth knocked out during one assault and was hospitalised following a severe beating at 13 when she and a friend attempted to break out of the orphanage.

May said one of the favoured weapons used by one of the most notoriously cruel nuns at Goldenbridge was a set of thick wooden rosary beads.

‘She would beat you with the rosary beads while she prayed and you recited the Hail Mary,’ she added. ‘The sick thing about it was that we, the children, made those rosary beads in the workshop, which were sold to convents, holy shops and parishes.

‘And, by the way, the children who made them were given absolutely nothing in return. So now you know why I hate nuns,’ she said.

The Irish government’s decision to employ members of the clergy to counsel victims of clerical abuse has caused outrage among survivors’ groups.

On 30 March this year a public meeting at Imperial College London broke down in chaos after abuse victims shouted down Sister Gallagher during a meeting attended by Minister of Education Noel Dempsey.

The Irish Survivors of Child Abuse Group organised the protest because the Laffoy Commission website recommended the Islington counselling centre and Teresa Gallagher but did not mention that she was a nun or that the premises are in fact within a Catholic Church in Finsbury Park, London.

May Henderson, a grandmother who spent most of her adult life in self-imposed exile from Ireland, has not moderated in her views on the religious orders or the church.

Irish Survivors of Child Abuse has boycotted Laffoy from its inception, believing that it was designed to exonerate successive Irish governments and ministers – the people who had the ultimate authority over the Industrial Schools and orphanages in the State.

The group were also angry that on the very last day before the 2002 Irish general election the then Minister of Education Dr Michael Woods pushed through an indemnity package that protected the Catholic Church from being sued in the courts from victims of clerical abuse.  
_Last edited by Marie-Therese O’ loughlin (2006-12-12 19:39:56)_

#92 2006-12-08 22:06:32 **Marie-Therese O’ Loughlin**

    Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook {2}

THE IRISH STATE CLAIMS AGENCY.

Home Claims, Risk Management, Clinical Indemnity Scheme Policy, Committee Careers.  
Contact Us:  
NTMA Disclaimer Accessibility Statement Claims

Claims  
personal injury and property damage claims against certain State authorities, including the State itself, Ministers, the Attorney General, the Commissioner of the Garda Sa­ochaina, prison governors, community and comprehensive schools and various other bodies listed in the Schedule to the Act.

The SCA’s claims management objective – that claims should be managed so as to minimise the State’s liability – has the following practical implications :

In cases where the State is considered liable or which involve an apportionment of liability as between the State and the claimant, the SCA’s approach is to settle such claims expeditiously in so far as it is possible to do so on reasonable terms.  
In cases where liability is fully disputed by the State, all necessary resources are applied to defending such claims robustly.  
Under the Act, State authorities are obliged to report adverse incidents promptly to the SCA, to preserve and furnish relevant evidence and to facilitate the SCA’s investigations. The SCA assumes ownership of claims from the point of first notification of adverse incidents right through to final resolution. Incidents are investigated in a thorough and timely fashion in order to facilitate early decision-making in relation to liability and strategy. The SCA uses panels of service providers, such as solicitors, medical consultants and engineers to provide expert advice on the State’s behalf. Each claim is allocated a notional reserve and this is updated as new medical and other expert information becomes available. The SCA then decides, in relation to each claim, whether it should be contested in the Courts or whether settlement negotiations should begin.

Exclusions

The following classes of claim are expressly excluded from the SCA’s remit :

Claims which gives rise to Constitutional issues.

Claims for compensation under the Garda Saochana (Compensation) Acts.

Claims against the Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform, the Garda Commissioner or a prison governor in respect of alleged assault by a member of the Garda Saochana or a prison officer.

Claims under the non-statutory scheme providing compensation for personal injury criminally inflicted on prison officers.

Claims arising from infection with Hepatitis C through the administration of blood or blood products.

Claims in which torts other than negligence are pleaded.

These classes of claim have been excluded either because alternative compensation arrangements have already been put in place by the Government or because they give rise to issues of legal policy which require the ongoing close involvement of the Attorney General.

Claims’ Portfolio

Among the features of the claims’ portfolio are as follows :

Some 61% of claims are from State employees. Of these, a third are by prison officers, another third by civil servants, 22% by members or ex-members of the Defence Forces and 12% by members of the Garda Saochana. 33% of claims are by members of the public.

Some 6% of claims relate to property damage; these typically involve damage to third-party vehicles by State vehicles.

Almost one-third of claims are from employees or ex-employees of the State who allege that they were exposed to asbestos in the course of their employment. The basis for these claims is the so-called ‘worried well’ syndrome i.e. alleged psychological trauma associated with potential rather than actual ill-health.

State Claims Agency, Treasury Building, Grand Canal St. Dublin 2, Ireland. Tel +353 1 6640900 info@stateclaims.ie

STATE SUES FRANCISCANS FOR PORTION OF CHILD ABUSE COSTS

The State has begun a legal action against the Franciscan Brothers order to force it to pay a proportion of a compensation bill to two men abused by a Franciscan brother at a primary school in the 1970s.

The unprecedented move marks a tougher approach by the State towards church authorities and orders in relation to abuse compensation claims that are not covered by the controversial indemnity deal. The new approach has been instigated by the State Claims Agency, which in September took over the handling of 200 compensation claims from victims of child abuse, mostly relating to primary and secondary schools.

â€œThe State Claims Agency will be protecting the interests of the taxpayer in ensuring that they are not paying out in respect of abuse claims where the abuse has been by committed by members of religious orders, congregations and the church generally,â€ a spokesman for the agency told The Irish Times.  
He confirmed that as part of this approach the agency was now pursuing the Franciscan Brothers for costs in relation to compensation claims involving a former brother, John Hannon, who served eight years for child sexual abuse at two schools in the 1970’s and 1980’s. It was the first time the State had initiated such proceedings against a religious order, he said. The State has admitted partial liability, as the Department of Education was aware of complaints dating back to the early 1970s against Hannon before the two men were abused as boys in Co Offaly. It has now made six figure compensation payments to both.

It has since issued a notice of “indemnity and contribution” against the order, based at Mountbellew, Co Galway, which has consistently denied any liability and refused to pay significant compensation to victims of Hannon. The State will be asking the High Court to adjudicate on whether the order has a shared liability in the case. The two day hearing is due to get underway in the coming months.

The new approach is in marked contrast to the controversial indemnity deal, where the State agreed to underwrite all ongoing compensation claims from former residents of religious run children’s homes in return for a contribution to the State’s redress scheme. Victims’ groups welcomed the new approach, but warned that the State should not be allowed to deny liability in all cases. Colm O’Gorman of One in Four said the policy ‘marked an extraordinary departure that will be welcomed not just by taxpayers but by victims as well as it will hold church authorities and religious orders to account’. He urged the State Claims Agency to adopt ‘a sensitive approach’ towards victims, warning that a complete denial of liability in all cases would be unrealistic and unfair.

#93 2006-12-09 18:57:22 **Marie-Therese O’ Loughlin**

    Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook {2}

RE: GOLDENBRIDGE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, INCHICORE, DUBLIN, IRELAND. NOW DEMOLISHED, WITH THE EXEPTION OF

GOLDENBRIDGE CONVENT AND CHAPEL WHICH NOW COME UNDER THE HEALTH/COUNCIL DUBLIN AUTHORITIES.

COMMENT: 1

I CAN SEE CLEARLY WHAT IT IS THEY ARE TRYING TO DO. THEY ARE TRYING TO TWIST THINGS AND SAY IT WAS THE CHILDREN WHO ABUSED EACH OTHER. THIS IS UTTER NONSENSE. MY TIME IN GOLDENBRIDGE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL WAS DREADFUL. THERE WERE THREE EXTREMLY VIOLENT SADISTIC NUNS RUNNING THE PLACE WITH AN IRON FIST. SR BERNADINE, SR XAVERIA, AND SR FABIAN. THE STAFF WAS MADE UP OF MISS DEVANEY, WHO HAD A CELL IN ST JOSEPHS DORMITORY, WHERE THE BABIES SLEPT. MISS DEVANEY STOOD BY AND WATCHED AND DID NOTHING TO STOP THE BRUTALITY.  
MISS GUIREY WAS ALWAYS DRUNK AND ALSO SMOKED LIKE A TROOPER. SHE ALSO ONLY WORE MENS CLOTHES AND HAD A MANS HAIR – CUT. SHE WAS SO SADISTIC THAT CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS TWO YEARS OLD WET THEMSELVES OUT OF FEAR. THIS ALSO HAPPENED WHEN SISTER XAVERIA AND SR BERNADINE WERE PRESENT. THERE ALSO WAS MISS GROGAN, MISS LOWE.  
THE REST OF UNTRAINED STAFF WERE MADE UP OF WOMEN WHO HAD GROWN UP IN GOLDENBRIDGE. – WHO WERE KEPT ON AS WORKERS – THESE WOMEN WERE VERY DAMAGED THEMSELVES. THEY GOT ACCOMMODATION AND A SMALL REMUNERATION. THE WHOLE ATMOSPHERE WITHIN THE CONFINED WALLS OF GOLDENBRIDGE WAS ONE OF INCREDIBLE VIOLENCE AND NEGLECT.  
WE WERE NOT EVEN ALLOWED A DRINK WATER – SO WE WERE FORCED TO DRINK OUT OF THE TOILETS, LIQUIDS WERE REFUSED AFTER SIX PM EACH EVENING SO THE CHILDREN WERE LEFT SADLY WITH NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE.  
DURING MY TIME OF DETENTION IN GOLDENBRIDGE, THE STAFF DID NO DOMESTIC WORK. ‘CHILDREN DID EVERYTHING’, WE WERE WATCHED OVER BY STAFF AND NUNS WHO CONTINUALY BEAT US WITH STICKS AS WE WORKED.  
THE CHILDREN WERE NOT VIOLENT TOWARDS EACH OTHER – BUT THE STAFF USED TO BEAT US TO TRY AND FORCE US TO ATTACK ONE ANOTHER.  
‘ EVIL’ IS THE RIGHT WORD TO DESCRIBE THESE MONSTERS, WHO WERE ALSO MENTALLY UNBALANCED. POOR CHILDREN WERE FORCED TO HAVE TO LIVE WITH SUCH MAD SADISTS.  
CHILDREN IN GOLDENBRIDGE DID NOT BEAT EACH OTHER UP. THE NUNS AND STAFF DID PLENTY OF THAT.  
INDEED, CHILDREN WOULDN’T HAVE HAD THE TIME TO CARRY ON WITH THE LIKE AS THEY WERE ALWAYS WORKING, WHETHER IT WAS IN THE ROSARY BEAD MAKING FACTORY {FOR HOURS } OR, SOMETIMES, WELL INTO THE NIGHT OR TO FINISH AN ORDER FOR THE LOCAL FACTORY  
OTHERWISE,CHILDREN WERE SLAVING AWAY – MAKING BROCHES, GLUING PAPER BAGS FOR SHOPS, OR SEWING POSH LACE ONTO LADIES UNDERWEAR FOR SHOPS OUTSIDE.  
WHEN NOT OCCUPIED WITH THE ABOVE WE WERE SCRUBBING, POLISHING, OR WERE GOING HUNGRY AND COLD AND WERE TERRIFIED. THIS WAS LIFE IN GOLDENBRIDGE, AND IF YOU THINK VICTIMS/SURVIVORS WHO GREW UP IN THIS HORRIBLE PLACE ARE ALL VERY ODD. IS IT ANY WONDER!. FROM A VICTIM/SURVIVOR – NOW SADLY DOMICILED IN GB.

COMMENT: 2

“The majority of us did not get an ounce of love. It shows that LOVE has absolutely no idea of the pain we endured”………CHRISTINE BUCKLEY.

COMMENT: 3

CLAIMS that people who were kept in State institutions as children are lying about being abused so they can get compensation are ‘deeply hurtful’, a former orphanage resident said yesterday. A group called, LOVE – which supports the religious who worked in the homes, claims people are making false allegations to win settlements.  
Group founder of LOVE says her stay in St Joseph’s Industrial School in Ballinasloe, County Galway, was a positive experience, and she believes there is a witch-hunt against religious orders.  
“What we have are people right across the board saying” ˜You back up my allegation and I’ll split the compensation with you”. People are coming up with scars they got accidentally and are saying they were abused” LOVE, said.

However, former Goldenbridge orphanage resident Christine Buckley said the campaign by LOVE was deeply hurtful.  
“The majority of us did not get an ounce of love. It shows they have absolutely no idea of the pain we endured.â€  
Ms Buckley, who spearheads the Aisling Survivors Group, said LOVE is being backed by a very small number of people in the religious orders.  
Buckley also criticised a recent Christian Brothers’ statement that denied there was widespread sexual abuse in institutions run by the order.  
“If they do not accept it, why did they take out an ad in every single newspaper some years ago expressing their sorrow for the hurt caused to victims of abuse?” she asked.  
Buckley believes the majority of victims in institutions endured appalling abuse. “It was for this reason that the Taoiseach apologised, that the Laffoy Commission was established in Ireland, and that similar investigations found abuse in similar institutions run by Irish religious around the world,” she said.  
“It is sad that the Christian Brothers are persistently failing to address the pain caused to victims in their institutions,” Ms Buckley said.  
Â© Irish Examiner 2004.

COMMENT: 4  
We never said ‘people who were kept in State Institutions were/are lying about abuse to get compensation. What we did say, and we stick to it, was while some of our fellow inmates suffered horrific abuse, there were also those making false or fraudulent allegations motivated by factors such as finiancial gain or revenge for a troubled life.  
Is it not as painful for the vast majority of the Religious who tried to compensate us for the failure of others to care for us to now see so many deny their hard work?.  
How quickly Ms Buckley seems to have forgotten she was let off chores in order to study for her leaving cert, in a classroom, not a toilet.  
How quickly she and others from Goldenbridge have forgotten the holiday house in Rathdrum, the Irish dancing classes, the amimals bought for the childrens amusement etc.  
How quickly she has forgotten that Sr Xaveria chose to pay for Christines nurse training in the Medical Missionaries Drougheda, rather than have her train in Dublin. The reason?. Because Christine was coloured, she felt she’d be happier with other coloured nurses. Doesn’t sound like Sr Xaveria was ‘heartless does it?. What more did she want from her. This nun has been treated so cruely it beggers belief.  
The fact that the enormous good she did for ‘her girls’is played down so much, and the failures of the system so exaggerated is unjust in the extreme.  
As regards LOVE being backed up by a ‘small number of the Religious orders’ is as accurate as Ms Buckleys assertion that Aslinn have 3,000 members. So how accurate is that? .LOVE. HIBERNIAN ANGEL.

COMMENT: 5

LOVE challenge Christine Buckleys (Dear Daughter) Right to Influence NOVA Policy in Excluding certain Survivors.  
She has demanded credibility, not earned it’. N.O.V.A state funded National Office FOR VICTIMS of Abuse) Ms. Christine Buckley demanded that NOVA bar anyone Aislinn have difficulty with from NOVA…horrifyingly…NOVA agreed.  
As Ms Buckley is an ex-Industrial School pupil, and has treated Sr Xaveria Lally in what we would deem to be a despicable manner (and we’re confident the Ryan Commission will back us up in its investigation of Goldenbridge), NOVA is ill advised to take part in such bullying. We question the credibility of the much hyped Dear Daughter where Ms Buckley spoke of murdered babies etc. LOVE maintain now and always have maintained…Ms Buckley, for obvious reasons has always refused to cooperate with the Gardai when the Sisters of Mercy tried to get her to put her allegations on an official footing for investigation. We maintain that she owes Sr Xaveria one hell of an apology. Sr Xaveria is still alive and kicking. She is now as she always was ..a remarkable woman. And she has to sit back and watch Ms Buckley being trotted out as a campaigner for victims. Why have the Sisters not taken legal action against Ms Buckley? LOVE HIBERNIAN ANGEL

COMMENT: 6

She has definitely mellowed in her twilight years, but the fact is and always will be…Ms Christine Buckley has grossly attacked and damaged the very nun who stood by her when so many others wouldn’t, her hysterical shouting has carried many people with her, and she can’t be allowed go down in history as a campaigner of justice when the campaign is based on sick accusations that have not gained much credibility. We would back the Alliance Victim Support Group in its call that Ms Buckley not be allowed influence the practices of NOVA. LOVE HIBERNIAN ANGEL.

Ms Maria Grogan AP Residential Institutions Redress Unit Department of Education and Science, Marlborough Street, Dublin 1.

25th August 2005

Minutes of the Management Committee National Office dated 7th April 2005

The Alliance Committee are saddened to note the backward step proposed by Ms Buckley at the meeting on the above date towards RECIPROCAL BARRING ARRANGEMENTS /Aislinn/NOVA.  
This was previously discussed when the Alliance were on the Managerial Committee and was rejected because of the obvious difficulty of perceived clash of personalities etc.  
In any event we would have expected that there should by now be no need for barring anyone. Have we learned anything from the death of Anthony Delaney?  
Please try to educate members as to other social mechanisms that can now be used in place of barring and let us remember that we are in support of victims, all victims, no matter what their social standing may be. Tom Hayes, Secretary  
Posted by seadloss to false allegations of Child Abuse Ireland. <http://falseallegations.blogspot.com/2005/09/loss-of-brilliant-teacher.html&gt; at 10/19/2005.

Mercy Sister has been ‘demonised’, Provincial tells Commission.

First published: Friday, March 18th 05

A provincial leader from the Sisters of Mercy has defended the abuse charges laid in a television documentary against a sister who managed an industrial school in the 1940s.  
Sr Helena O’Donoghue, provincial leader of the south central province of the Sisters of Mercy congregation, told the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse on Tuesday (15th March) that Sr Xaveria Lally of the Goldenbridge industrial school in Dublin, had been “demonised and vilifiedâ€ over the past decade. “Serious allegations were accepted in the public domain as fact,” she said. The nun’s denials that children in the industrial school were “abused in a horrific way” had been “almost completely ignored”, she said.  
Sr Helena O’Donoghue was heckled as she quoted from Department of Education Inspection Reports, by a number of former inmates of the Goldenbridge school, while members of LOVE – a group supporting â€œreligious of integrity who are innocent of abuseâ€ heckled the former Goldenbridge Inmates. Official reports from the Department of Health were greeted with catcalls of and whitewash”.  
“Evidence in the form of photographs of the children playing in the swimming pool at the holiday house, dancing classes, Christmas parties and pantomimes seemed to be remembered by very few,” LOVE, whose members were present at the hearing.  
Sr O’ Donoghue noted that, despite Garda investigation of complaints made after the broadcast of the Dear Daughter programme on Goldenbridge in 1996, no criminal charges were brought.  
She said that she had no personal knowledge of the school and was relying on written records and the testimonies of third parties. The allegations of child abuse in Dear Daughter “was a source of deep shock to us”, she said, and led to the congregation’s first apology in February 1996, for pain and hurt suffered. The congregation apologised again in May 2004. She accepted that abuses did take place, but denied the most serious of the allegations, especially those made against Sr Xaveria.  
“I reiterate those apologies. There were many aspects of Goldenbridge we deeply regret, but there were some serious, extraordinary allegations, especially as regards Sr Xavieria, which we do not, we cannot accept as correct – allegations of extreme physical punishment, starvation, malnourishment, or any child dead due to mistreatment,” she said.  
185 children were at Goldenbridge school at any one time, from the with a staff ratio of one to every 30 children twenty four hours a day. There was no training in childcare and a lack of state funding. There was an emphasis on conformity and wide use of corporal punishment. Sr O’Donoghue deeply regretted in particular the use of such punishment on children with bed-wetting problems.  
She recalled there had been a small number of sex-abuse complaints, one in particular against a groundsman who was complained of by one of the girls in 1962. Sr Xaveria reported the man to the Gardai, and he was prosecuted and dismissed from his job.  
Before the broadcast of Dear Daughter the Mercy Sisters employed a childcare expert to look at complaints who found them “broadly credible”. It had also found that the regime (at Goldenbridge) was inadequate and did not meet the basic needs of the children.  
In answer to a request for an opportunity to rebut Sr O’Donoghue’s evidence, Commission Chairman Mr Justice Sean Ryan said Ms Buckley and 30 former residents of Goldenbridge would be allowed to give evidence during the private hearings which begin on Friday 18th March and will continue to 27th April. 2005

COMMENT: 7

My hunch is that it is very very odd with regards the ‘broad credibility’, of the complaints, it has been said that Goldenbridge was referred to as an Industrial School. So yes, rosary beads were made, there were no taps upstairs so some of them did drink from the toilets (it was the 50’s. hygiene wasn’t exactly an issue!), discipline etc had to be rigorous…some of them pulled others down the stairs by their hair, and could use their fists and teeth to a deadly degree. So broad credibility…absolutely. LOVE. HIBERNIAN ANGEL.

Compensation for Residents of State Run Institutions

ABUSE SURVIVOR URGES 100,000 MISSING IRISH CLAIMANTS TO COME FORWARD

CUT OFF POINT FOR CLAIMS EXPIRES 2005

A worldwide campaign has been launched to locate some 100,000 Irish people who went through State Institutions in Ireland. Children who suffered abuse may now be entitled to compensation and education grants as survivors of abuse.  
The search for survivors is taking place in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Approximately 150,000-plus children and teenagers went through residential institutions in Ireland between the 1920s and the 1980s. Many of these experienced abuse at the hands of religious and others while in orphanages, industrial schools and centres for young offenders.  
The closing off point for applications to the Residential Institutions Redress Board will come about in December 2005.  
It is estimated that as many as 100,000 of those, who went through 100 such institutions, fled Ireland and went abroad. But of these, only a proportion appear to be aware of the Residential Institutions Redress Board which has been set up by the State to compensate and assist people who were abused in institutions.  
To date the board has received just 5,077 applications in total, most of which are from the Republic of Ireland. The awards made by the Board range in value from CAD$18,149.26 to CAD$340,336.74. The average award is CAD$141,129.22.  
Ms Christine Buckley of Aislinn is leading the campaign to alert survivors of abuse to the existence of the Redress Board. Aislinn is one of the foremost leaders in the campaign in Ireland which led to the Irish Prime Minister’s apology to victims, the establishment of the Residential Institutions Redress Board, the Child Abuse Commission, which is investigating the abuse suffered in institutions and nationwide counselling.  
“Aislinn receives some calls from around the world, including Canada, from people who are vaguely aware that there is a Redress Board. There needs to be a much greater level of awareness and this campaign is an attempt to connect with survivors and to make them aware of their right to counselling, education, compensation and assistance in tracing their records,” Ms Buckley said.  
Ms Buckley has been critical of the Irish Government’s failure to put resources into notifying survivors in the US and Australia. This has led to her travelling to many international centres to raise awareness of the Redress Board.  
Ms Buckley was put into care at three weeks of age. At four years old she was sent to the notorious Goldenbridge Industrial School, which was run by the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin. Whilst there from 1950 to 1964, she suffered severe physical abuse.  
Many of the victims who fled Ireland once they were old enough to do so ended up in difficult circumstances. Because they were denied an education, many cannot read or write and may be unaware that there is a compensation process in Ireland. Hopefully through radio and television publicity, these people will be aware of what is happening in Ireland and will get applications in before the closing date.  
Aislinn was set up in 1999 by Ms Christine Buckley and Ms Carmel McDonnell-Byrne, both victims of institutional abuse in Goldenbridge. Aislinn has been heavily involved in lobbying the Government and religious orders to receive compensation for its members. Aislinn is both an education and counselling centre and has assisted over 4,000 people since its inception. Its many services include literacy classes, intervening with the government on behalf of survivors and helping victims trace their parents and families.  
A call save number ( 617-737-9969 ) has been established in America and Canada for abuse survivors to leave their details in strictest confidence. Callers will be contacted and provided with legal advice and assistance with the application process.

Defending Sr. Xaveria

Sir, “as a child, having grown up in the care of Sr. Xavieria at St. Kyran’s, Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, I feel I just have to speak out on her behalf. My experience of Sr. Xavieria would be very different to that of Ms. Christine Buckley and “inmates” of the Goldenbridge orphanage. I spent 13 years of my life under the care of Sr. Xaveria whom to my memory, put all her energy, love and kindness into preparing kids just like myself for what was lo become a much more harsh reality in the world outside. The one thing people seemed to have missed throughout all this damaging coverage was the continuous aftercare she so unselfishly gave to all or any of us who needed help, emotionally or financially, or, even just to pick up the phone when life got too much, and one could always be sure of a reassuring, caring, concerned voice at the other end.  
Even after Xaveria retired I could honestly say that at any time I rang, especially if I had troubles, she never once hesitated, but was always eager to help, no matter how big the problem was.  
I am not for one moment justifying what happened at Goldenbridge, but I do feel as a person who knew Xaveria extremely well that the coverage was most unfair and unbalanced and that she should have had to answer for so many lay staff, teachers, the State, the Department of Education. These people were as wholly responsible at that time for the welfare of children themselves, it is my belief that Sr. Xavieria was used as a shield for all of these people who have not come forward on her behalf. I would dearly love to know where they all are now. Also, how dare Kale Cruise O’Brien refer to Xaveria as “a frail old thing” now? I can accept criticism, but I found this statement most hurtful after all the damage that has been already done. Perhaps if she knew this nun as I do she would think twice about what she is saying.  
Does she not realise the hurt and pain not only lo Xaveria but also to her family, who incidentally, also gave up their lives to work with people on the missions, has had to deal with throughout all of this damaging coverage.  
Is it not now time to focus on all the good that this person has done for all the years of her life? I know I am sure there are many past pupils from St. Kyran’s who would welcome some very positive views of St. Xaveria. HILDA ANN BROPHY Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin

Freedom of Angels Childhood in Goldenbridge Orphanage

by Bernadette Fahy

‘I entered Goldenbridge orphanage in my Communion outfit. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing there.’  
At age seven, Bernadette Fahy was delivered with her three brothers to Goldenbridge Orphanage. She was to stay there until she was sixteen.  
Goldenbridge has come to represent some of the worst aspects of childrearing practices in Ireland of the 1950s and 1960s. Seen as the offspring of people who had strayed from social respectability and religious standards, these children were made to pay for the ‘sins’ of their parents. Bernadette tells of the pain, fear, hunger, hard labour and isolation experienced in the orphanage.  
Can a person recover from such a childhood? How does the spirit ever take flight — and gain the ‘freedom of angels’?  
This is Bernadette Fahy’s concern. Now trained and working as a counsellor, she has had to dig deeply into her past to understand the patterns laid down by her upbringing. She has had to rebuild her life, and now she helps others to do the same.  
This book is a story of triumph over the harshest of circumstances.

COMMENT: 8

Book reveals harrowing life of abuse in orphanage.

by Jim Morahan

A GENERATION ago, children at the Goldenbridge Orphanage were victims of a reign of terror.  
Now as adults, their stories are finally being told.  
Bernadette Fahy, 44, was taken to the Dublin institution just before her seventh birthday â€” still dressed in her First Communion outfit. Her just-published account, “Freedom of Angels”, chronicles ten harrowing years in the Sisters of Mercy orpahnageâ€” and the uphill struggle of later life.  
It’s a story of survival against the odds, and of the scarcely credible cruelty meted out to her, members of her incarcerated siblings and many others.  
But it also contains more than a glimmer of hope.  
Today, Ms Fahy holds a Master’s degree in counselling psychology and works in private practice, frequently helping people who have also been in institutional care.  
Ms Fahy champions calls for an inquiry into abuse in the Irish childcare system and for recognition of the victims.  
In recent weeks, a sense of the brutality of institutional care has rocked the country with the television documentary “States of Fear”, to which she contributed.  
Goldenbridge also featured in the earlier programme, “Dear Daughter”.  
“Writing this book meant that I had to revisit the archives of my childhood, a place that for too long held personal and State secrets that were too big for me,” Ms Fahy said at the launch of the book last night.  
She was delivered to Goldenbridge on the afternoon of June 5, 1961, with her twin Michael, another younger brother, and brother Christopher, who was 16 months old.  
They found themselves in the orphanage because their father had recently walked out to return to his other family, real wife and legitimate children “and her own mother couldn’t cope.  
“One of the few things we could call our own was our identity number, mine was 138. I never felt comfortable responding to it,” she writes.  
“It was a demeaning, cruel but effective way to help us lose their identities. As a result, some of the very young children didn’t even know their names.”  
“Freedom of Angels” publisher Michael O’Brien of the O’ Brien Press, said his son Ferdia was six, about the same age as Ms Fahy when she entered Goldenbridge.  
“I shudder with fear when I think that this could have been my little boy or even me,” he said.  
Pleading with Education Minister Micheal Martin, who attended the book launch, Ms Fahy said: “We are a group of people whose trust has been betrayed. It isn’t easy to let go of the fear that we might once again be forgotten.”  
When the Goldenbridge support group recently met the minister, they asked for recognition.  
“Minister, we want you to believe that these things happened to us,” they said.

COMMENT: 9

A number of allegations were made in this book which our members of LOVE from Goldenbridge say was not their experience. The use of numbers was for identification of each persons clothes when being sent to the laundry to ensure they wouldn’t get lost. They claim the use of the numbers to identify each child was laughable. LOVE HIBERNIAN ANGEL.

_Last edited by Marie-Therese O’ loughlin (2006-12-09 19:37:58)_

#94 2006-12-09 19:01:05 **Marie-Therese O’ Loughlin**

    Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook {2}

Nuns – reject new TV3 sex abuse claims

The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy says it is to take legal action against TV3 over allegations of sexual and physical abuse levelled at the order in a documentary screened last night.  
The programme, part of the station’s ’20/20: Stolen Lives’ series, featured an extensive interview with Philomena Byrne who spent her childhood in an industrial school run by the order in the 1950s and 1960s.  
The programme was produced and directed by Louis Lentin, who previously made the award-winning documentary ‘Dear Daughter’ about the regime of brutality presided over by the order at the Goldenbridge orphanage.  
In the TV3 programme, a visibly distressed Ms Byrne detailed what she claimed was extreme physical and psychological cruelty at the hands of the nuns. She also alleged that she was taken from her bed by the nuns and forced to perform sexual acts on a priest and local men.  
The Sisters of Mercy rejected the claims made in the programme – among the most serious to emerge in recent years – and confirmed that they would be applying to the High Court today.  
“The Sisters of Mercy are asking the High Court to declare that TV3 are violating their statutory duty by broadcasting a programme which is wholly unfair and unbalanced,” according to a statement released by the order.  
“No independent evidence is offered to substantiate the claims of sexual abuse made in this interview. Many of the people who worked in the industrial school while the interviewee was a resident are still alive. They will be deeply hurt by this programme. They were not approached by TV3 or the programme maker”.  
However, the station hit back, claiming that the nuns had been offered a right to reply and turned it down. Director Louis Lentin added that he stood by “every word” of the programme.  
It is understood that the order is also to be sued by former residents of the orphanage, including Ms Byrne, and a Garda investigation has been underway for a number of months

COMMENT: 10

It would appear that the director of this film would be very foolish to stand by ‘every word’ in this documentary. There was no substantiation ever received for the ridiculous allegations made, amongst which Ms Byrne claimed the children used to be forced to eat lice from each others hair!. Did Mr Lentin also stand by ‘every word ‘in the Dear Daughter Documentary I wonder.  
One of the most controversial allegations in “Dear Daughter “was that a girl was locked in a furnace for three days. The room she was locked in by a care worker, according to the girls own sister hadn’t been used for years for heating purposes, and it was for the duration of mass….beware of half truths, you might get the wrong half. Must try to find out how Mr Lenten and the others got on in court. Surely the allegations must be substantiated before being presented to the public as fact ?.  
A look at the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse on our links page for the transcripts of the Goldenbridge transcript will prove very interesting. But personally I can’t wait to hear what was said in the confidential hearing when Judge Ryan publishes his findings….wonder how the allegations in DEAR DAUGHTER will fare!. LOVE HIBERNIAN ANGEL.

Victims’ groups want compo for those aged 50+

By Catherine Shanahan

SUPPORT groups representing victims of institutional abuse want a â‚¬10,000 interim compensation payment to be made to survivors over the age of 50.  
The payment is currently proposed for victims who are elderly and infirm, with a lower age limit of 65 suggested last year by the Government.  
However, with the work of a new compensation scheme for survivors due to begin today, the Aislinn Centre, which represents hundreds of victims, has called for an easing of age restrictions on applications for the award.  
Spokeswoman Christine Buckley said she feared the Government planned to up the interim payment age limit to 70.  
â€œI heard as much in a meeting with legal representatives last week. That is not acceptable, given the difficult lives many of our survivors have had. Life has not been good to many of them, marriages have broken up, health failed and huge numbers are homeless.  
“Up to 80 have died since the Government first apologised to victims in May 1999, 20 by their own hand. Also I believe that the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) will not be able to hear all abuse cases within its three-year time frame. This strengthens the case for the interim payment to be extended.”  
The RIRB, set up by the Oireachtas following the Government’s apology to victims, will decide on compensation levels for those sexually, physically, or emotionally abused or neglected while in residential institutions.  
Judge Kieran O’Connor, chairperson of the board, said compensation will be assessed on the basis of a scheme worked out by a committee of experts. The upper limit is in the region of â‚¬300,000. The scheme also covers legal costs of the claimant.  
Application forms will be sent out to survivors from today, which they must forward to the board if they wish to claim.  
However Ms Buckley said there was no guarantee they would reach all survivors.  
“There are some elderly women still residing in institutions we knew as the Magdalene Laundries. How do we know the application forms will reach them? Have they been made aware of their entitlements? My concern is for these women and others in prison or in psychiatric care.”  
SOCA (Survivors of Child Abuse) spokesman John Kelly criticised the board for its delay in setting up.  
“It was meant to be up and running in June. All they are doing today is sending out application forms, to give the perception that the whole thing is moving ahead. It’s a smokescreen.”  
Mr Kelly said they would be seeking an urgent meeting with Education Minister Noel Dempsey to clarify the names of institutions covered by redress. A list of institutions was published as part of the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2001. However, the Minister has said names of institutions where the State had an inspection or regulatory function should also be included. ………………………………Irish Examiner 2002

COMMENT 11

Was this attitude not taking a lot for granted, that the claimants would receive payment without having to give evidence…that all allegations were true? We now know that all who claim from the Institutions, because of the broad definition of abuse allowed for the claims will receive a payout, perhaps not as much as they would wish if they exaggerate their claim and can’t back up the allegations but they will receive some money.  
LOVE HIBERNIAN ANGEL.

‘Brave and positive step towards healing’

Thursday May 6th 2004

THE three members of the leadership team of the Mercy Sisters who appeared before the press yesterday to read out their latest statement of apology to abuse victims were visibly nervous and ill-at-ease.  
One reason was surely the difficult subject matter they were there to discuss. A second reason, presumably, was that these ladies would never have imagined themselves having to appear before a phalanx of cameras and reporters when they first entered their Order all those years ago. Such are the vagaries of life.  
Perhaps the chief reason however was that they had no idea how victims would react to their statement. Would they welcome it, or reject it, or something in between?  
Happily for them, they have broadly welcomed it. The words of Christine Buckley of the Aislinn Centre, a group supporting abuse victims, will especially have been music to their ears.  
She said the apology was a “very brave and positive step towards healing”, and that victims who had contacted her through the day were “overjoyed.”  
One woman described it as “the best day of my life.” The reason Christine Buckley’s reaction is so important is that she was the person who first brought to light the abuses that took place in Mercy Sister-run institutions. Eight years ago RTE broadcast Dear Daughter, a drama/documentary focussing on Christine and a number of her fellow residents and their account of what befell them while resident in Goldenbridge orphanage.  
One nun alleged to have inflicted abuse was Sr Xavieria who ran the institution in Buckley’s day. Sr Xaveria, who denied the allegations of serious abuse, had her defenders, but she was only one of a number of nuns who were alleged to have emotionally or physically abused those in their care.  
For her part, Christine Buckley became the symbol of all those abused by nuns down the years and so her reaction to yesterday’s statement was absolutely crucial. Had she rejected it, it would have devastated the Mercy Sisters. That she has accepted it may now provide a way forward for both the Congregation and the victims.  
The latest apology by the Sisters was really a bolt from the blue. Most other statements of this sort by Church organisations had usually come as a result of intense public and media pressure. This one emerged following a long period of consultation within the Order.  
The leadership team of the Mercy Sisters, led by Sr Breege O’Neill, were well aware that their previous apology, issued in 1996, had not been favourably received by victim groups. Although it did not deny that abuses had taken place, and both apologised and sought forgiveness from the victims, just as this one did, it also offered a partial defence of the record of the Mercy Sisters making the apology seem equivocal and conditional to some.  
That is why yesterday’s apology was issued. It was aimed at clearing up any such misunderstanding and that is how it has been received in the main.  
What now? First of all, victims will be anxious to discover what will happen when they take up the invitation of the Congregation to contact them. Will a given victim be put in direct, face-to-face contact with her abuser, for example?  
To be fair here we must say alleged or otherwise because some nuns strongly deny that they ever abused anyone. Be that as it may, should such face-to-face meetings take place, will victims derive some satisfaction from them?  
Will Christine Buckley meet Sr Xavieria, now called Sr Maura? If so, what will the outcome to this be? Also, what will happen with regard to the Investigative Committee of the Ryan/Laffoy Commission? Both Christine Buckley and John Kelly of Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) have stressed the importance of this matter.  
A continual complaint of victim groups is that the 18 Congregations that ran the country’s residential institutions have taken an adversarial approach to them at the Commission, fighting every allegation every inch of the way.  
This is a tough one. If a member of a given Order insists that he or she is innocent then the Order has little choice but to fight for that person’s good name.  
That is necessarily adversarial. On the other hand, does every allegation need to be tested to the utmost? Are there no priests, brothers or nuns willing to put their hands up and admit to the abuses they carried out?  
If not, then the Orders will have no power to force them to do so. As citizens they have their civil rights and these are not nullified as a result of being a member of a Religious Order.  
However, this is for the future. Yesterday was a good day for the Sisters of Mercy and those who suffered while in their care. As Christine Buckley put it, it was “a positive step towards healing.”………………………………………………………………………………… David Quinn Â© Irish Independent

COMMENT 12

What I want to know is when is Ms Buckley going to apologise?. Sr Xavieria was given no chance to defend herself before the release of Dear Daughter. When she came out in Prime Time with a number of ex-inmates to defend her, the programme was called a ‘whitewash’. So Dear Daughter was what really happened, the Prime Time programme was a ‘whitewash’?. Yet the D.D. had only trial by numbers, no hard evidence?. hats justice for you.  
Another fact that interests me greatly is why Ms Buckley didn’t meet Sr Xaveria…she’s only at the end of the phone. Why did she not take the case to court…surely if a documentary could be produced as fact, that same fact would be enough to receive substantial compensation?.  
Why is the attitude of the Mercy Sisters deemed ‘adversarial’…have they not a duty to tell the truth?. If one of their members have abused, they can’t hide that fact, but they also can’t make someone say they abused if they maintain they are innocent. A court of law is the only place this can be proven, and to my knowledge not one single Sister of Mercy has been yet convicted of child abuse. The Ryan Commission is where the facts are examined, with hard evidence from the State departments. See the transcript for Goldenbridge on our links page…it certainly calls into question a story that has been repeated so often its accepted totally unjustly as fact. LOVE. HIBERNIAN ANGEL

Winning Redress for Abuse in Care

A woman from Addiscombe, England could receive up to £200,000 in compensation from the Irish Government for her suffering in a Catholic church-run orphanage.  
The Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) offered Breda Doolin £20,000 compensation for the abuse she suffered in the Summerhill Sister of Mercy convent in Athlone, County Westmeath an offer she rejected. She has now been told to expect a sum closer to £200,000.  
Breda, now 69, lost the sight in one eye following an incident when she was 10 when a nun pushed her, face-down, into a mattress containing pins. She never received medical attention for the injury.  
Breda says she, one of her sisters and two of her brothers were bundled into a car by representatives from the Catholic church when she was six.  
>From the age of six to 16, Breda suffered systematic violence. She says: “My mother was chasing the car down the road but she couldn’t catch up.  
“After my father died she had a feeling the church might take us younger children away because she couldn’t cope.  
“You would get a beating most days but the worst was when I hurt my eye. I had been stuffing a mattress and there were pins sticking out of it. I stopped for a break and a nun pushed my face down on to it and a needle went into my eye.  
“My sister was beaten so badly that she lost the hearing in one of her ears and both of my brothers were admitted to mental institutions after they were released from their homes. One of them died while in hospital and the other one is still there now.”  
Breda left the convent at 16 and came to this country, eventually becoming a nurse.  
She applied for compensation two years ago and, although she rejected the initial Â£20,000 offer, the RIRB has paid for her to undergo counselling and has funded education for her and her children.  
Breda also attends regular meetings of the Irish Survivors’ Group, a support network of abuse victims, which has helped her to come to terms with her childhood.  
She added: “Despite what they did to me I will never let them ruin my life. I used to be very angry but now I talk to others about my experience.  
“Everyone who suffered in the Irish state institution system should take advantage of the help that’s available because it helps to meet others like you.”

COMMENT 13

Victims have until December 15 to apply for compensation. Call Irish-based organisation AiSLINN  
Why is Aislinn naming Summerhill, as a place of abuse, and how is anyone to establish the veracity of this story?. At the very least this is breaking the confidentiality rule in the RIRB Act. At worst they’ve blackened the name of Summerhill with no recourse to justice whatsoever for the Sisters of Mercy LOVE HIBERNIAN ANGEL

COMMENT 14

Oh for crying out loud!.Where did this ‘

Viscountess Geraldine Jackson “Sisters of no Mercy”

The News of the World

April 24, 2005  
SECTION: EXCLUSIVE  
LENGTH: 693 words  
HEADLINE: SISTERS OF NO MERCY

BYLINE: Danny Conlon  
BODY:  
Nuns tortured us, says rags-to-riches Viscountess.

A VISCOUNTESS has broken her lifelong silence over her “hell on earth” as a destitute Irish tot in a Sisters of Mercy school.  
Geraldine Jackson hid her traumatic secret until the demons of her past wrecked her rags-to-riches marriage to Viscount Patrick Brocas.  
But she has now vowed to tell all as part of a pledge to help fellow victims of Dublin’s Goldenbridge Industrial School .  
Tearful Geraldine, who was just six when a court ripped her from her family, said: “I thought Goldenbridge would be full of fairies because of the beautiful name but it was full of monsters.  
Beaten  
“It was hell on earth. I never thought I would survive the nightmare.”  
Geraldine ( shudders as she recalls how she was: THRASHED on her first day for crying and BEATEN with brooms for minor misdemeanours.  
FORCED to drink from the toilet because the 185 schoolgirls had no access to water taps.  
HIT so hard by brutal head honcho Sister Xaveria (far right) her front teeth were knocked out.  
WORKED to the bone until three in the morning in a factory making Rosary beads.  
Then spent freezing nights HUDDLED beneath a single blanket in the cold dorms.  
Geraldine, now 58, said: “They beat us constantly and I never slept one proper night in ten years because of my fear of Sister Xaviera.”  
The day she turned 16, Geraldine fled the country. “I just wanted to be as far away as possible from the terrible memories,” she said. “I had lost all contact with my brothers and even my sister, who was at Goldenbridge, had become a stranger.”  
After moving to England, she met her husband-to-be while out sailing. “He was very dashing,” sighed Geraldine. “But I made it a point never to tell him of my past.”  
So when the pair wed in 1971, Viscount Brocas knew nothing of the day in 1952 when gardai and a priest stormed Geraldine’s home.  
Trembling, she recalled: “My mother, sister, two brothers and I moved from Roscrea, Co Tipperary, to our grandparents in Dublin because my father was away.  
“Then within a few months my granddad passed away and my mother soon followed.  
Then the priest and gardai came…”  
After a judge ruled they were destitute, Geraldine, six, and Pauline, four, were sent to Goldenbridge. Brothers Christopher, two, and 10-month-old Patrick went to an Industrial School in Kilkenny.  
After becoming Viscountess Brocas, Geraldine gave birth to Bella, now 37, and Justin, 32. But demons still plagued her and in 1986 she got divorced.  
It was not until 1999 that Geraldine, who keeps the title of Viscountess, faced her fears. “I went to Ireland but had to be helped off the ferry because it all came flooding back,” she said.  
That help came from SOCA- Survivors Of Child Abuse-who run Avoca House in Dublin, where victims can spend time.  
It was SOCA who kept Geraldine together when she discovered that her father had tried to get his kids back, but been refused.  
“I felt enormous guilt because all this time I thought he never loved me and now it is too late because he is dead,” said Geraldine.  
SOCA also helped Geraldine get in touch with her sister Pauline, although the pair have not yet contacted their brothers.  
Fight  
Geraldine, who now intends to move back to Ireland, said: “Without SOCA helping me I would never have got this far.”  
She is spearheading the group’s fight to get funds from the government and Catholic Church. “My aim is to help people who suffered in the same way as me,” she said.  
So far around 1,000 victims have contacted Avoca House, with 200 staying for a while.  
Many, like Geraldine, have been in Dublin to speak at the ongoing Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.  
Sister Xaviera, now 88, has never been convicted of any offence and denies serious abuse.  
But she has said sorry for allowing corporal punishment at Goldenbridge to get out of hand-and Geraldine has accepted her apology.  
“What these nuns did was terrible,” she said. “But it’s the government, the courts and the church hierarchy who are the really guilty people.”  
Viscountess Geraldine Jackson and Goldenbridge.

COMMENT 15

Gosh!, I read the story in last weeks Sunday paper about Viscountess Geraldine Jackson and her horrific time in Goldenbridge, Dublin. When I was there, there was an alter-ego of hers there too called Geraldine Jackson whoâ€¦.  
1 Didn’t work in a Rosary Beads factory until 3am “we usually finished in the Bead Room 2 or 3 hours after starting, we started at 4pm. So even the slowest would be finished by 7.30pm, and that would also include our tea break.  
2 Didnâ€™t abscond from Goldenbridge at 16 years old in terror â€“ but was placed in nurse training in St Ultans Hospital. (By Sr Xaveria)  
3 Possibly did drink from a toilet bowl (I know I didn’t, especially in the yard where there was a tap!). I do know some of the residents might have at night time as we didn’t have sinks upstairs :they must have had very long necks“ the bowls were the old fashioned very high ones. Flushing got water for some. (Don’t forget tho’, in those days we wouldn’t have seen that as unhygienic!)  
4 Possibly did have teeth taken out by the dentist, like the rest of us” out of necessity. I see the poor viscountess had hers “yanked out” needlessly?  
5 Wasn’t kept in a state of starvation permanently, but like the rest of us“ was always “starving” especially before meal times! (There’s a big difference)  
6 Is perfectly aware that Sr Xaveria always had the toddlers in the nursery running after her when she walked in. She’d hand them sweets, pat them on their little heads, and they’d run after her pulling at her habit. Wonder if they’re related? LOVE HIBERNIAN ANGEL

Benefactor of Goldenbridge 1950 -1965

I knew Xaveria Lally, the nun who ran Goldenbridge. The person who took away her good name in the “Dear Daughter” documentary needs to answer a few questions.  
a) Why does she claim her education was neglected, yet she was one of the few from her group to go out to primary school, get a secondary education, and have her nurse training paid for by Xaveria. And, as a 9 year old child, is supposed to have written to the newspaper.  
b) The Rosary bead making: The Industrial School System, brought in by the British Government was kept on by the Irish Government, even after Britain got rid of theirs. On grants of less than £4 per child per week, the Religious Orders had to feed, clothe and educate the children. Build and repair the schools, pay for heating, electricity etc.  
The Industrial School System was deemed a suitable way of keeping the children occupied, and helping finance the schools. The Religious had no choice “what else could they have done?  
Yet Xaveria Lally, who actually abolished the practice in Goldenbridge when the state increased funding, gets blamed for the system. If it was a Rosary beads factory that forced children to work until their “thumbs and fingers were raw”. Why did children often return after tea to help their friends finish their quota” and have a chat?  
c) Why were the animals e.g. Jenny the Monkey, and the donkey, bought for the children to play with, never mentioned?  
d) Why was the holiday home in Wicklow that Xaveria paid for never mentioned?  
e) Why do photos exist of well dressed, plump, happy children playing? I believe the cloth for the clothes was bought in Clery’s and Frawley’s and made by the nuns. If this is so, why did this person allege starvation, continual beatings and “a reign of terror” against Xaveria? They look happy well fed and well dressed.  
f) Why would Sr Xaveria help so many of her pupils by sending them to live with her relatives in England, while they found their footing there? Why would she help pay their bills, wedding expenses, find them jobs, write to and visit them in prison, worry about them” especially now as so many are claiming compensation “they would contact her. They’re claiming compensation against Sr Xaveria Lally and she’s worrying about their welfare! Could this person answer any of these questions? I’ll have more at a later date Benefactor of Goldenbridge 1950-65

COMMENT 16

GOLDENBRIDGE – THREE UNUSUAL CASES

1) DEATH OF BABY AT GOLDENBRIDGE  
Dail Eireann – Volume 481 – 21 October, 1997

Mr. Neville

35\. Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Justice,  
Equality and Law Reform if he will have investigations made into the alleged abuse of a child at Goldenbridge Orphanage which may have resulted in her death.  
Minister of State at the Department of Justice,  
Equality and Law Reform (Miss M. Wallace): The  
Minister has been informed by the Garda authorities that a comprehensive investigation was carried out into allegations of child abuse at Goldenbridge Orphanage and the death of a child there. A file in the matter was forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions who directed that there should not be a prosecution against any person mentioned in the file.  
2) HIGH COURT REJECTS ORPHANAGE ABUSE ACTION

22 June 2001 RTE News

A 69-year-old woman who has claimed that she was physically abused as a child at a Sisters of Mercy-run orphanage cannot sue for damages, the High Court ruled today. Ellen Kelly, who lived in the Goldenbridge orphanage from 1934 to 1947, has claimed that she has since suffered three nervous breakdowns. Mr Justice Peter Kelly ruled that the case should not proceed because the delay was both inordinate and inexcusable.  
His decision could have implications for other former residents of the orphanage who are contemplating legal proceedings against the order.  
The mother of nine from Dublin claimed that she was subjected to beatings with a large bunch of keys and a leather strap. She claimed that Sister Xaviera sometimes placed her in solitary confinement and deprived her of food and sustenance. She said that she was stripped of her clothes, had her hair shorn and was forced to wear rags. The nuns regularly told her that both she and her family were “bad,” according to Mrs Kelly. She claimed that she suffered three nervous breakdowns as a result of the alleged abuse, which occurred mainly between 1936 and 1947. Mrs Kelly claimed that she began to recall her past when she began counselling in 1997.  
The High Court heard that Sister Xaviera remembered Mrs Kelly but totally rejected her allegations. Sister Xaviera did not enter Goldenbridge until 1942. The Sisters of Mercy have brought a High Court application to prevent Mrs Kelly’s action for damages from continuing. The order said that there had been an unprecedented delay in bringing the actions and all  
the witnesses who might have been called to give  
evidence were dead, except for Sister Xaviera, who is now 82-years-old.  
This is the first time that an Irish court has been  
asked to deal with an application of this type with  
such a delay between the alleged acts and the start of proceedings. Mr Justice Peter Kelly ruled that the delay was both inordinate and inexcusable. He said that there was a “clear and patent unfairness” in asking the accused to defend this action after the lapse of time involved, which totalled over 60 years in some incidences. He said that to allow the action to go on would “put justice to the hazard”.  
3) WOMAN CLAIMS ABUSE AT GOLDENBRIDGE

The Irish Times (22 June 2004)

A woman has claimed before the High Court that, as a child, she was abused first in Goldenbridge industrial school and then by her father and stepmother after she was wrongly taken from Goldenbridge by him.  
In judicial review proceedings, she is seeking a  
declaration that the abuse by her father and  
stepmother should form part of an award of  
compensation to her by the Residential Institutions  
Redress Board (RIRB).  
Mr David McGrath SC, for the woman, told Mr Justice O’ Higgins yesterday that his client, now aged 62, was detained in Goldenbridge by a District Court order made in March 1949.  
The detention order was made on the basis that she did not have a home. Mr McGrath argued that the woman, being the subject of a care order, should not have been released to her father in 1952.  
Mr Justice O’Higgins gave the woman leave to seek, by way of judicial review, an order quashing the RIRB decision to award her â‚¬70,000 compensation. The woman is seeking a declaration that she is entitled to 200,000. In an affidavit, the woman alleged she was abused by staff at Goldenbridge. She claimed she was taken from the school three years later by her father and brought to England to live with him and her stepmother. She claimed both had physically and sexually abused her. In March this year, she began to give evidence to the RIRB in support of her claim for an award under the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002. Although the function of the board was to conduct a hearing as informally as possible, her experience was that the hearing was anything but informal.  
She believed the practice of the board was to strictly adhere to many of the Rules of Evidence and no leeway was given with regard to an applicant who might be nervous, embarrassed or simply forgetful.  
When she reached that aspect of her case in which she alleged she had been sexually abused by her father, having been removed from the school without the District Court’s consent, the RIRB chairman, Mr Justice Sean O’Leary, had interrupted and said: “Well, we don’t need to know the details at all, other than general, that it was of a severe kind, included penetration, and it lasted.”  
She said that Mr McGrath, who had represented her at the hearing, had argued she was entitled under the 2002 Act to an award for the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father and stepmother on the basis that she was removed illegally from the school and because nothing was done to take her back into the nuns’ care.  
The woman alleged Mr Justice O’Leary had ruled the abuse by the father and stepmother was not abuse within the meaning of the legislation and that the nuns did not act unreasonably in discharging her to her father.  
She estimated that if the abuse suffered at the hands of her father and stepmother were included in the redress calculations, it would have equated to an award of â‚¬200,000. Under the 2002 Act, the  
RIRB’s primary function was to “make awards…which are fair and reasonable having regard to the unique circumstances of each applicant”.  
She had been awarded 70,000 and travelling  
expenses and she believed the awards made by the board were consistently lower than the courts would award.

Goldenbridge Disgraced in Ryan Commission.

“Denials, memory loss, cover up and intimidation disgraced Goldenbridge Orphanage in the Ryan Commission todayâ€ states Florence Horsman Hogan of the “Let Our Voices Emerge” charity.  
While Sr Helene O’Donoghue displayed Department of Education Inspection Reports ” about seven of the ex Goldenbridge Inmates (of the hundreds who supposedly suffered there at the hands of the demonised Sr Xaveria!) heckled, and intimidated. Official reports from the Department of Health were greeted with catcalls of â€œliesâ€ and “whitewash” Reports of the care in the institution under the care of Sr Xaveria (and others) being “good”to “excellent” were greeted with claims of “not while “I was there” “crazy” and ‘rubbish.”  
Evidence in the form of photographs of the children playing in the swimming pool at the holiday house, dancing classes, Christmas parties and pantomimes seemed to be remembered by very few “the seven went quiet for that one. Evidence of one carer to thirty children, and if that carer was a teacher â€“ having to work in the school as well were sniggered and jeered at.  
Yep! Goldenbridge was disgraced “but not by the Sisters of Mercy! and certainly not by Sr Xaveria. I can only hope the woman lives long enough to see her public exoneration ” will it be as public as her demonisation in “Dear Daughter?  
Ms C Buckley”s legal counsel (why he was there I don’t know, it wasn’t a court case on her “was it?) made quite a moving attempt on her behalf to ensure that the Ryan Commission gave her a chance to cross examine a “certain party” in a public hearing, as it was felt the Sisters of Mercy’s denial of the abuse alleged was in some way a reflection on her. The poor man could have saved himself the time and trouble. It’s my information a â€œcertain partyâ€ deeply desires a meeting but so far hasn’t been granted one.  
The full truth must be told, and we rely on our excellent media sources to tell it. NDEED – WE DO!…….. FROM: HIBERNIAN ANGEL.

COMMENT 17

Goldenbridge Orphanage and the Ryan Commission 15,16th March

In 1996 “the documentary “Dear Daughter” was broadcast. In it, it was claimed children from Goldenbridge Industrial School were subject to

terror and cruelty that destroyed their lives. The Sister of Mercy who managed the home at the time, Sr Xaveria Lally, was accused of acts of unspeakable cruelty.  
Among the allegations:-

Children dressed in rags.

Babies strapped to potties for so long, their rectums prolapsed.

Forced to drink water from an outdoor toilet (bawl!)

Forced to work in a Rosary Beads factory for hours, until their fingers bled.

A girl thrown into a furnace for three days.  
Identified by serial numbers to deprive them of their identities.

Many more allegations were made each one more horrific than the last. While we canâ€™t speak for all of them we can certainly rely on the Ryan

Commission to deal with some of the more major ones.

Goldenbridge “Ryan Commission to inquire into Child Abuse. Tuesday 15th, Wednesday 16th March at 10:30 am.  
_Last edited by Marie-Therese O’Loughlin (2006-12-09 19:10:59)_

#95 2006-12-10 01:06:23 **Setanta**

    Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook {2}

Statement 11 == [LIES AND FALSE ALLEGATIONS OF CHILD ABUSE MADE BY CHILDREN FROM SAINT JOSEPHS ORPHANAGE KILKENNY CITY IRELAND.]

“To be fair” , I submit that you people in the named pressure groups listed above, are not being fair.

Is this to be another payout without question, by another Biased, Unfair, Unconstitutional, Secretive, and Crooked agency of the Irish State, (The Residential Institutions Redress Board) for all those who claim to be victims/survivors, who allege that they suffered abuse while they were resident in Irish State run institutions ?

These unfair payouts encourage unscrupulous applicants/victims/survivors to lie, and make false, and unfounded statements, while claiming redress.

This is robbery, and also destroys innocent Families, men, women, and children.

There is no justice in a one sided payout without any defense.

You people can name who you like, get paid for it, and get away with it.

Setanta.

_Last edited by Setanta (2007-09-22 16:04:18)_

#96 2006-12-10 16:01:11 **Marie-Therese O’ Loughlin**

    Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook {2}

INSPECTOR RORY, ON MORE THAN HIS LONDON NEWSPAPER ROUNDS.

COMMENT; 1

“Have you got the Irish Times”? Rory said; to a newspaper seller on the corner of Seven Sisters Road and Holloway Road. Also, can you tell me where the Nags Head pub is? “You are standing right outside of what was ‘the Nags Head’, came the reply. FROM: A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

RE: PETER TYRRELLS BOOK “FOUNDED ON FEAR” AND THE EX-DE LA SILLY DUBLIN SPY WHO CAME HOME FROM LONDON ENGLAND WITH HIS ROTTEN TAIL BETWEEN HIS ROTTEN LEGS. HE THOUGHT THERE WAS SOME THING FISHY AT THE NAGS HEAD.  
NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG NAG NAG NAG NAG NAG NAG NAG ON NAGGER!  
BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BA, BLEET ON BLACK SHEEP!  
RE-IGNITE, RE-IGNITE, RE-IGNITE, RE-IGNITE, RE-IGNITE, RE-IGNITE, RE-IGNITE, RE-IGNITE, RE-IGNITE, PETER TYRRELL’S FIRE, RORY CONNOR!

COMMENT 2

THE DE LA SILLY “SPY EXPEDITION “, led by Auric Rory accompanied by “ODDJOB” has, like Scott of the Antartic, felt the “cold” of mission impossible. Fresh from his failure in London, the good Rory, in Litvenenko fashion, and still GLOWING as he arrived back in Dublin facing the SPECTRE of “explaining” to his “handlers” , of WHY he failed, at the debrief was MOST humiliating. Rory, unaware that THE NAGS HEAD he sought, was still FIRMLY ATTACHED TO THE SHOULDERS OF LOVE, while he perambulated wildly and uncontrolled in the strange environs of North London. Armed only with the PLACARD he was carrying – held high into the air, the legend screamed for ALL TO READ, I AM RORY CONNOR, EX DE LA SILLY Christian Brother, and I am here in London seeking INFORMATION ON PETER TYRRELL, THIS MAN TYRRELL HAS HAD A BOOK PUBLISHED – CALLED “FOUNDED ON FEAR” AND I AM HERE TO PROVE – LIKE ALL THE OTHER INSTITUTIONALLY ABUSED “FALSE ALLEGERS” THAT THIS MAN TYRRELL, IS A LIAR, A CRIMINAL,AND A THUG. PLEASE HELP ME! We will Rory, we will. BIG as London is Rory, in MANY respects it’s QUITE SMALL to a certain diaspora of “emigree’s” and “news” travels fast, VERY FAST RORY, especially in the Irish Community COMPRISING MANY OF US EX-NMATES OF THE CHILD BROTHELS OF IRELAND, more so when an ex black garb arrives on the scene, and as you discovered to your cost “collation” become most difficult, however Rory, unfortunately you overlooked a “few” precautions whch SHOULD have been pointed out to you, as you know London Rory is now a most SECURITY CONSCIOUS Community, and CAMERAS ARE “EVERYWHERE” Rory, moreso, in the “places” you visited. Yes Rory, MOST UNFORTUNATE. However, we can’t blame you for that, as certain skills are required in the “world” you now inhabit and your lack thereof IS ASTOUNDING. Recording and “assessing” information Rory lies in the ability to collect enough of the right information. Frequently, gobshites such as yourself rely on gathering information in the old “scatter gun” method, they hope to find out something worthwhile by asking more and more questions, this method Rory, YOURS, results in confusion from information overload. Ergo Rory, it is as well to remember the difficulty imposed where human nature is the subject, and people and systems being intertwined make for continuous and dynamic opposite dimensions which in themselves pose difficulties for the “learner” such as yourself, plus of course the problem this presents and its meaning for “significant” people, ie, Rory, HISTORICAL FACTS WHICH IMPINGE ON THE PRESENT, and the KNOWLEDGE THERETO WHICH CAN “AFFECT THE FUTURE”! In many ways Rory you WERE in effect DOOMED TO FAILURE in as much, you REPRESENT THE FAILURE, BY BEING A VERY PART OF IT, and we arrive at such conclusion Rory , where the “assessor”, in this instance, YOU, possessed of a set determinate in that your PERSPECTIVE lacks EXACTNESS and COMPREHENSIVNESS, something like CLOUSSEAU, bumbling away in the Mike Hammer “GUM SHOE” fashion…………..Problems for which this approach is applicable, Rory, may NOT even seem like “problems” , but more like crises which can occur when a “person” or EVEN AN “ORGANISATION” perceives a THREAT TO THEIR LIFE GOALS, so in this particular instance Rory, ROUTINE “EARY HISTORY” taking has to be seen as innapropriate, and as you hold a “BA”, in HISTORY this surely MUST strike a chord within you, it is the MEANING of the event to the INDIVIDUAL which matters, and YOUR meaning in this EVENT stems from irrational and unstable emotional involvement based on misplaced loyalty to the OPPRESSORS OPPOSED TO THE OPPRESSED. HISTORY, as you know, TELLS US THAT. Jasus Rory, there I go AGAIN, digressing, I only wish I had your ability to remain FOCUSED! Your past association with a DISHONOURABLE BUNCH OF THUGS, LIARS AND SEXUALLY ABUSIVE CRIMINALS, ie, the De la Sillys, invokes the desire in myself to TREAD WARILY HERE, when I say that your CURRENT STRESSE’S have their origins in past life “experiences”, ie, BEING AN EX MEMBER OF A christian brothers ORGANISATION, IN THIS PRESENT CLIMATE cannot be an easy burden to bear, and my goal here is to HELP you to come to terms with your RELIGIOUS loss to reduce the risk of future vulnerability. As you are aware Rory, the SPYS objective is to gather information, to be active, directive and systematic, if need be, and most importantly Rory one has to be AUTHENTIC where “”reality testing”” is promotional to the desired goal, in your case, a most perfidious and unwarranted intrusion into the life of a MAN WHO ENDED HIS LIFE FOR “HIS” DESIRED GOAL. Peter Tyrrell who now HAS REACHED OUT FROM THE GRAVE TO ACCUSE HIS TORMENTORS, THE IRISH christian brothers. In the MURKY WORLD of “religious politics”, not forgetting “espionage”Rory, one could ALMOST be forgiven for “looking” behind the scenes here as to WHAT motivates you in particular aspects of your MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. Peter Tyrrells FOUNDED ON FEAR concerns itself primarily WITH THE BRUTALITIES COMMITTED ON THE INNOCENT and DEFENCLESS IN LETTERFRACK, BY FAR, THE MOST DISGUSTING CHILD BROTHEL THEY STAFFED AND RAN, and its on the basis that you were NOT a member of this GANG, but of ANOTHER order which leads MY thinking to go somewhat awry! Indicating Rory, that SURELy its THAT order who should have been in London looking for “DIRT” on Peter Tyrrell, and NOT YOURSELF! But there again, memory tells me that the Irish christian brothers, and NOT the De La Sillys, were SUCCESSFUL in obtaining an INJUNCTION in the High Court precluding the NAMING AND SHAMING OF THEIR PAST PERVERTS, in particular THEIR DEAD PERVERTS, and Im just WONDERING Rory, as Peter Tyrrell is long dead, does this INJUNCTION in ANY reciprocal sense AFFORD PETER TYRRELL THE SAME PROTECTION! Thereby, by implication would it therefore be in “ANYWAY” AN ILLEGAL ACT , contray to the HIGH COURT INJUNCTION if this religious order “employed” ANYONE on their behalf to UNDERTAKE SUCH A “MISSION” as to in anyway cast ASPERSIONS OR OTHERWISE ON THE MEMOIRS OF PETER TYRRELL! On the night of the launch of FOUNDED ON FEAR, there were “FACES” there reminiscent of the K G B , very tense, very alert and looking SOMEWHAT “TROUBLED” But there again Rory as the BLACK GARBS PROFUSELY APOLOGISED for the contents of FOUNDED ON FESAR, I suppose its just my highly disorganised mind which runs away with me, AND MY “THOUGHTS” OF “CONSPIRATORIAL THEORIES” … So, you have to forgive me Rory, it just goes to show how unbalanced we can become from a Christian Brothers “education” IN THE CHILD BROTHELS OF IRELAND. You and I should dispense with all this CLOAK and DAGGER WORK RORY, and LET’S GET DOWN TO THE NITTY GRITTY CONCERNING THE “DEATH OF PATSY FLANAGAN”! Hopefully you should have GOT MY CHALLENGE BY NOW, and no doubt Rory you and I can SET THIS FORUM ALIGHT, WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY BRINGING UD FORUM TO DESERVED WORLD ACCLAIM, JASUS RORY, JUST THINK OF THE “PUBLICITY” WE COULD GENERATE. And you could then REALISE ALL YOUR DREAMS BY CLAIMING THE PUBLICITY YOU SO DESERVE, and FURTHER Rory, it would be a RIGHT KICK IN THE FACE FOR THE MEDIA IN IRELAND WHOSE “VIEW” OF YOU IS A RIGHT GOBSHITE, SO LETS GO FOR IT RORY. Looking forward to hearing from you.  
FROM A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE, WHO CALLS A SPADE A SPADE!

COMMENT 3

I’M HALF WAY THROUGH PETER TYRRELL’S BOOK ‘FOUNDED ON FEAR’. I STARTED THE BOOK YESTERDAY AND READ SOME AGAIN TODAY. I FOUND IT VERY DISTURBING. IT IS A MIRROR IMAGE OF MY TIME SPENT IN ARTANE. I HAD DIFFICULTY IN SLEEPING LAST NIGHT. WHAT A VERY BRAVE BOY HE WAS FOR THAT TIME! LETTERFRACK, DID GET WORSE, AS THE YEARS WENT, ON EVEN INTO INTO THE FIFTIES IT WAS TERRIBLE. I NOTICED IN THE BOOK THAT MOST THINGS WHICH HAPPENED IN LETTERFRACK WHEN HE WAS THERE WAS ALSO CARRIED OUT IN ARTANE. EVEN, ‘SPINNING THE KNIFE’ FOR THE SHARE OF THE BREAD AND BUTTER! ….LIFE, WAS EVEN MORE WORSE FOR PETER IN THE TWENTIES AND EARLY THIRTIES THAN WAS THE CASE WITH THE BOYS IN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES, IT IS A VIVIDLY AND DEEPLY MOVING BOOK. BUT, HARD TO READ KNOWING THAT EVENTS IN THE BOOK REALLY HAPPENED. AS PETER TYRRELL SAYS.  
“WE OFTEN GROW UP BITTER AND FULL OF HATRED FOR SOCIETY” HOW RIGHT HE WAS! IRISH/AUSTRALIAN VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 4

“Rory, Rory where have you been”? You didn’t go to London just to see the Queen! Have you instead, been to see the other religious spy in Huddersfield? Sad about his friend, Father Harry Moore. When you seek to investigate people remember that it works both ways and the religious “key” is not the only “key”. Imagine a survivor going to see Archbishop Brady in Armagh to inform on victims/survivors.  
The Freedom of Information Act works for all! From a victim/survivor of institutional abuse.

COMMENT 5

“WHO” is the slob, with the – and I Quote, “SOFT GENTLE IRISH ACCENT” Unquote, WHO PRESENTLY IS DOING THE ROUNDS HERE IN LONDON TRYING TO DIG UP “DIRT” ON PETER TYRREL. I await your “presence” on my manor. A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 6

WATER EVENTUALLY FINDS ITS OWN LEVEL , SO JUST GIVE THE FAILED – ‘SOFT’ EX-BLACK FECKING GARB ENOUGH ROPE TO KNOT AROUND HIS ROTTEN FISHY NAGGING HEAD. A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 7

I worked as a plaster’s labourer in 73 in a posh house on the edge of Hamstead Heath. My work mates told me then that an Irish lad burnt himself there. I only found out a few years ago that is was Peter Tyrrell, and why he did it. In my ‘book’ they don’t come any braver than Peter Tyrrell! He stood up against the roman catholic church and the church controlled Irish Free State. He did this for the former inmates. The inmates, that were still serving their sentences and the future inmates that were to be incarcerated in years to come. If that was not ‘BRAVERY’ WHAT IS?  
AN IRISH/AMERICAN VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE.

COMMENT 8

Rory, fancy coming to London and not looking me up! Have no fear Rory Dear, YOU ARE NOT THE “ONLY ONE” LOOKING “THINGS UP”. TELL ME RORY, YOUR BIG HOUSE, ALL THIS TRAVEL, YOUR MODE OF LIVING, ” AND YOU DONT HAVE A JOB” WHAT’S THE SECRET OF THIS GRACIOUS LIVING, DO TELL RORY? IM INTERESTED IN SUCH A LUXURY LIFESTYLE ! OBVIOUSLY YOU ARE A WEALTHY MAN! OR DOES YOUR “WEALTH” COME FROM ELSEWHERE, _ SHARES IN “HEAVEN” PERHAPS? OR DID YOU MAKE SUFFICENT DOSH AS A Christian Brother, or even as an ex -Christian Brother? INCIDENTIALL, RORY, WE STILL AWAIT YOUR “DISSERTATION” ON THE EVIDENCE SURROUNDING THE “MYSTERIOUS DEATH” OF YOUNG PATSY FLANAGAN IN ARTANE – YOU`VE GONE “VERY QUIET” ON THAT PARTICULAR SUBJECT RORY! ANY VIABLE REASON FOR THAT?TAKE CARE RORY, BUY A PARROT, THEY`RE GREAT COMPANY, BUT WATCH OUT FOR THE “BEAKS”! VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE NOW DOMICILED IN LONDON, ENGLAND  
+  
FOUNDED ON FEAR. ON HAMSTEAD HEATH!

Brothers should be contrite Mary Raftery Primo Levi, the Italian writer who gave us probably the most compelling account of life and death in a German concentration camp, told of a recurring nightmare common among inmates. He and his fellow sufferers at Auschwitz dreamt of a time in the future when they were free and were trying to tell people of the horrors in the camps, of the depths of depravity to which human beings are capable of sinking. Despite their desperate efforts to be heard, no one would listen or believe. They cried out and people turned their backs. And this is indeed what happened to Levi himself. For over 10 years, publisher after publisher rejected If This Is a Man, his memoir of Auschwitz. It is now of course an undisputed classic of 20th century literature. Last Tuesday, a remarkable book was launched in this country. As a manuscript, it lay undiscovered for almost half a century. Its author, Peter Tyrrell, had tragically committed suicide almost 40 years ago by setting himself alight on London’s Hampstead Heath. Like Primo Levi, he was determined that people hear his tale of horror, and, like Levi, he was ignored and dismissed. Tyrrell is a rare phenomenon of post-Independence Ireland – he is a genuine hero. His memoir, Founded on Fear, was discovered recently by historian Diarmuid Whelan in the National Library among the papers of the late Senator Owen Sheehy-Skeffington. It tells of the grinding poverty of his childhood in County Galway, and his removal at the age of eight to the industrial school at Letterfrack in Connemara. It also covers his subsequent years in the British army during the second World War. He was wounded and captured in 1945, and memorably describes his German prisoner-of-war camp as “heaven on earth” compared to Letterfrack. Tyrrell’s account of the seven years of his childhood spent at the Christian Brothers’ institution has a childlike directness, an absence of self-pity and a unique even-handedness which place his memoir among the most powerful of the genre. Written in 1958, it is also the very earliest such account that we know of, and consequently a document of enormous historical significance. In a powerfully dispassionate manner, largely unburdened by any tone of moralising, he describes the appalling reality of life for a child at Letterfrack during the 1920s and 1930s. He tells of the savage and sadistic beatings administered by a number of Brothers – boys of all ages were usually attacked from behind, so they never knew when it was coming. They were hit repeatedly, often up to 20 times, on the head and back at full force with a variety of weapons, from hefty sticks and leathers to thick rubber strips reinforced with metal wire. Tyrrell recounts the systematic destruction of little boys, his mates, as they are literally in some cases driven mad by the endless torture they experience. On one occasion, his own arm was broken during an attack and he was ordered to tell the doctor that he had fallen down the stairs. Founded on Fear is also a rich and detailed account of daily life in Letterfrack, with all its incomprehensible contradictions. Tyrrell talks about how the Brothers completely changed personality on Christmas Day, playing and joking with the boys in the friendliest fashion. He describes outings arranged by Brothers who went to great lengths to ensure that the children enjoyed themselves. He also refers to Brothers who did not beat the children – by no means all were cruel and vicious. In short, he does not shy away from the oddly schizophrenic nature of these places. It is this fair-mindedness which has been highlighted by the Christian Brothers in their statement about Tyrrell’s book this week. In an unusual step, they have commented favourably on the memoir, and have taken the opportunity both to apologise unreservedly to victims of similar abuse and to acknowledge publicly their failings when during the 1950s Tyrrell himself came to confront them with their abuse of children. It was an extraordinarily brave action on his part. He was concerned that children might be still suffering from such cruelty at their institutions and he wanted it stopped. The Brothers, however, refused to listen. Documents supplied to the Child Abuse Commission show that their primary concern was that he might try to blackmail them. Today, many of those abused at Christian Brother institutions during the very years when Peter Tyrrell was seeking to expose it have been deeply hurt by what they perceive as the Brothers’ continuing denial of their responsibility for such widespread crimes against children. In this context, it is important to acknowledge the honesty of the Christian Brothers’ statement accepting the validity of Peter Tyrrell’s memoir. It is their most generous public utterance to date. It is all that he asked for when he was alive. Even now, so many years after his despairing suicide, it is still not too late to express such sincere contrition. The Irish Times

FOUNDED ON FEAR.

BRUTALITY IN LETTERFRACK A Chara, – Mary Raftery recently likened the dreadful experience of Peter Tyrell to that of Primo Levi (Opinion, October 19th). After hearing extracts from Tyrell’s book on the radio the other night, I was struck by the aptness of Raftery’s comparison. Both men, through no fault of their own, found themselves locked in a nightmare. They suffered appalling brutality and humiliation. They were stripped of their dignity and lived in sheer terror. The comparison doesn’t end there. In both cases society closed its eyes. The extraordinary way in which a combination of hatred and cowardice gave rise to collusion in Nazi Germany is well documented. But if it is true that ordinary Germans knew well about the horrors inside Dachau, here in Ireland ordinary people knew about places like Letterfrack. Worse still, they colluded in it. A garda would assist in rounding up boys for industrial schools. A farmer would hand over escapees that he found on his land. All in full knowledge of the cruel regimes to which the boys were being returned. Politicians rounded on anyone – and they were few – who dared to speak out. The Catholic Church, cruel and tyrannical, defended its regime with ferocity. As Peter Tyrell sobbed after his brutal drubbings, he must have wondered what kind of people lived in the little cottages all around. He must have asked himself how a Mass-going community could allow an enclave of brutality in its midst. His heart must have been continually breaking as he wondered what he had done to deserve this cruelty. Levi suffered a similar collapse in his faith in mankind. But at least he had the satisfaction of seeing the demise of the sick regime that was responsible for his suffering. Poor Peter Tyrell had been brave enough to raise his voice against the tyranny only to be shouted down. In his quest for justice he met a stone wall, thick and steadfast like that of a church. We are still dismantling that wall and it is essential that we try to understand how it was built. – Is mise, C MAC A, Churchtown, Dublin 14. Letters Page, Irish Times.

FOUNDED ON FEAR

Peter Tyrell’s book Founded on Fear serves as another reminder of the savagery of Ireland’s industrial school system. It also shows up the catastrophic effect of the cosy and profoundly detrimental relationship between Church and State that existed then, and how each connived with the other to wreak havoc on the lives of so many Irish people.

The men and women of God dictated the agenda, and the State towed the lineâ€¦or, to put it another way, the Crucifix â€œplayedâ€ the Harp, and Catholic Ireland danced to the tune of the One, True, and Apostolic faith.

Tyrell’s memoir reads like the autobiography of a Gulag or concentration camp survivor. It leaves you with striking and unforgettable images of â€œcarersâ€ and â€œteachersâ€ enforcing a military style regime in Letterfrack.

The beatings seemed to go on forever. You could be whacked for not sleeping, for being awake, for looking to the left instead of to the right while standing in line. Terror stalked the place.

The notion that people who lived in the vicinity of industrial schools â€œdidnâ€™t knowâ€ what went on is pretty unconvincing, when you consider that mothers often reprimanded wayward children by saying â€œif you donâ€™t behave, Iâ€™ll send you to Letterfrack

If that warning sounds vaguely familiar, it may be because German mothers in the 1930s and during the war used a similar threat to get children to behave: “If you’re bold again, I’ll send you to Dachau”.

Letterfrack may not have recycled its fearful inmates into lampshades or soap, but it certainly turned many people into traumatised victims of savage beatings and a searing emotional cruelty.

I suggest a twinning arrangement between Letterfrack and the town of Dachau in Germany. The crimes perpetrated in the first one of these two hateful places may differ in character and magnitude from what happened in the concentration camp.

Yet both sets of violent abusers destroyed livesâ€¦simply because they couldâ€¦and black was the colour of their working clothes.

Thanking you,  
John Fitzgerald,  
(Freelance Journalist and Writer)

_Last edited by Marie-Therese O’ loughlin (2006-12-11 16:14:43)_

97 2006-12-10 16:40:30 **Marie-Therese O’ Loughlin**

    Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook [2]

LEGAL PROFESSION REPORT

Legal profession report took 25 years………………….. Tomorrow’s publication of the Competition Authority’s final report on the legal profession marks the end of almost a quarter of a century of studies of restrictive practices by lawyers. In the early 1980s, the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism asked the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) – the forerunner to the Competition Authority – to examine practices which led to increased legal costs and which limited employment opportunities in the legal profession. The commission published its preliminary report in 1984. The final report, published in March 1990, concluded: “We believe that competition between lawyers would be of significant benefit to the public. We also consider that the interests of lawyers would be best served in a competitive environment. Unless consumers are satisfied that high standards of service are provided at a reasonable cost, the long-term survival and prosperity of lawyers will not be assured. “Some of the report’s proposals – such as the establishment of a small claims court and the extension of the Circuit Court’s jurisdiction to 38,000 – were implemented. But other recommendations – such as a system of common vocational training for solicitors and barristers – were ignored. Ken Murphy, director general of the Law Society, said solicitors had implemented many of the recommendations of the 1990rep ort. He said the Law Society had the power to investigate excessive fees, solicitors were required to have mandatory professional indemnity insurance and lay members had been appointed to the complaints committee. The former chairman of the Competition Authority, Paddy Lyons, who was a member of the group that drew up the FTC report, agreed that solicitors had implemented “quite a number of the recommendations”, but he said that, in relation to the Bar, “there has been virtually no progress. What little change there has been was the first for 400 years, so I suppose we should be grateful. In 2001, the Competition Authority announced that it was to examine eight professions, including the legal profession. The authority said it expected to publish its final report in the autumn of 2005, but that date was defe r red be cause of delays in submissions by lawyers groups and the resignation of authority chairman John Fingleton. He was succeeded last January by former aviation regulator Bill Prasifka. The authority’s preliminary report, published in February 2005, said that high-quality legal services were important to society, “but of limited value if available only to the very rich.” It criticised the legal profession for serious and disproportionate restrictions on competition”, and made more than 40 proposals for change, most of which are likely to find their way into tomorrow’s final report. The recommendations included: * abolishing the educational monopolies of the King’s Inns and Law Society; * removing the ban on direct access by the public to barristers; * lifting the prohibition on partnerships between barristers and solicitors; * scrapping restrictions on advertising; * requiring advance fee information by barristers; and * changing the taxation of costs system. But the Competition Authority has no power to enforce any changes recommended in its report. Last April, it was reported that the authority was considering prosecuting the Law Society and the King’s Inns for abuse of their dominant positions in relation to the education of would-be lawyers. The Law Society is the sole institution responsible for the training of solicitors, while the King’s Inns has the monopoly on training barristers. As part of its preliminary report on the legal professions, the authority gave both institutions until September 30, 2005, to produce guidelines for universities and colleges which wanted to provide training courses for solicitors and barristers. Neither organisation did so, but the authority did not take legal action. However, the Law Society and the King’s Inns have taken steps to counter criticism of their monopolies. The Law Society has announced a second law school at UCC in Cork, while the King’s Inns is reported to be considering the reintroduction of the part-time course for the Barrister-at-Law (BL) degree. The Competition Authority itself has been a victim of the restrictive practices in the legal profession. In 2000, the authority advertised for two solicitors to join its staff. When asked why the positions were not open to barristers, an authority spokesman cited the Bar Council rule forbidding barristers to be briefed by other barristers. In contentious cases, barristers may only be instructed by solicitors. The issue of legal costs will feature strongly in tomorrow’s report. Legal services in Ireland cost more than 1.1 billion a year – almost 1 per cent of total GDP. Speaking at a debate in Trinity College Dublin earlier this year, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said the issue of legal costs and fees was a subject upon which everyone has something to say. McDowell said there was a widespread perception that lawyers decided their own incomes by rules which they interpreted and applied. To help tackle the problem, he set up a legal costs working group in 2004, chaired by Paul Haran, former secretary general of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The Haran report, published a year ago, recommended setting up a regulatory body to formulate guidelines for fees. That body has not yet been implemented. But the idea of a regulatory body for lawyers is likely to feature in the Competition Authority’s final report. It’s believed that the authors of the report are unhappy that the Law Society and the Bar Council continue to have sole responsibility for regulatory and disciplinary matters. Although the Competition Authority has no power to enforce the recommendations in its report, the Bar Council and the Law Society are likely to come under increasing pressure to comply with the proposals. But those who expect swift action would do well to consider the Latin motto of the Bar: nolumus mutari – we do not want to change……10 December 2006 … By Kieron Wood…Sunday Business Post.

#98 2006-12-10 17:19:0 **Marie-Therese O’ Loughlin**

## Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook [2]

THE DOOR THAT NEVER CLOSES.

As a victim/survivor of an Irish Gulag I have been researching Institutional Child Abuse. I am thoroughly examining what IRISH GULAG children had to endure. The effects of the abuse visited on them which thus emanated into the rest of their lives and the lives of their parents, spouses/partners, their children/grand children, siblings, friends. I am looking at the difficulties they had/have fitting into society in the way one would have expected. Also, the fact that they could not connect to society in many other ways. For example, to too innumerable victims/survivors this indeed was and still is a very serious problem. Many victioms/survivors simply got lost in the world and drifted onto the oblivion train of alcohol, and drugs in order to escape the pain and the trauma of what happened to them as children in the Irish Gulags. There is a greater need of understanding into this very complex problem and for people to accuse victims/survivors of telling lies in order to enhance their application at the Redress Board it is nothing short of a total disgrace. These accusers have no idea as to what it is was like for victims/survivors to revisit their experiences in the Irish Gulags. The accusers have their minds made up about them. It was said in the old western days “give them a fair trial and then we will hang them”. What is the point in trying to get through to them. So let’s move on, and get the experience victims/survivors, their parents, spouses/partners, children, grandchildren and friends out into the public domain for the whole world to see.

I hope I live long enough to finish this research which has the title “The Door That Never Closes”. It is my intention to hold public meetings in Ireland and the UK for the spouses/partners, sons, daughters, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, friends and relations of victims/survivors of the Irish Gulags, as I strongly believe that their stories and concerns should also have a voice as they too are victims/survivors of the fallout of the Irish Gulags.  
It is called “Rock Me Gently” ”it is a true Story” of a Convent Childhood, written by; Judith Kelly. The book clearly shows what sort of people these nuns were, outside Ireland. It also gives great insight into victims/survivors of Ireland and of the system that was created by the Catholic Church and also of the treatment of little innocent children world-wide. From a victim/survivor of institutional abuse now domiciled in England.

COMMENT 1

Thank you for your posting regarding the title of the proposed outcome of my research. I see exactly what you are saying. The title “The Door That Never Closes ” is hopefully to indicate to all that our pain and trauma suffered in the Irish Gulags can never have the door closed on it, for as long as we live we will never get complete closure as the damage is deeply ingrained in us. Our stories will be for the world to see what this Catholic Ireland did to its innocent children. The children of today and tomorrow and for generations to come will be protected from these evil people. A child has a basic human right to a good and safe childhood a childt has a right to be wanted, loved, cherished and to be happy. Afterall, these are the very foundation stones for the preparation of life (hard knocks and all ) to come. There is an old saying in Ireland: “you have not lived life until you have seen the two day’s…the good day, and the bad day” From a victim/survivor of institutional abuse now domiciled in england.

_Last edited by Marie-Therese O’ loughlin (2006-12-10 20:32:34)_

#99 2006-12-10 21:07:34 **Marie-Therese O’ Loughlln**

Re: From the CrookedLawyers.com Guestbook {2}

Victims see their trust fund spent on salsa.  
September 3, 2006

John Burns

IT was set up by the church to help victims of abuse in industrial schools improve their education. But three years later it has emerged that less than one in three beneficiaries of 12.7m trust fund has ever set foot in an industrial school or orphanage.  
Furthermore, a large proportion of the proceeds of the compensation fund appears to have been spent on Irish dancing and salsa classes, driving lessons and swimming instruction.

A spokesman for the Education Finance Board (EFB), which is responsible for handing out the cash, says only 27.9% of those who have got grants are former residents of industrial schools. “The remainder are mostly children of residents, and some spouses,” he said. “The grants have been for a range of courses, from basic literacy to masters degrees.”

Almost 1,500 people from Ireland and around the world have received payments totalling 3.2m, an average of 2,100 each. There is still 10.5m left in the fund, which is being looked after by the National Treasury Management Agency.

But Patrick Walsh, vice-chairman of the EFB and a victims” representative, is concerned about how the money has been awarded. He cites the lack of a verification system to ensure applicants are genuine, and is unhappy that grandchildren of industrial school residents will now be eligible for funding.

“As of last January, 1,775 people had applied for money, but none of these people were independently verified,” Walsh said. “People could send in applications for grants based on a form and photocopies of bits of paper. There may be bogus applications in there because the system is far too open. All it takes is someone with Tippex and a photocopier.”

Up until February payments from the fund were made by an ad-hoc committee but Mary Hanafin, the education minister, has now put the EFB on a statutory footing thereby changing the rules to allow grandchildren to apply. Walsh has criticised this extension given that no extra money was provided by the government. The original 2.7m was provided by 18 religious congregations.

“Grandchildren who have never been to Ireland, and whose grandfathers may have been in industrial schools for only a few days or back in the 1890s, are being included.” he said. “It doesn’t seem fair that a fund set up to rectify educational disadvantage to residents is being opened up to people who didn’t suffer that.”

Walsh, who spent 14 years in an industrial school, has asked the EFB to work out how much of the 3.2m has been spent on lifestyle classes such as salsa and swimming. One person recently received 2,000 for dance classes they had taken in 2002. I have concerns about that,’ he said.

A spokesman defended the practice of funding courses to help beneficiaries learn skills such as driving. Driving lessons can be helpful to people in their normal lives, he said. Certain courses are not eligible. As well as paying fees, we give a degree of assistance. There are barriers to attendance in education, such as the cost of childcare, books and field trips.”

Under EFB guidelines to be published shortly, a ceiling will be placed on how much people can be given from the fund. This is due to concerns that some have received disproportionate amounts, with one person getting 20,000.

Walsh, a spokesman for Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (Soca) in England, said the Department of Education’s database will now be used to verify applicants, but he would like it to be used to do a retrospective check on the 1,500 beneficiaries, many of whom are in receipt of ongoing grants. â€œThere has been a lack of proper checking,” he said.

The EFB is also scrapping a retrospectivity clause that allowed people to claim for courses they had done as far back as 2002. Walsh said this was also in response to concerns at board level.

The trust fund was set up in 2002 as part of a controversial deal between the Department of Education and religious orders. In return for a total package of ¬127m, including the fund, the department agreed to indemnify the orders against applications for compensation from former residents of institutions. The Residential Institutions Redress Board is now paying out compensation to about 15,000 people who were abused. Many people have made multiple applications to the EFB, with one person applying nine times.

A spokesman, however, said fraud doesn’t arise. Once you can show you’re a former resident, or a relative with a direct link, and you can prove details of the residency, you’re eligible.