John Charles McQuaid, Ruler of Catholic Ireland? - Email to Alliance Support Victims Group
From: albertking [mailto:albertking36@tiscali.co.uk]
Sent: 23 June 2006 16:00
To: 'info@alliancesupport.org'
Subject: As follows:
May we refer to the extracts from the reviews and your article concerning John Cooney's book "John Charles McQuaid, Ruler of Catholic Ireland". And the issues as follows:
(1) Ireland's dominant Catholic teaching Order, the Christian Brothers, commemorated the centenary of the death of its founder, Edmund Ignatius Rice, in 1944. McQuaid acclaimed Rice, 'the Educator of Catholic Youth', as heir to the hedge schoolmasters linking Ireland to its ancient tradition of European culture. The Christian Brothers had 106 communities in Ireland and 159 in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. At a fundraiser in the Mansion House McQuaid donated £1,000 a lot more today for a House of Formation to train prospective Brothers while the Knights of St Columbanus raised £7,000 a lot more today. The centenary celebrations took place as two senior Gardai at Dublin?s Fitzgibbon St Station were prevented from pursuing allegations of abuse by two Christian Brothers of boys at Artane Industrial School. The Superior, the Rev Brother T.M. Lennane, and the school chaplain, Fr William Kenny, succeeded in hushing up a potential scandal with the assistance of John Charles McQuaid and Justice Minister Gerald Boland. In a climate of opinion hostile to prosecution of clergy, the two Gardai were told not to proceed with the case.
(2) Between the 1930s and the 1960s an estimated 60,000 newborns were procured under false pretences for married couples that had been turned down as prospective adoptive parents on various grounds. The perpetrators of Baby Trafficking broke the law, forged documents, destroyed evidence, and took babies from young unmarried mothers on the pretext of arranging legal adoptions. Amongst those implicated are priests, nuns, midwives and nurses who were paid to break the law and steal babies from their unmarried mothers, then smuggled them to married couples who brought them up as their own flesh and blood. Large amounts of cash changed hands to ensure the entire illegal episode was hushed up. Adult victims of the Republics Baby Trafficking, some of them shipped to America as babies, faced a conspiracy of silence and a total absence of records when they attempt to discover their true identity.
(3) Thousands of adult victims of institutional child abuse including my wife Mary identify themselves as being in the same position and clearly against the corrupt Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, Chairman, Mr. Sean Ryan, introducing sampling. Sean Ryan moved in as Chairman of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, and introduced sampling, after the former Chairperson Honourable, Justice Mary Laffoys, resignation in 2003, at that time there were around 1,900 complainants that made applications to attend the original Investigation Committee hearings. Sean Ryan has stated that 400 complainants who have already given evidence from September 2004 ? February 2006 and its solicitors are invited to participate in its Phase 3 public hearings in May/June 2006. It's quite clear that the four congregations have used the Phase 3 public hearings as an opportunity to deny, and minimise the abuse and hurt perpetrated upon thousands of victims of institutional child abuse. The arrogant brushing off of evidence.
The reason for this is quite clear. Section 6 of the Commission on Child Abuse (Amendment) Act 2005 states that such evidence may in fact be heard in public, should the commission so decide. Sean Ryan himself played a major part in drafting this amending legislation. Sean Ryan has an approach seen by many victims of institutional child abuse who have been attending the past and present hearings and interviews as simplistic, benign and unchallenging. Getting to the truth and justice are the issues, and the corrupt Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, Chairman Mr. Sean Ryan, must show that, and most importantly he must not edit the truth in any of his reports.
Taking into consideration the original and deeply flawed deal with the religious orders by the former Education Minister Michael Woods, the exclusion from the Act of many settings where children were abused, and the current working of the corrupt Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse including the corrupt Redress Board, there are a range of grave concerns which lead many to conclude that justice is not being done for victims of institutional child abuse. The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse including the Redress Board is a cesspit of intrigue, mystery and shady deals involving weak and cowardly politicians capitulating to religious organizations who would do anything to keep the floodgates closed and will fight tooth and nail to deny and obscure personal accounts of vicious physical and sexual assault, rape, buggery, psychological and emotional damage, mental torture, experimentation and other unspeakable evils.
It is a shocking story that will one day be analyzed by historians and political commentators who will judge the behaviour of the Government and the modern church in dealing with victims of institutional child abuse from the 1930s to the present day in the same critical terms as those who perpetrated the abuse and the politicians, departmental officials, members of the Garda Siochana, the Judiciary and others who facilitated the abuse or who incarcerated the survivors in those hellholes in the first place. Many victims of institutional child abuse do not even know their real names. History will judge the Government and the religious orders unkindly when the real truth emerges. Our report dated 28th March 2006 in relation to these matters has been sent to Dr. Maurice Manning, President of the Human Rights Commission. After reading the two provisions of the Act, 2000 (the Act), it is requested that the Human Rights Commission conduct an enquiry into a relevant human rights matter under section 9(1)(b) of the Act).
Albert King, on behalf of Mary King. (victim of institutional child abuse).