A really interesting article.I could not have sat through such a load of rubbish as was spouted in the lecture, such rubbish it hardly deserves the dignity of analysis.
The Lincoln crap is totally incorrect. He didn’t want a thing to do with equality and the emancipation of Blacks. In fact, he wanted them deported! Don’t take my word for it you can read it yourself by looking at Lincolns’ speeches, and no, not the ones singled out by the Harry Jaffas’ Ken Masugis’ the other pseudo Intellectuals like them. Tom DiLorenzo would be a good start.
Bravo again to Edmund Standing, fear not, apologize not. This U.S. Jew, son of a holocaust survivor, Orthodox educated, connaiseur of any and all forms of anti-semitism, left or right, foreign and domestic, hereby bestows on you the NON-antisemite, wholly Kosher, seal of approval. Your theological writings, all freely available on B.and W., are all the best and clearest of their kind. Keep up the good work. I, for one, know that “God” blesses all of your efforts. You are our “Bright”, enlightened, worthy Prophet.
As well as the ones that think swine flu will not affect muslims, assorted self-proclaimed religious leaders also assert that it is a U.S. conspiracy. Various mad mullahs in Pakistan prevented polio immunisation for the same reason. Let’s hope that the alleged germ warfare division concerned is working on a really unpleasant illness that only affects big-mouthed and small-minded bigots.
Is there any point in having two separate websites for Butterflies and Wheels and Harry’s Place? Maybe Goldman-Sachs could work on a merger/acquisition with Oliver Kamm acting as consultant?
Just wanted to say, Thank you! By providing a play by play of what happened during the Hindutva California Textbook controversry, it will hopefully highlight the dangers lurking in ignoring a politicized rightwing movement operating in our very own country.
“Is there any point in having two separate websites for Butterflies and Wheels and Harry’s Place?”
Gee, I don’t know. Is there any point in having two separate magazines, The New Statesman and Prospect? Is there any point in having two separate newspapers, The Independent and the Guardian? Is there any point in having two separate Reviews of Books, the New York one and the London one? Is there any point in having two separate publishers, Penguin and Harper’s?
In short, what a stupid question. The idea of course is that B&W and HP are interchangeable, but that’s a supremely ridiculous claim. Good old Proyect, always good for a laugh.
Report attributes punishments to the lack of the rule of law, ignoring the fact that amputation for theft IS a mainstay of Islamic law.
NAIROBI (AFP) — Islamist armed groups controlling Somalia’s southern city of Kismayo have carried out amputations and unlawful killings, Amnesty International reported Thursday.
The London-based watchdog cited the case of Mohamed Omar Ismail, who one of his hands publicly amputated by local religious leaders as a punishment for allegedly stealing items worth around 90 dollars (65 euros).
Hundreds of residents attended the punishment, which was carried out in a place called “Freedom Park,” Amnesty’s statement said.
“Punishments like amputations and killings illustrate the extent to which violence still substitutes for the rule of law in many areas of Somalia,” said Michelle Kagari, Deputy Director of Amnesty International?s Africa Programme.
Very Good article, but the rosary factory was there in 1950 as well as the children making and glueing brown paper bags for shop’s,in ireland.making and sewing underware for export knitting jumpers and socks for the nuns to sell to shops ,there was no Education except Religious education, Domestic work which we had to an exam for which was cleaning and basic cooking ,inspectors came and examined our work, THAT WAS OUR EXAM.The Redress Board was set up to terrorise and frighten vonourable survivors into silenceing them forever,you are right there were only 3 girls in goldenbridge during the late 1950’s who were sent to the Outside national school and they were Christine West,Angela Gavin and Lizzy Gartland.IT was they who did the exams, funny how Christine West (now Mrs Buckley is on the board of Education,she was employed by them all along.How much has she made out of Survivors?????who were put through more suffering at the redress board by being Insulted with infamitory remarks about the survivors parents and told it was their fault and the fault of their parents that children were sentenced into reformatories to be Beaten ,Starved,that they were NOT effected by what happened to them in Industrial reformatories But rather it was because their parents were Genetically inadequate ,this of course is so cruel,insults were thrown at survivors,many could not face going through any more and just excepted i silence ,and went away even more traumatised,hurt and deeply upset.and knew they had no choice to try and go on to the high court,they had no chance ,The Redress board hearings were supposed to be held in secret ,so why was Mrs Christine buckley and her friend allowed into the waiting room where survivors were told to sit and wait.one traumatised nervious very Sick survivor was who lives in another country was Shouted at by Mrs Buckley ,this survivor ended up back in Hospital ,it had upset her so much,it was so loud the hearing going on at that time had to be stopped ,there are unscrupulous greedy people making a fortune pretending to run survivors services only to line there own pockets,they only want names on their lists to get funding while real survivors are disgarded ,they are just as bad as the religious orders who abused survivors as children,survivors because somehow they Just survived by getting out of those places alive,though not all.families were torn apart forever,minds were damaged,the phisical body and growth were damaged,The Solicitors made a fortune,So called Centres in Ireland made a fortune and yet most survivors live abroad.the Education Grants dept should be transfered to England where most survivors live anyway,like Irish Center’s who are already involved with trying to help survivors every day,Not have to deal with Mrs Buckley who is on the board of education as survivors know she was more privilaged by the nuns making sure it was she who got to go out to the National school and had an education.There are homeless survivor’s in Ireland and England,who should be housed by now , NO survivor should be left homeless, every survivor should be given a home in Ireland,even those abroad as the religious ,the Dept of Education ,The Courts, The Nspcc, all were involved in taking away childrens, ROOT’s, family connection’s,Sibling’s,History,I have seen asylum seekers given houses and flats while survivors are left Homeless,and Lonley.we as Childrem made a fortune for the Religious and the government they owe all of us a Home of our own in our names,where those of us who left Ireland can have our own place to bring our families to.when we wish to.instead of giving massive Funds to those who set up survivor so called services ie Houses to stay in which survivors pay again for anyway.while others running these places make a fortune for themselves.and couldnt give a fig about the needs of survivors.we have become tourist’s having to stay in hotels alone.in our own country.we should have been given deeds to a home in the places we origionaly came from.instead of lining pockets of others.Real survivors have found themselves Bullied on return to Ireland for visits,we are made to feel >Like what we have set up
Comment’s on redress board.>>>>get this one poor woman was told by the so called psychiatrist at her so called hearing she wasn!t effected by what she went through in the industrial school at all,but was effected because she had two illegitimate children and was suffering from post natel depression. is this torture again or what??Ps blame the black habits and white coller for my bad spelling.
Yep, I specifically remember doing top-stitching and sewing fancy lace around cotton panties and hankercheifs in St Patrick’s for so called exams – we never saw our proud products afterwards. We also knitted wooly socks on four needles and made rugs with hooked crochet needles, that we also never got the privilege to wear or enjoy. This work was all done before we went into the rosary bead factory. Yeah, I was aware that our goods were sold to local outlets. We also never got to taste the yearly rock buns/scones/jam-tarts that we made for Mrs McCabe to inspect. Nonetheless, we did rob the burnt buns that were thrown into the bins. Children also made sherebet sweet bags. Children also made aran sweaters, but I never made them.
As you say, ‘there was no education except Religious education’. Do you remember the times when we had to go on long annual silent week-end retreats, where we had to walk up and down the outside avenue saying our prayers and rosaries – we were exactly like mini-nuns. We went to and fro to the chapel the livelong time. The freedom of being able to maneouvre outside the institution was worth all the prayers we had to say.
Attention to all those who were in Ireland’s industrial school’s in the past and all those who are interested in them for one reason or another. The Investigation Committee and Confidential Committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse have prepared their reports. See: http://www.childabusecommission.ie/ It comes out on the 20/05/09
this one poor woman was told by the so called psychiatrist at her so called hearing she wasn!t effected by what she went through in the industrial school at all,but was effected because she had two illegitimate children and was suffering from post natel depression.
I do, in fact, recall, being told by survivor x (Cassandra) about another survivor who was told by the head-shrink that her problems primarily stemmed from post-natal depression. She was subsequently, because of that diagnosis, awarded a miserly sum from the RIRB. Cassandra wrote to the Taoiseach of the time, Bertie Ahern, on behalf of the survivor, who was not able to stand up for herself – but the Taoiseach, despite his high political profile, was not even entertained – due to the secrecy clause in the RIRB Act.
The leaders of our war effort apparently didn’t understand how much American security would be endangered if the Muslim world thought this was a war for Christianity against Islam.
That’s what the Muslim world thought, and still thinks, anyway.
Marie,what kind of reception do Survivors get when they return to ireland after many years???????do they get any help.how do others retact toward’s them??it is a huge emotional jurney to take .
Kathleen and Marie-Theresa, I am in the U.S. and have been reading the report and the many comments and blogs such as this one (and your comments). I was raised catholic in the u.s. and the nuns were verbally, emotionally and physically abusive but NOTHING on the order of this report. I was out of the church by 18 and I loathe it (hope that is not offensive to you). I am so very sorry for the terrible things that were done to you and for the impact on your lives. Please at least know that others who are taking this all in are deeply moved and outraged and saddened on your behalf, it is really all that we can do or be. We can really only compare this to the days when the people who lived around the nazi concentration camps were to forced view those camps and the ovens and the piles of bodies, etc. This is really very much like that, in my view. When I think of all of the children put through this – by priests and nuns – and how very many of them must never have been able to undo the harm, and how their lives must have been, it’s so heartbreaking.
“Marie, what kind of reception do Survivors get when they return to Ireland after many years???????Do they get any help”.
The government has tried to keep a lid on all of this child abuse of the past and does not go out of its way to encourage survivors, from either abroad and even Ireland, for that matter, to gather together in Ireland, as it will, from my summation, anyway, highlight and draw too much attention to its wrong-doing of the past. It is too ashamed and does not know how to handle the matter. The media, also, has only ever dealt with selective people on this issue as well.
The reception survivors (living abroad) get is basically zilch and NO, they do not get the help that they should get, rightfully.. Yes, I totally agree with you that it is a very emotional journey coming from abroad to Ireland. I have been there and have worn the t-shirt. There should have been trained people in place at the very outset to help survivors. Depending on survivors to meet ones emotional needs is not very wise as they are also going through the same trauma.
Yeah, our lives were ruined because of the terrible things that habitually happened to us in the industrial schools. ” Please at least know that others who are taking this all in are deeply moved and outraged and saddened on your behalf”. Thanks very much for your concern, it is consoling to think that there are people out there in the wider world who fully empathise with us as there was nobody there for us when we were incarcerated in these religious hell-holes. I hated every day of my life in Goldenbridge, if I had had the wherewithal then, I would have run away. Unfortunately, I did not know my age or who I was, or anything about the outside world, let alone contemplating absconding the institution.
Can you just imagine approximately 150/190 children gathered together in one big recreation (wreck) hall, with only two minders or thereabouts – who themselves grew up in the system and of who were not sent to the outside world, because of not being able to live independently. Yet the latter were given the responsibility by the religious to take care of those children. Children were told to put their fingers on their lips and if any of them dared to make a noise they were reefed by their hair and severely beaten by the staff while all the fearful children looked on in horror. The minders, in my estimation, are to be forgiven for their cruelty as they only meted out the punishment they themselves would have received when they were small children.
We can really only compare this to the days when the people who lived around the nazi concentration camps were to forced view those camps and the ovens and the piles of bodies, etc. This is really very much like that, in my view. When I think of all of the children put through this – by priests and nuns – and how very many of them must never have been able to undo the harm, and how their lives must have been, it’s so heartbreaking.
If it happened to me…I would print the names of all of these people, of every nun and priest. Why don’t the survivors do that? Is it some legal problem? Surely there is a way to shame these people, to get their names out on the internet, photos if there are any, names, addresses, the works. Are you in Ireland or in the U.S.? On youtube, people have begun putting up video of some of the schools. I think that is terrific because people need to see these places – even if only from the outside. Inside, all the better. I would want to drag these horrible people, living or dead, through the mud and expose them. Let camera crews and news media haunt them, let survivors find them. What years were you in Goldenbridge? Is there anything that I can do, in the way of writing to people, posting online, anything at all? My mother’s grandfather came from Donegal as a young man, lord knows where he had been educated, this would have been the 1860’s I think. He came over, married, and he molested everyone of his grandchildren, including my mother and her 3 brothers, one of whom never recovered. Who knows where this man got such an inclination but perhaps from a priest or nun as a child in Donegal. I will never know. One of my uncles then sexually, physically, emotionally abused all of his children and one of THEM committed suicide and took his own little 6 yr old boy with him. I went to Ireland to “trace my roots,” and as much as seeing our homestead meant to me, and in fact scattering the ashes of my sister who had just died, at the homestead, I regret that this man who is my link to Ireland was a pedophile of all things. Not the sort of ancestry one can cherish. I have been talking with friends, fellow “recovering catholics” we call ourselves, and we are all very very caught up in learning all that we can about the contents of this report. I wish I were in Ireland now so that I could see and hear the reactions of the Irish people to having to confront this terrible history. thanks for reading this
Hi Marie,I wonder what happened to the Medical files for the children ,??there must have been some ,didn’t children ever get to see a Doctor in those Child labour camps.each Ex Industrial school child should have been given a Million each, and be able to Name all the Abusers ,but then the irish Guv , Garda, and the Religious are all guilty.There was NO facilities at all for Disabled Survivors on their return to the hearing .this is against human rights and those who have gone and are disabled in verious ways and have not had disabled facilities in place which is their right then they also have a right to appeal and SUE the b……s.Well done Marie keep up the good work, >dont be frightened of anyone,Ps,I am a Survivor.
“I wonder what happened to the Medical files for the children”.
The religious seemingly kept scant medical files concerning children in their care in Goldenbridge. I personally had medical papers from my time spent in two hospitals and a medical inspection record from my arrival time in Goldenbridge.
We had to strip off when the doctor came to examine us and we were given beautiful blue/wine long fancy fleecy nightgowns with prominent balls on them to wear. As soon as the doctor departed the industrial school these gorgeous nightgowns were taken from us, never to be seen, until the doctor came again on his rounds. I have always wondered why the doctor always pulled the elastic in our underwear to look down on us – it has always puzzled me.
On my return to Ireland for the first time ,there was NO one there for me ,I booked into a Hotel alone ,I went to the Archives and Lombard St to look up trying to find out about my background, Who I was ect,I went to the Industrial Reformatory school ,But it was no longer there ,I Cry’d and felt angry ,all that suffering and terror ,flogging’s and hurt I went through as a small child came back to me ,I went to Barnardos for advice to try and find my siblings ,they told me about Nova??I went there but they didnt want to know as I live abroad,I didn’t just want to into the small kitchen and sit with other damaged survivors over a cup of tea,thats all that was offered,I was told I couldnt go to the Jarvis centre as I was not a member and lived outside Ireland ,it is only for those who live in Ireland ,But as it is run by a person who was in an Industrial school employed by the Dept of Education, I thought this very wrong and could cause further Damage as this Person and her friends who run it are NOT TRAINED to deal with the Trauma of Returning Survivors.So no help there either. So No help anywhere,I felt all that was wanted was my name on lists for funding then I should get on the Plane and dissappear.Someone said to me >How dare I come back wanting to cause problems and bringing the name of the catholic church down,After spending a lot of money on Hotels ,in Lombard St for birth ,marriage and death cert’s ,eating out ect ,I never found anyone to talk to,I was given an address to go to so I headed off thinking at last maby I will meet someone who might be of help, I found the House knocked on the door a priest opened it I told him the address I was sent to >he said come in this way I followed him accross the hall he opened a door and ushered me first so I stepped out He pointed accross the back lane to a building and said its in there and He CLOSED THE DOOR BEHIND ME leaving me alone in a back lane.I went to the building he had pointed out so I went there ,there was Large security Men one with a bunch of Keys hanging from his waste I at this stage thought the place needed security for survivors so I went up to the man he opened the door and told me to go in which I did ,it was called Charles House,he told me to sit and gave me a ticket I sat on bare wooden benchin the cold filthy bare room with paint peeling off the walls wondering what was going to happen next ,and worried because the man had locked the door from the inside so I wondered what I was going to do if they wouldnt let me out and maby I would end up in an Instution locked up ,who would know I was there??I thought of those who know me abroad who knew I had gone to Visit ireland would they try to find me , my mind was racing and I was frightened,My ticket number was called I was ushered into a tiny room just enough room to sqeeze in the woman I tried to talk to just tought I was mad when I said I came over to trace any family I was a surviver of >>>>>>>>at this point I was so upset she told me I was in the Social welfare building the wrong place ,I rushed out of there the security unlocked the door and I was Hurt, angry ,traumatised ,and felt so alone the B…..D who had given me that address was Cruel and played some sick joke with me.If you live outside Ireland dont expect help,I know I am not the only one who has had a horrible time from others on Return.Survivors Medical records must be handed over to a body NOT connected to The Dept of Education, The Government, and so called centers for Survivors.The Religious,in Ireland.as they all seem to be well connected to each other. I remain A Angery Survivor.
Nancy, we were warned that we will be commiting a criminal offience if we name our Abusers or the Place we were in,this would result in 2 years in Prison,I might add after spending our Childhood’s already in Harsh Brutal Prisons ,that Prisons nowadays would be a piece of cake.But survivors are scared and easly bullied,although it seems to be ok for Mrs Buckley to say whatever she wishes and they only award her more,strange as she was the one who was sent out to the National School,and in in the employ of the Dept of Education Finance board,So if she can name the Abusere ,We ALL SHOULD BE ABLE TO.
I would like to put on record that the pseudonym ‘Noah Kitterick’ employed by the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse refers to Mr Peter Tyrell.
It should enter the public record that this brave man, who suffered abuse for six years at the hands of the Christian Brothers in Letterfrack, who was ignored by them when he confronted them about the abuses in 1953, who in 1958 wrote an 80,000-word account depicting in the most memorable and honest fashion the numerous violations and terror he suffered, should now suffer the ignominy of perpetual anonymity in the final report into the culture of abuse in these institutions.
The claims Peter Tyrell made to Senator Owen Sheehy Skeffington in the 1950s lay hidden for nearly half a century until they were discovered and published in ‘Founded on Fear’ (Irish Academic Press and Transworld Ireland) in 2006.
The decision to deny his brave testimony this small place in the official account is quite unnecessary since Peter Tyrell was referred to by his real name by both Justice Ryan and Brother Gibson of the Christian Brothers in the evidence relating to Letterfrack (June 16, 2006).
It is made all the more incredible since the publication of Peter Tyrell’s account in 2006 led to an apology by the Christian Brothers for their treatment of him.
I understand that the commission took a view that it must protect both the complainant’s and abuser’s identities. However, Mr Tyrell’s desire to let the world know about the culture of violence in Letterfrack was very clear
As he said himself — in a letter before he burned himself alive in despair on Hampstead Heath in April, 1967: “My story, which is true, should be published in my own name”.
I commend the report itself, while remaining deeply disappointed by the commission’s decision to unjustly censor the honourable memory of Peter Tyrell.
Tens of thousands of original documents detailing the abuse of children in residential homes are expected to be destroyed by the Ryan Commission.
The documents contain evidence taken from victims and witnesses, and admissions from members of religious orders who committed or witnessed acts of sexual and physical crimes.
Commission chairman Mr Justice Seán Ryan will meet other inquiry members on Tuesday to consider the fate of the documents, which took a decade to compile from state and Church bodies.
Much of the material collated relates to serious allegations of sex crimes which emerged under the commission’s discovery process and would not have been the subject of Garda investigations or criminal charges. Informed sources said that the ‘‘strong leaning’’ of the commission members was to order the destruction of all material, for legal reasons.
The files from the Ryan report must not be destroyed. I suggest that a portal on facebook is created and sent to everyone to sign a petition to stop this from happening we have very little time they met yesterday to decide on the issue.
Yeah, Audrey, I think that is absolutely a terrific idea.
Just like the idea of the signing of the solidarity book in the Mansion House, Dublin, which the lord mayor will have on display all week in honour of survivors of Irish institutional abuse. And the idea of a memorial being erected is great as well. I wonder, will people sign their names here, to show solidarity in the same way as they have done at the Mansion House.
I will start with my own name and see if the world at large will follow suit. Here goes: Please ask your friends also to join in the campaign.
I want to add my name to those who stand in solidarity with all those who were abused in the Irish Industrial Schools. I also want to add my name in support of the effort to have the documents received the the Ryan Commission preserved for posterity. In the nature of the case only some of these documents could be used in the report. They should remain as a permanent record of what was done. You have my vote too, Marie-Therese, for all the work you are doing to keep this in the minds of people, so that these horrific events should not be forgotten.
I support the work of the Commission and demand that the records be preserved and the institutions responsible for this be made to pay-fully-for their crimes.
I disagree with one thing…you can bet the elite in Irish political and economic circles knew damn well what was going on here and they didn’t care. It was more profitable and convenient for them not to care.
I am a 76 year old lady and I was in goldenbridge from 1935 to 1950 . We not only made rosary beeds we also Knitted all kinds of hats. gloves. Jumpers socks.
If you had no family at 16 years you were sent to hospitals and others places for domestic work you were not even a change og clothes. If you were in from infancy it was like going to a forigen country and you still had no woe to ask for help . I only found out in 1998 that I had sisters and a brother my children were brought up with no aunts or uncles and no grandparents as all my mothers letters which were written in the 40s were withell Regards May Cornish nee Gleeson No97
Labour’s Joan Burton has called on the Government to verify if the Ryan Commission was planning to destroy documents it gathered in its compilation of the report on institutional abuse.
She said such an outcome would be an appalling insult to the victims of abuse. And she is quite right! Joan Burton, herself was fortunate to be adopted as she was saved from a similar fate to those who spent their lives in industrial school.
Wow, May! Nice to hear from you indeed. I do hope for all our sakes that you went to the commission to give your invaluable evidence to Judge Ryan. I believe there was a nun in Goldenbridge in the forties who was dreadfully wicked – even worse than the notorious one who made all the headlines a couple of years ago. The latter, I believe, learned all her skills from the former one. I also knitted socks on four needles and sewed and laced fancy pantees and made rugs, but I have no recollection of knitting Bainin Irish sweaters or making hats. What kind of hats and jumpers did you make?
Exactly, children went into domestic services in rich homes and also into religious run hospitals. There was a terrible stigma attached to them having come from industrial schools and they undoubtedly would have been treated like slaves. Even in the mid-fifties and lesser into the sixties children were still going into indoor services. They also went into Magdalen laundries. I once had a chat with someone who went into indoor services during the early sixties and she was treated abominably by her employers – but she was strong enough to get out of it and told them in no uncertain terms what they could do with their job. I was so stunned that she had the wherewithal to find herself a bed-sit and live on her own.
I saw an advertisement in the Irish Press for an au-pair in Switzerland when i was sixteen. I vaguely remember encountering him on the street, (as I hardly knew him personally) and approached him and asked him to sign a paper in order for me to get a passport. It never dawned on me at the time to look closely at the information – as therein I could have found out who I was but I was absolutely clueless about things like that indeed. I never knew people belonged to each other – even though children had families visiting them in the institution. It just so happened that they had visitors and that I did not have any at all Period!
“I only found out in 1998 that I had sisters and a brother”. OMG, May, how did you cope with that new knowledge? You must have been in tremendous shock? Your long lost siblings must have been also been overwhelmed to know of your existence. It is unfathomable. I sincerely hope that you gelled together when you met up with each other and that you so continue on to do so in the future. Withholding letters appertaining to your mother was a very cruel act on the part of the religious. I tell you! I know some survivors who were not given information about their identity by a certain nun in Goldenbridge for nigh on fifty years, despite the fact that the survivors in question had two family members who were in the same religious order and were friends with the head honcho of Goldenbridge. They found out who they were when a third party intervened on their behalf. It was in and around the same time as you found your siblings in 1998 that they were re-united with their mother and they look after her protect her to the last. Industrial school children who had religious people in their families were treated by the religious with grave secrecy. They were an enigma and one only ever discussed things about them in whispers. They were the silent secret children who should never be talked about openly.
So sad to hear that the legacy of not knowing who you were was passed on to your offspring.
“I vaguely remember encountering him on the street, (as I hardly knew him personally) and approached him and asked him to sign a paper in order for me to get a passport.”
Him, being a priest of course! Leaving the “priest” out was obviously a freudian slip, I guess. Rather?!
Goldenbridge 1957,The Nuns Bought A Huge Mansion House,set in a huge spread of land ,of many acres along with a beautiful row of Cottages in Rathdrum Wicklow,with Money we children made in the Rosary bead factory in 1956,and the making and sewing underware for the nuns to export,also we Glue’d brown paper bags for shops ,in silence and fear,sometimes we worked until 2-am to finish the quotas we worked hard every day in the factory..The Religious later sold The Mansion and land +all the Cottages,,Every child who worked in that Cold Factory at that time must be compansated for the wages we should have had .we are owed that Money.We worked and suffered for it.That money belongs to us .
Re-Dress>>>>????Disabled Traumatised survivors of industrial reformatories had their human rights abused disabled survivors were not catered for one deaf survivor only heard 6 words: when the person leaned toward the survivor and shouted facing the survivor which the survivor understood by lipreading but as the panel all sat sideways along the long bench the survivor could not see their mouths.Justice or what. Who? was it that was so shocked and horrified upset ran out but ended up having to see a phychiatrist .
I support the work of the Commission and demand that the records be preserved and the institutions responsible for this be made to pay-fully-for their crimes.
As long as the priests have money, they have the power to continue abusing children. That option should be taken from them. Do not expect an apology as they are narcistic and they will never change their ways. Demand justice, being the lands and monwy taken from them and the buildings destroyed so no one will have to look at them again and relive the horror.
Warning: Privatisation of child social services gives all the power and the supervision to individuals who use this as a tool to make huge profits. Demand prevention. A law should specificly state that all child social care should be in the hands of the governement and under strict supervision of both governement and independent commisions chosen by the family of all these children in election but not being part of any of these families.
If you can get that in then we can rest assured that this will not happen in Ireland again.
Marie-Therese O Loughlin, I salute you. You are a brave lady and went through hell without fear.
Could I ask you to SIGN my PETITION in order to release and return my children who are currently detained in the Netherlands in a similar camp like situation after they were kidnapped from Ireland. I started a new petition below the explanatory note.
‘I for 1 am 100% in favor of abusing clerics. You may quote me.’
roughly meaning punish them to the same extend.
but seriously another friend who is an Artane boy cannot even write here as he never learned how to put pen to paper. So he asked me to note down what he said. It all came out in a blur and would not make for a price in litterature but it is straight from the heart and it is the first time he can finally talk about it.
Artane: brother Ahern he bacame head principal in North circular road and brother Green sexual abuse and brother Harrington master Hickey from Kerry.
he was also in the O’Connel boys school in North Circular road. Coffey beat the crap out of us. The sadist from hell.
We urge everyone to march and demand the governement to tear this down. Tear the Artane building down and bury the children in concegrated graves and put a big memorial up. De Valera did al this. the constitution said all children should be treated equal.
all people gardai and bend judges should be brought to court. fiana foil is to blame. It was all about money and they own a lot of land so the least they can do is give it back to us who worked for it. It was a gestapo like regime and we suffered.
From 1956-86. The rose beads around the waist were used to beat the crap out of us, they smacked us around the head with em.
Only now can I begin to tell about it because it is so horrible.
Sister Monica a childbeater and abuser from st agathe nearly killed a girl witnessed by me.
2 Irish girls were taken to Holland aged 12 and 13 after their mother died and they were first abused here and then in the Netherlands in the ‘care’. They were resqued by a Dutch police man who took em in brought em to Ireland to meet their aunt. They are elderly now but still so angry and fustrated.
ONE OF THE MOST IMPRESSIVE ARTICLES I HAVE EVER HEARD.
A really interesting article.I could not have sat through such a load of rubbish as was spouted in the lecture, such rubbish it hardly deserves the dignity of analysis.
The Lincoln crap is totally incorrect. He didn’t want a thing to do with equality and the emancipation of Blacks. In fact, he wanted them deported! Don’t take my word for it you can read it yourself by looking at Lincolns’ speeches, and no, not the ones singled out by the Harry Jaffas’ Ken Masugis’ the other pseudo Intellectuals like them. Tom DiLorenzo would be a good start.
What went wrong with Melanie Phillips? She was spot on in “Londonistan” or her criticism of the CoE.
Check out Nizos blog, you’ll like it.
http://nizos.blogspot.com/2007/02/saw-of-islam.html
>The claim that expressing a religious view that is not complimentary of Judaism is always a sign of anti-Semitism is a claim too far.
and yet so close to the anti-Gentile bigotry which you were mentioning few months ago
Bravo again to Edmund Standing, fear not, apologize not. This U.S. Jew, son of a holocaust survivor, Orthodox educated, connaiseur of any and all forms of anti-semitism, left or right, foreign and domestic, hereby bestows on you the NON-antisemite, wholly Kosher, seal of approval. Your theological writings, all freely available on B.and W., are all the best and clearest of their kind. Keep up the good work. I, for one, know that “God” blesses all of your efforts. You are our “Bright”, enlightened, worthy Prophet.
Mr Schulman,
I truly appreciate your comment. It’s so good to see my work properly understood!
Many thanks,
Edmund
As well as the ones that think swine flu will not affect muslims, assorted self-proclaimed religious leaders also assert that it is a U.S. conspiracy. Various mad mullahs in Pakistan prevented polio immunisation for the same reason. Let’s hope that the alleged germ warfare division concerned is working on a really unpleasant illness that only affects big-mouthed and small-minded bigots.
Is there any point in having two separate websites for Butterflies and Wheels and Harry’s Place? Maybe Goldman-Sachs could work on a merger/acquisition with Oliver Kamm acting as consultant?
Just wanted to say, Thank you! By providing a play by play of what happened during the Hindutva California Textbook controversry, it will hopefully highlight the dangers lurking in ignoring a politicized rightwing movement operating in our very own country.
Great job on defending ethics and truth!
>Frontline on Madoff –how did he do it, why didn’t the SEC act
For a Ponzi-‘pyramid’-scheme, greed of all involved (schemers and investors) is well sufficient for ‘how’ it works.
Not everybody loses, the first investors gain and thus they have an interest to join the original schemers in their effort to keep the scheme going.
Also, Madoff got his start as a ‘macher’ (big shot) within the Jewish community
–http://www.andykessler.com/andy_kessler/2008/12/forbescom-the-bernard-madoff-morality-tale.html–
Jonathan Sokobin, whose job was to monitor market risks for the SEC, did not respond to the critique of Madoff made by Harry Markopolos which tried to
persuade the SEC that Madoff’s returns were too good to be true.
Thus, an full account would need to interview of all the participants in the ‘oversight’ process in order to shed light on their motivation.
These motivations may range from biases in favor of Madoff because of ethnic ties to active collusion.
“Is there any point in having two separate websites for Butterflies and Wheels and Harry’s Place?”
Gee, I don’t know. Is there any point in having two separate magazines, The New Statesman and Prospect? Is there any point in having two separate newspapers, The Independent and the Guardian? Is there any point in having two separate Reviews of Books, the New York one and the London one? Is there any point in having two separate publishers, Penguin and Harper’s?
In short, what a stupid question. The idea of course is that B&W and HP are interchangeable, but that’s a supremely ridiculous claim. Good old Proyect, always good for a laugh.
Report attributes punishments to the lack of the rule of law, ignoring the fact that amputation for theft IS a mainstay of Islamic law.
NAIROBI (AFP) — Islamist armed groups controlling Somalia’s southern city of Kismayo have carried out amputations and unlawful killings, Amnesty International reported Thursday.
The London-based watchdog cited the case of Mohamed Omar Ismail, who one of his hands publicly amputated by local religious leaders as a punishment for allegedly stealing items worth around 90 dollars (65 euros).
Hundreds of residents attended the punishment, which was carried out in a place called “Freedom Park,” Amnesty’s statement said.
“Punishments like amputations and killings illustrate the extent to which violence still substitutes for the rule of law in many areas of Somalia,” said Michelle Kagari, Deputy Director of Amnesty International?s Africa Programme.
Re: Ed Turner’s article on Mr Ham.
“Einsteinium physics..” hahaha! what??
The element?
the beauty of multiculturalism
http://www.aina.org/news/20090514173035.htm
Very Good article, but the rosary factory was there in 1950 as well as the children making and glueing brown paper bags for shop’s,in ireland.making and sewing underware for export knitting jumpers and socks for the nuns to sell to shops ,there was no Education except Religious education, Domestic work which we had to an exam for which was cleaning and basic cooking ,inspectors came and examined our work, THAT WAS OUR EXAM.The Redress Board was set up to terrorise and frighten vonourable survivors into silenceing them forever,you are right there were only 3 girls in goldenbridge during the late 1950’s who were sent to the Outside national school and they were Christine West,Angela Gavin and Lizzy Gartland.IT was they who did the exams, funny how Christine West (now Mrs Buckley is on the board of Education,she was employed by them all along.How much has she made out of Survivors?????who were put through more suffering at the redress board by being Insulted with infamitory remarks about the survivors parents and told it was their fault and the fault of their parents that children were sentenced into reformatories to be Beaten ,Starved,that they were NOT effected by what happened to them in Industrial reformatories But rather it was because their parents were Genetically inadequate ,this of course is so cruel,insults were thrown at survivors,many could not face going through any more and just excepted i silence ,and went away even more traumatised,hurt and deeply upset.and knew they had no choice to try and go on to the high court,they had no chance ,The Redress board hearings were supposed to be held in secret ,so why was Mrs Christine buckley and her friend allowed into the waiting room where survivors were told to sit and wait.one traumatised nervious very Sick survivor was who lives in another country was Shouted at by Mrs Buckley ,this survivor ended up back in Hospital ,it had upset her so much,it was so loud the hearing going on at that time had to be stopped ,there are unscrupulous greedy people making a fortune pretending to run survivors services only to line there own pockets,they only want names on their lists to get funding while real survivors are disgarded ,they are just as bad as the religious orders who abused survivors as children,survivors because somehow they Just survived by getting out of those places alive,though not all.families were torn apart forever,minds were damaged,the phisical body and growth were damaged,The Solicitors made a fortune,So called Centres in Ireland made a fortune and yet most survivors live abroad.the Education Grants dept should be transfered to England where most survivors live anyway,like Irish Center’s who are already involved with trying to help survivors every day,Not have to deal with Mrs Buckley who is on the board of education as survivors know she was more privilaged by the nuns making sure it was she who got to go out to the National school and had an education.There are homeless survivor’s in Ireland and England,who should be housed by now , NO survivor should be left homeless, every survivor should be given a home in Ireland,even those abroad as the religious ,the Dept of Education ,The Courts, The Nspcc, all were involved in taking away childrens, ROOT’s, family connection’s,Sibling’s,History,I have seen asylum seekers given houses and flats while survivors are left Homeless,and Lonley.we as Childrem made a fortune for the Religious and the government they owe all of us a Home of our own in our names,where those of us who left Ireland can have our own place to bring our families to.when we wish to.instead of giving massive Funds to those who set up survivor so called services ie Houses to stay in which survivors pay again for anyway.while others running these places make a fortune for themselves.and couldnt give a fig about the needs of survivors.we have become tourist’s having to stay in hotels alone.in our own country.we should have been given deeds to a home in the places we origionaly came from.instead of lining pockets of others.Real survivors have found themselves Bullied on return to Ireland for visits,we are made to feel >Like what we have set up
Comment’s on redress board.>>>>get this one poor woman was told by the so called psychiatrist at her so called hearing she wasn!t effected by what she went through in the industrial school at all,but was effected because she had two illegitimate children and was suffering from post natel depression. is this torture again or what??Ps blame the black habits and white coller for my bad spelling.
Yep, I specifically remember doing top-stitching and sewing fancy lace around cotton panties and hankercheifs in St Patrick’s for so called exams – we never saw our proud products afterwards. We also knitted wooly socks on four needles and made rugs with hooked crochet needles, that we also never got the privilege to wear or enjoy. This work was all done before we went into the rosary bead factory. Yeah, I was aware that our goods were sold to local outlets. We also never got to taste the yearly rock buns/scones/jam-tarts that we made for Mrs McCabe to inspect. Nonetheless, we did rob the burnt buns that were thrown into the bins. Children also made sherebet sweet bags. Children also made aran sweaters, but I never made them.
As you say, ‘there was no education except Religious education’. Do you remember the times when we had to go on long annual silent week-end retreats, where we had to walk up and down the outside avenue saying our prayers and rosaries – we were exactly like mini-nuns. We went to and fro to the chapel the livelong time. The freedom of being able to maneouvre outside the institution was worth all the prayers we had to say.
Attention to all those who were in Ireland’s industrial school’s in the past and all those who are interested in them for one reason or another. The Investigation Committee and Confidential Committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse have prepared their reports. See: http://www.childabusecommission.ie/ It comes out on the 20/05/09
this one poor woman was told by the so called psychiatrist at her so called hearing she wasn!t effected by what she went through in the industrial school at all,but was effected because she had two illegitimate children and was suffering from post natel depression.
I do, in fact, recall, being told by survivor x (Cassandra) about another survivor who was told by the head-shrink that her problems primarily stemmed from post-natal depression. She was subsequently, because of that diagnosis, awarded a miserly sum from the RIRB. Cassandra wrote to the Taoiseach of the time, Bertie Ahern, on behalf of the survivor, who was not able to stand up for herself – but the Taoiseach, despite his high political profile, was not even entertained – due to the secrecy clause in the RIRB Act.
>Bible-quoting Defense Memos
The leaders of our war effort apparently didn’t understand how much American security would be endangered if the Muslim world thought this was a war for Christianity against Islam.
That’s what the Muslim world thought, and still thinks, anyway.
After all, what else could be ?.
Marie,what kind of reception do Survivors get when they return to ireland after many years???????do they get any help.how do others retact toward’s them??it is a huge emotional jurney to take .
Kathleen and Marie-Theresa, I am in the U.S. and have been reading the report and the many comments and blogs such as this one (and your comments). I was raised catholic in the u.s. and the nuns were verbally, emotionally and physically abusive but NOTHING on the order of this report. I was out of the church by 18 and I loathe it (hope that is not offensive to you). I am so very sorry for the terrible things that were done to you and for the impact on your lives. Please at least know that others who are taking this all in are deeply moved and outraged and saddened on your behalf, it is really all that we can do or be. We can really only compare this to the days when the people who lived around the nazi concentration camps were to forced view those camps and the ovens and the piles of bodies, etc. This is really very much like that, in my view. When I think of all of the children put through this – by priests and nuns – and how very many of them must never have been able to undo the harm, and how their lives must have been, it’s so heartbreaking.
“Marie, what kind of reception do Survivors get when they return to Ireland after many years???????Do they get any help”.
The government has tried to keep a lid on all of this child abuse of the past and does not go out of its way to encourage survivors, from either abroad and even Ireland, for that matter, to gather together in Ireland, as it will, from my summation, anyway, highlight and draw too much attention to its wrong-doing of the past. It is too ashamed and does not know how to handle the matter. The media, also, has only ever dealt with selective people on this issue as well.
The reception survivors (living abroad) get is basically zilch and NO, they do not get the help that they should get, rightfully.. Yes, I totally agree with you that it is a very emotional journey coming from abroad to Ireland. I have been there and have worn the t-shirt. There should have been trained people in place at the very outset to help survivors. Depending on survivors to meet ones emotional needs is not very wise as they are also going through the same trauma.
Nope, it is not offensive to me at all, Nancy.
Yeah, our lives were ruined because of the terrible things that habitually happened to us in the industrial schools. ” Please at least know that others who are taking this all in are deeply moved and outraged and saddened on your behalf”. Thanks very much for your concern, it is consoling to think that there are people out there in the wider world who fully empathise with us as there was nobody there for us when we were incarcerated in these religious hell-holes. I hated every day of my life in Goldenbridge, if I had had the wherewithal then, I would have run away. Unfortunately, I did not know my age or who I was, or anything about the outside world, let alone contemplating absconding the institution.
Can you just imagine approximately 150/190 children gathered together in one big recreation (wreck) hall, with only two minders or thereabouts – who themselves grew up in the system and of who were not sent to the outside world, because of not being able to live independently. Yet the latter were given the responsibility by the religious to take care of those children. Children were told to put their fingers on their lips and if any of them dared to make a noise they were reefed by their hair and severely beaten by the staff while all the fearful children looked on in horror. The minders, in my estimation, are to be forgiven for their cruelty as they only meted out the punishment they themselves would have received when they were small children.
We can really only compare this to the days when the people who lived around the nazi concentration camps were to forced view those camps and the ovens and the piles of bodies, etc. This is really very much like that, in my view. When I think of all of the children put through this – by priests and nuns – and how very many of them must never have been able to undo the harm, and how their lives must have been, it’s so heartbreaking.
Marie-Theresa and Kathleen…
If it happened to me…I would print the names of all of these people, of every nun and priest. Why don’t the survivors do that? Is it some legal problem? Surely there is a way to shame these people, to get their names out on the internet, photos if there are any, names, addresses, the works. Are you in Ireland or in the U.S.? On youtube, people have begun putting up video of some of the schools. I think that is terrific because people need to see these places – even if only from the outside. Inside, all the better. I would want to drag these horrible people, living or dead, through the mud and expose them. Let camera crews and news media haunt them, let survivors find them. What years were you in Goldenbridge? Is there anything that I can do, in the way of writing to people, posting online, anything at all? My mother’s grandfather came from Donegal as a young man, lord knows where he had been educated, this would have been the 1860’s I think. He came over, married, and he molested everyone of his grandchildren, including my mother and her 3 brothers, one of whom never recovered. Who knows where this man got such an inclination but perhaps from a priest or nun as a child in Donegal. I will never know. One of my uncles then sexually, physically, emotionally abused all of his children and one of THEM committed suicide and took his own little 6 yr old boy with him. I went to Ireland to “trace my roots,” and as much as seeing our homestead meant to me, and in fact scattering the ashes of my sister who had just died, at the homestead, I regret that this man who is my link to Ireland was a pedophile of all things. Not the sort of ancestry one can cherish. I have been talking with friends, fellow “recovering catholics” we call ourselves, and we are all very very caught up in learning all that we can about the contents of this report. I wish I were in Ireland now so that I could see and hear the reactions of the Irish people to having to confront this terrible history. thanks for reading this
Hi Marie,I wonder what happened to the Medical files for the children ,??there must have been some ,didn’t children ever get to see a Doctor in those Child labour camps.each Ex Industrial school child should have been given a Million each, and be able to Name all the Abusers ,but then the irish Guv , Garda, and the Religious are all guilty.There was NO facilities at all for Disabled Survivors on their return to the hearing .this is against human rights and those who have gone and are disabled in verious ways and have not had disabled facilities in place which is their right then they also have a right to appeal and SUE the b……s.Well done Marie keep up the good work, >dont be frightened of anyone,Ps,I am a Survivor.
“I wonder what happened to the Medical files for the children”.
The religious seemingly kept scant medical files concerning children in their care in Goldenbridge. I personally had medical papers from my time spent in two hospitals and a medical inspection record from my arrival time in Goldenbridge.
We had to strip off when the doctor came to examine us and we were given beautiful blue/wine long fancy fleecy nightgowns with prominent balls on them to wear. As soon as the doctor departed the industrial school these gorgeous nightgowns were taken from us, never to be seen, until the doctor came again on his rounds. I have always wondered why the doctor always pulled the elastic in our underwear to look down on us – it has always puzzled me.
On my return to Ireland for the first time ,there was NO one there for me ,I booked into a Hotel alone ,I went to the Archives and Lombard St to look up trying to find out about my background, Who I was ect,I went to the Industrial Reformatory school ,But it was no longer there ,I Cry’d and felt angry ,all that suffering and terror ,flogging’s and hurt I went through as a small child came back to me ,I went to Barnardos for advice to try and find my siblings ,they told me about Nova??I went there but they didnt want to know as I live abroad,I didn’t just want to into the small kitchen and sit with other damaged survivors over a cup of tea,thats all that was offered,I was told I couldnt go to the Jarvis centre as I was not a member and lived outside Ireland ,it is only for those who live in Ireland ,But as it is run by a person who was in an Industrial school employed by the Dept of Education, I thought this very wrong and could cause further Damage as this Person and her friends who run it are NOT TRAINED to deal with the Trauma of Returning Survivors.So no help there either. So No help anywhere,I felt all that was wanted was my name on lists for funding then I should get on the Plane and dissappear.Someone said to me >How dare I come back wanting to cause problems and bringing the name of the catholic church down,After spending a lot of money on Hotels ,in Lombard St for birth ,marriage and death cert’s ,eating out ect ,I never found anyone to talk to,I was given an address to go to so I headed off thinking at last maby I will meet someone who might be of help, I found the House knocked on the door a priest opened it I told him the address I was sent to >he said come in this way I followed him accross the hall he opened a door and ushered me first so I stepped out He pointed accross the back lane to a building and said its in there and He CLOSED THE DOOR BEHIND ME leaving me alone in a back lane.I went to the building he had pointed out so I went there ,there was Large security Men one with a bunch of Keys hanging from his waste I at this stage thought the place needed security for survivors so I went up to the man he opened the door and told me to go in which I did ,it was called Charles House,he told me to sit and gave me a ticket I sat on bare wooden benchin the cold filthy bare room with paint peeling off the walls wondering what was going to happen next ,and worried because the man had locked the door from the inside so I wondered what I was going to do if they wouldnt let me out and maby I would end up in an Instution locked up ,who would know I was there??I thought of those who know me abroad who knew I had gone to Visit ireland would they try to find me , my mind was racing and I was frightened,My ticket number was called I was ushered into a tiny room just enough room to sqeeze in the woman I tried to talk to just tought I was mad when I said I came over to trace any family I was a surviver of >>>>>>>>at this point I was so upset she told me I was in the Social welfare building the wrong place ,I rushed out of there the security unlocked the door and I was Hurt, angry ,traumatised ,and felt so alone the B…..D who had given me that address was Cruel and played some sick joke with me.If you live outside Ireland dont expect help,I know I am not the only one who has had a horrible time from others on Return.Survivors Medical records must be handed over to a body NOT connected to The Dept of Education, The Government, and so called centers for Survivors.The Religious,in Ireland.as they all seem to be well connected to each other. I remain A Angery Survivor.
Nancy, we were warned that we will be commiting a criminal offience if we name our Abusers or the Place we were in,this would result in 2 years in Prison,I might add after spending our Childhood’s already in Harsh Brutal Prisons ,that Prisons nowadays would be a piece of cake.But survivors are scared and easly bullied,although it seems to be ok for Mrs Buckley to say whatever she wishes and they only award her more,strange as she was the one who was sent out to the National School,and in in the employ of the Dept of Education Finance board,So if she can name the Abusere ,We ALL SHOULD BE ABLE TO.
Brave victim must not be forgotten
Peter Tyrell
Noah Kitterick
Hampstead Heath
Dr Diarmuid Whelan Department of History
University College Cork
Owen Sheehy Skeffington
Ireland
CAB should confiscate the Church’s land
The little children did indeed suffer
Stop all support for the Church
School trust did not stifle debate
Throwing good money after bad
Monday May 25 2009
I would like to put on record that the pseudonym ‘Noah Kitterick’ employed by the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse refers to Mr Peter Tyrell.
It should enter the public record that this brave man, who suffered abuse for six years at the hands of the Christian Brothers in Letterfrack, who was ignored by them when he confronted them about the abuses in 1953, who in 1958 wrote an 80,000-word account depicting in the most memorable and honest fashion the numerous violations and terror he suffered, should now suffer the ignominy of perpetual anonymity in the final report into the culture of abuse in these institutions.
The claims Peter Tyrell made to Senator Owen Sheehy Skeffington in the 1950s lay hidden for nearly half a century until they were discovered and published in ‘Founded on Fear’ (Irish Academic Press and Transworld Ireland) in 2006.
The decision to deny his brave testimony this small place in the official account is quite unnecessary since Peter Tyrell was referred to by his real name by both Justice Ryan and Brother Gibson of the Christian Brothers in the evidence relating to Letterfrack (June 16, 2006).
It is made all the more incredible since the publication of Peter Tyrell’s account in 2006 led to an apology by the Christian Brothers for their treatment of him.
I understand that the commission took a view that it must protect both the complainant’s and abuser’s identities. However, Mr Tyrell’s desire to let the world know about the culture of violence in Letterfrack was very clear
As he said himself — in a letter before he burned himself alive in despair on Hampstead Heath in April, 1967: “My story, which is true, should be published in my own name”.
I commend the report itself, while remaining deeply disappointed by the commission’s decision to unjustly censor the honourable memory of Peter Tyrell.
Dr Diarmuid Whelan
Department of History,
University College Cork
Abuse documents to be destroyed
Sunday, May 24, 2009 By John Burke
Tens of thousands of original documents detailing the abuse of children in residential homes are expected to be destroyed by the Ryan Commission.
The documents contain evidence taken from victims and witnesses, and admissions from members of religious orders who committed or witnessed acts of sexual and physical crimes.
Commission chairman Mr Justice Seán Ryan will meet other inquiry members on Tuesday to consider the fate of the documents, which took a decade to compile from state and Church bodies.
Much of the material collated relates to serious allegations of sex crimes which emerged under the commission’s discovery process and would not have been the subject of Garda investigations or criminal charges. Informed sources said that the ‘‘strong leaning’’ of the commission members was to order the destruction of all material, for legal reasons.
The files from the Ryan report must not be destroyed. I suggest that a portal on facebook is created and sent to everyone to sign a petition to stop this from happening we have very little time they met yesterday to decide on the issue.
Yeah, Audrey, I think that is absolutely a terrific idea.
Just like the idea of the signing of the solidarity book in the Mansion House, Dublin, which the lord mayor will have on display all week in honour of survivors of Irish institutional abuse. And the idea of a memorial being erected is great as well. I wonder, will people sign their names here, to show solidarity in the same way as they have done at the Mansion House.
I will start with my own name and see if the world at large will follow suit. Here goes: Please ask your friends also to join in the campaign.
Marie-Therese O’ Loughlin, Goldenbridge Industrial School, Inchicore, Dublin, Ireland
I support Marie-Therese and her fellow former survivors.
Chris Allen, Perth Western Australia
I want to add my name to those who stand in solidarity with all those who were abused in the Irish Industrial Schools. I also want to add my name in support of the effort to have the documents received the the Ryan Commission preserved for posterity. In the nature of the case only some of these documents could be used in the report. They should remain as a permanent record of what was done. You have my vote too, Marie-Therese, for all the work you are doing to keep this in the minds of people, so that these horrific events should not be forgotten.
I support the work of the Commission and demand that the records be preserved and the institutions responsible for this be made to pay-fully-for their crimes.
I disagree with one thing…you can bet the elite in Irish political and economic circles knew damn well what was going on here and they didn’t care. It was more profitable and convenient for them not to care.
I am a 76 year old lady and I was in goldenbridge from 1935 to 1950 . We not only made rosary beeds we also Knitted all kinds of hats. gloves. Jumpers socks.
If you had no family at 16 years you were sent to hospitals and others places for domestic work you were not even a change og clothes. If you were in from infancy it was like going to a forigen country and you still had no woe to ask for help . I only found out in 1998 that I had sisters and a brother my children were brought up with no aunts or uncles and no grandparents as all my mothers letters which were written in the 40s were withell Regards May Cornish nee Gleeson No97
Labour’s Joan Burton has called on the Government to verify if the Ryan Commission was planning to destroy documents it gathered in its compilation of the report on institutional abuse.
She said such an outcome would be an appalling insult to the victims of abuse. And she is quite right! Joan Burton, herself was fortunate to be adopted as she was saved from a similar fate to those who spent their lives in industrial school.
Wow, May! Nice to hear from you indeed. I do hope for all our sakes that you went to the commission to give your invaluable evidence to Judge Ryan. I believe there was a nun in Goldenbridge in the forties who was dreadfully wicked – even worse than the notorious one who made all the headlines a couple of years ago. The latter, I believe, learned all her skills from the former one. I also knitted socks on four needles and sewed and laced fancy pantees and made rugs, but I have no recollection of knitting Bainin Irish sweaters or making hats. What kind of hats and jumpers did you make?
Exactly, children went into domestic services in rich homes and also into religious run hospitals. There was a terrible stigma attached to them having come from industrial schools and they undoubtedly would have been treated like slaves. Even in the mid-fifties and lesser into the sixties children were still going into indoor services. They also went into Magdalen laundries. I once had a chat with someone who went into indoor services during the early sixties and she was treated abominably by her employers – but she was strong enough to get out of it and told them in no uncertain terms what they could do with their job. I was so stunned that she had the wherewithal to find herself a bed-sit and live on her own.
I saw an advertisement in the Irish Press for an au-pair in Switzerland when i was sixteen. I vaguely remember encountering him on the street, (as I hardly knew him personally) and approached him and asked him to sign a paper in order for me to get a passport. It never dawned on me at the time to look closely at the information – as therein I could have found out who I was but I was absolutely clueless about things like that indeed. I never knew people belonged to each other – even though children had families visiting them in the institution. It just so happened that they had visitors and that I did not have any at all Period!
“I only found out in 1998 that I had sisters and a brother”. OMG, May, how did you cope with that new knowledge? You must have been in tremendous shock? Your long lost siblings must have been also been overwhelmed to know of your existence. It is unfathomable. I sincerely hope that you gelled together when you met up with each other and that you so continue on to do so in the future. Withholding letters appertaining to your mother was a very cruel act on the part of the religious. I tell you! I know some survivors who were not given information about their identity by a certain nun in Goldenbridge for nigh on fifty years, despite the fact that the survivors in question had two family members who were in the same religious order and were friends with the head honcho of Goldenbridge. They found out who they were when a third party intervened on their behalf. It was in and around the same time as you found your siblings in 1998 that they were re-united with their mother and they look after her protect her to the last. Industrial school children who had religious people in their families were treated by the religious with grave secrecy. They were an enigma and one only ever discussed things about them in whispers. They were the silent secret children who should never be talked about openly.
So sad to hear that the legacy of not knowing who you were was passed on to your offspring.
Re: correction in last post.
“I vaguely remember encountering him on the street, (as I hardly knew him personally) and approached him and asked him to sign a paper in order for me to get a passport.”
Him, being a priest of course! Leaving the “priest” out was obviously a freudian slip, I guess. Rather?!
Goldenbridge 1957,The Nuns Bought A Huge Mansion House,set in a huge spread of land ,of many acres along with a beautiful row of Cottages in Rathdrum Wicklow,with Money we children made in the Rosary bead factory in 1956,and the making and sewing underware for the nuns to export,also we Glue’d brown paper bags for shops ,in silence and fear,sometimes we worked until 2-am to finish the quotas we worked hard every day in the factory..The Religious later sold The Mansion and land +all the Cottages,,Every child who worked in that Cold Factory at that time must be compansated for the wages we should have had .we are owed that Money.We worked and suffered for it.That money belongs to us .
Re-Dress>>>>????Disabled Traumatised survivors of industrial reformatories had their human rights abused disabled survivors were not catered for one deaf survivor only heard 6 words: when the person leaned toward the survivor and shouted facing the survivor which the survivor understood by lipreading but as the panel all sat sideways along the long bench the survivor could not see their mouths.Justice or what. Who? was it that was so shocked and horrified upset ran out but ended up having to see a phychiatrist .
I support the work of the Commission and demand that the records be preserved and the institutions responsible for this be made to pay-fully-for their crimes.
As long as the priests have money, they have the power to continue abusing children. That option should be taken from them. Do not expect an apology as they are narcistic and they will never change their ways. Demand justice, being the lands and monwy taken from them and the buildings destroyed so no one will have to look at them again and relive the horror.
Warning: Privatisation of child social services gives all the power and the supervision to individuals who use this as a tool to make huge profits. Demand prevention. A law should specificly state that all child social care should be in the hands of the governement and under strict supervision of both governement and independent commisions chosen by the family of all these children in election but not being part of any of these families.
If you can get that in then we can rest assured that this will not happen in Ireland again.
Marie-Therese O Loughlin, I salute you. You are a brave lady and went through hell without fear.
Could I ask you to SIGN my PETITION in order to release and return my children who are currently detained in the Netherlands in a similar camp like situation after they were kidnapped from Ireland. I started a new petition below the explanatory note.
http://letthechildrengo.blogspot.com
My friend from Tenessee said:
‘I for 1 am 100% in favor of abusing clerics. You may quote me.’
roughly meaning punish them to the same extend.
but seriously another friend who is an Artane boy cannot even write here as he never learned how to put pen to paper. So he asked me to note down what he said. It all came out in a blur and would not make for a price in litterature but it is straight from the heart and it is the first time he can finally talk about it.
Artane: brother Ahern he bacame head principal in North circular road and brother Green sexual abuse and brother Harrington master Hickey from Kerry.
he was also in the O’Connel boys school in North Circular road. Coffey beat the crap out of us. The sadist from hell.
We urge everyone to march and demand the governement to tear this down. Tear the Artane building down and bury the children in concegrated graves and put a big memorial up. De Valera did al this. the constitution said all children should be treated equal.
all people gardai and bend judges should be brought to court. fiana foil is to blame. It was all about money and they own a lot of land so the least they can do is give it back to us who worked for it. It was a gestapo like regime and we suffered.
From 1956-86. The rose beads around the waist were used to beat the crap out of us, they smacked us around the head with em.
Only now can I begin to tell about it because it is so horrible.
Sister Monica a childbeater and abuser from st agathe nearly killed a girl witnessed by me.
2 Irish girls were taken to Holland aged 12 and 13 after their mother died and they were first abused here and then in the Netherlands in the ‘care’. They were resqued by a Dutch police man who took em in brought em to Ireland to meet their aunt. They are elderly now but still so angry and fustrated.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v370/Nightblade763/light-switch-jesus.jpg